THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 16, 1858. 
365 
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| moisture be supplied; and one of the most hardy 
seeds we have, those of the Onion, will allow of being 
sown very early, and do not seem to suffer from 
the cold. Very small seeds, as Rampion, require 
little or no covering ; but, at the same time, some 
shading may be wanted. In fact, it is likely, if we 
| examine the condition of all self-sown seeds, it will be 
found that most of them are, more or less, shaded by 
trees, or full-grown specimens of their own kinds. 
A piece of naked ground, on which the rays of a July 
or August sun are allowed to play, is, therefore, not, in 
; all cases, the one best adapted for seeds vegetating in ; 
for the extreme dryness of it gives the seed no chance 
to live, when once its shell is broken. And though 
i some seeds will lie on the surface exposed to the fierce 
rays of a summer sun, and be ready to grow when 
ram sets in, the whole of the Cabbage and kindred 
tribes are injured, and, in most cases, destroyed by so 
doing. 
In regard to the depth seeds ought to be buried, 
there is much difference of opinion ; but the general 
rule of covering them with an amount of earth, five or 
six times their own thickness, is, on the whole, a cor¬ 
rect one for everything sown in an artificial way, as 
almost all garden seeds are. Beans and Peas may be 
even deeper than that; but seeds coming up with 
weak cotyledons, as Carrots, can scarcely be covered 
too lightly. In fact, they would do without any cover¬ 
ing, if we could depend on the seed remaining on the 
ground undisturbed. Radishes are a robust crop, and 
will bear as much covering as Kidney Beans, which 
are much larger seeds. 
Sowing thickly, or thinly, on the ground is not so 
important an object, as the after treatment of the crop. 
Many seeds are so plentiful, and cheap, that a little 
extra seed is not a serious affair. But the welfare 
of mo&t crops depends on their being immediately 
thinned as soon as they can be handled. Where this 
is impracticable, do not sow too thickly, for the greater 
part of crops are the better by not being too thick on 
the ground. But this subject has been often treated 
of before. J. Robson. 
CRYSTAL PALACE.— February 22. 
{Continued from page 335.) 
When the beds and borders of the Crystal Palace were 
first planted, the gardening world supplied three kinds of 
prophetic oracles, who told us with the utmost confidence— 
first, that no plant could live so far from the glass for any 
length of tune ; secondly, that no place was more suited for 
the well-doing of certain tribes of plants—those with leathery 
or thick leaves ; but for the small leaved, and delicate growth 
of the finer greenhouse plants, the Crystal Palace would be 
their death and their grave the first whiter; and, thirdly, a 
shake of the prophet’s head. 
Experience has since proved, in the Crystal Palace, that no 
kind of prophecy, in our day, is more safe to indulge in than 
a grave shake of the head. If you are asked, when it is likely 
to be fine for this or that kind of groundwork, or whether 
that way of heatmg, or putting up houses, is likely to answer, 
shake your head, and you are sure to be right: at all events, 
none of the prophets, respecting the plants at the Crystal 
Palace, turned out right, except the shake-of-tlie-head pro¬ 
phets. 
The real state of the case is this : the plants at the Crystal 
Palace could not look better in their native countries, during 
I the rest season, than they now do in these beds and borders ; 
and, what is more strange, there are no plants in any conserva¬ 
tory, in the three kingdoms, more free from dust than they ; 
the Camellias and Rhododendrons are pictures of glossy 
healthiness, and the tall kinds are running up faster, and flow¬ 
ing more profusely, than the same kinds usually do in smaller 
houses ; and as to those kinds of plants which were prophesied 
against, on the right hand and on the left, let the following 
list of names, taken almost at random, answer: Chorozema 
Henchmanni; Dillivynia cinerascens , I), pungens, and I). 
splendens ; Lasiopetalum parviflorum ; Melaleuca dens a, and 
thymifolia; Todolobium chorozemoefolia; Tullencea stricter, \ 
and villosa; Scotiia dentata; and such like. 
Now, since such plants as these grow most luxuriantly, and 
look as healthy in winter as they do in summer, the question 
of any plants “ doing ” in the Palace is settled for ever. The 
plant which seems, to my eye, to have done the best in the 
Crystal Palace is Araucaria Bidwilliana, an Australian 
Conifer; and the next that I think the best, and most at home, 
both in the cool and warm ends, is Dielcsonia antarctica , the 
hardier Tree Fern from the same regions. Nothing, in cultiva¬ 
tion, can look more luxuriantly healthy than these young Tree 
Ferns, at the present moment, in the cool end of the Palace, 
planted out in open borders, farthest from the light; also 
those of them in pots, at the hothouse end, where they fine 
both sides of the magnificent avenue of Sphynxes ; and where 
they make the best-looking arrangement for effect of any thing 
I have yet seen tried, in the way of mixing up plant decora- 4 
tion with objects of art. Many of the Londoners might copy 
from this avenue to great advantage—I mean nurserymen and 
those who employ them—for “ furnishing” from Buckingham 
Palace, to the stands in Covent Garden Market. As a nation, 
we are deficient in the art of “ furnishing ” with plants, either 
by themselves, or mixed up with ornamental artistic works : 
witness the grand and complete failure of Exhibitions of 
plants set for effect , under a high competition for prizes, in 
this very Palace; and would the effect have been much better 
if the aspirants, for effective fame, had been allowed to mix 
statuary, or any of the ornamental objects in the Palace, 
among then* plants ? I cannot answer the question; but I 
can attest that the way of mixing the Tree Ferns, and certain 
kinds of Palms, with the Sphynxes, in them own avenue at 
the Crystal Palace, and more especially in the north end of 
the avenue, is the best way of giving effect to that style of 
furnishing ; and is much beyond any tiling of the kind I have * 
yet seen in London, or hi any part of England; and I would 
advise gardeners in the country, who have to do with furnish¬ 
ings for balls, routs, and evening parties, or with conservato¬ 
ries which open into crowded drawing-rooms, to visit the 
avenue of Sphynxes this spring, on purpose to learn more of j 
this effect. The fact is, that every conservatory (of any note) j 
which opens into a drawing-room, ought to have some objects ! 
of art mixed with, or as accompaniments to, the groups of 
plants ; otherwise, what are they more than a trade “ show i 
house?” 
But, there is one most essential department of gardening, 
which can never be carried on in large buildings (as far as 
experience has gone yet)—the nursing department; sowing 
seeds, rearing cuttings, and nursing the young plants until 
they are of a “ certain age.” This department, at the Crystal 
Palace, is out of sight, like the forcing department; but I got 
into it as freely as if I were one of the directors, and now I can j 
tell about the grand secret of the Tropceolum elegans bed; I 
had lots of the very plants in my own hands; they are very 
easy to keep all the winter in a greenhouse ; they come from 
cuttings hi the spring and autumn, as freely as Yerbenas, or 
more freely indeed ; there is only one kind called elegans , and 
it seeds freely, and I think they told me it comes true from 
seed; at all events, some of them believe and hope it will. 
Thev make no particular preparation for the bed, but plant it 
as a"Petunia bed, and begin to train the plants from the very 
day they are planted; of course, if too many leaves come, 
they thin them, as we often do with Geranium and some other 
beds ; for what would be the use of having edgings of the 
common Nasturtium round scarlet beds, unless the leaves were 
constantly picked off, to let the whole of the flowers and 
flower-buds be seen. This Tropceolum elegans, from having 
been so much seen and admired, and written about from the 
Crystal Palace, ought to be one of the very best trade plants 
in the three kingdoms this spring, and then it should be left 
with the public to do as they list after the first year. It 
would seem, therefore, that a good new bedding plant could 
get the best “lift” in the world, by having a bed of it first 
exhibited in the garden of the Crystal Palace, Indeed, 
the two reasons which took me to see the Palace that day, 
was to inquire about elegans , and to see the forced flowers. 
It is only right, however, to report other tilings, and 
