30 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, April 10, 1859. 
finer nursery stock. Five acres of the best of the ground 
are devoted to Hoses ; and nearly five times as many acres 
are under fruit trees ; the rest being full of a selection of 
the best nursery stock ; and there is a world of glass, all 
kept in the highest style of London cultivation. The 
Messrs. Fraser have been celebrated, for years, among 
the most successful exhibitors at the Shows. When Mrs. 
Lawrence carried off the glories of Chiswick in her loaded 
vans, the Lea Bridge Nursery was the only power in 
England which could stop her sway ; and the system of 
growth and training for exhibitions has been amply 
proved here to pay so well, that it has not been relaxed 
yet, nor is it likely to be in our time. Every plant, from 
the first crock in the pot, to the last tie for the exhibition, 
is treated here as if it were to be one of a collection for 
competition. 
There are a house for every species of cultivation, and 
for forcing and retarding flowering plants, and houses for 
full-grown specimens, for intermediate sizes, and for train¬ 
ing and drilling the young for battle ; but the half of our 
world does not know the advantages that are to be had 
here under this system. I did not know them till I 
called, or I should have been here among the first of my 
visits. 
We all thought that the firm kept a certain portion of 
their exhibition plants out of the market—that they would 
only sell their second-best plants, unless it were at enor¬ 
mously high prices; because the wide-spread fame of 
their successful competitions paid them better than the 
sale of their best plants could possibly do—no matter 
what they fetched. Nothing of the kind, however. Any 
one with cash, or credit, may buy a full collection of 
specimen plants there; and not only that, but may see 
and learn every move from the cutting-pots to those ready 
for the next Show. He may also learn the best and most 
proper kinds for every Show, “ all round the year the 
best to force for the home conservatory for the whole 
winter through; and the best for every month in the 
year, in the event of public Shows being held monthly. 
As for bedding out, they have a geometric garden, on 
grass, on purpose to prove the fashions, and what suits 
every fashion best. Even the beds are altered every 
third or fourth year to see which is preferable. There is 
to be a new set of beds this summer, fresh from the brains 
of a fashionable designer or landscape gardener—Mr. 
Davidson, of the Pomological secretaryship. Spring 
flowers, and herbaceous plants, and rare, out-of-the-way 
plants, for mixed borders; with every plant and bed, or 
border, on the systematic principle. 
Chinese Azaleas, fruit trees, and orchard-house fruit 
trees, seem to be Messrs. Frasers’ great forte, after 
Geraniums and exhibition plants. It is in contemplation 
to hold a special public Show of these Azaleas in this 
nursery, after the manner of the Camellia Show at the 
Vauxhall Nursery, and the Hyacinths at Highgate. The 
Messrs. Fraser are decidedly in favour of not forcing 
either Rhododendrons or Azaleas, as long as there are 
kinds enough that will bloom sullicicntly early “ of them¬ 
selves,” with a little help from cold pits from the end of 
the autumn; and they instanced the vittata race of 
Chinese Azaleas with that of amcena and narcissifora, as 
coming iii very early without forcing ; also a large bed of 
fine hybrid Rhododendrons, then blooming in the open 
nursery, that would come in early in January', had they 
been in pots last autumn, and been removed under some 
slight shelter at the approach of winter. 
The very first plant I pounced upon was Cyclamen 
vernum, of Sweet’s “British Flower Garden.” Mr. 
Gordon’s vernum is different, if, as he says, it have the 
flowers of Coum and the leaves of Persicum. It has the 
habit of tillering underground like Coum; and the leaves 
and the style of flower are after Persicum. It is as distinct 
as any of the genus; and my firm belief is, that Cyclamen 
vernum is the contra cross of Atkinsii —the one a seedling 
from Coum by the pollen of Persicum; and the other, a 
seedling from Persicum by the pollen of Coum. Indeed, 
after seeing Atkinsii, it is difficult to arrive at any other 
conclusion, seeing there is no record of it in a wild state. 
There is a large collection of Cyclamens here. But let 
us begin at the beginning—the principal show-house, 
which is a large span-roofed structure, with a front stage 
all round, and a centre stage of the same height. At one 
end, as you enter, was a large batch of the largest 
Mimulus I ever saw—all seedlings, and every one of them 
true to the parent plant; a particularly good kind to be 
sown in August, or September, and to be always depended 
on. Call it Fraser s Mimulus, and buy a packet of it 
next August, but bespeak it at once. It blooms magni¬ 
ficently in 60-pots ; but in larger pots, and in saucers of 
water, who can tell the size ? Guelder Roses, in 32-pots, 
with from ten to fifteen snow-ball flowers, as good as in the 
shrubbeiy. To obtain these, grow' them like Moss and 
Cabbage Roses in every respect; pot them in Novem¬ 
ber, prune them close, plunge them, and grow them 
twelve months in pots; then force, and count the cost. 
Three kinds of Cytisus racemosus, of which Atleeana is pre¬ 
ferred by many ; Azalea vittata, and three or more forms 
of it, Avithout forcing; Azalea amoena, without forcing; 
Azalea Fielderii, the best Avhite Chinese Azalea to force, 
the best habited and foliaged plant of all the Avhites ; many 
more kinds of Azaleas—and the cream of a very 7 large 
collection is here skimmed off on purpose ; Admiration, 
a fine w T hite, carnation-fashion ; Ardens, a beautiful deep 
orange scarlet; Pealii, white, carnation-striped, and 
coming in early without forcing ; Beauty of Reigate, one 
of the most Nory-like of whites; Benno, a fine salmon 
colour; Carnea superba, a florist’s bloom of clear scarlet; 
Chelsonii, orange scarlet, and a profuse bloomer ; Galina, 
the very best of the purple strain ; Crispfora, rosy 
crimson, frilled on the edges ; Criterion, the best of the 
Equisita breed; Duke of Devonshire, a large scarlet bloom 
of good shape ; Eulalie Van Geert, a fine thing after the 
manner of Criterion and Exquisita; Fielderii, the best 
w'hite to force; Gladstanesii fermosa, white and Carna¬ 
tion, and Picotee-marked ; lloldfordiana, one of the very 
best, a rosy crimson; Juliana, orange crimson, with a 
dark spot on the upper petals—a fine dwarf kind; Louise 
Margottin, ivory-white, large-striped occasionally ; Mag- 
nifica alba pleno ; Perryana, the well-known orange scarlet 
of the shows ; Roi de Leopold, very fine florists’ flower—a 
crimson ; Semiduplex maculata, rosy and much spotted; 
Semiduplex superba, rosy crimson, very rich, with dark 
spots; Souvenir de 1’Exposition, light crimson, spotted 
and white edged ; Vittata, and Vittata rosea, Vittata 
punctata, and Vittata Fortunii, more or less carnation, 
and all early bloomers. Mrs. Fry and Vivicans, are two 
of the highest coloured, or crimson, of the whole family 7 . 
Deutzia gracilis, and fine standards of the same— no 
Avonder at some people going to the dogs Avho could see no 
beauty in standard Deutzias ; Cliantlnts puniceus, Crimson 
King, and Alba multifora, forced Geraniums; fine 
Kalmias ; Moss, Cabbage, Perpetual, Fairy Roses ; Die! v- 
tras ; Berberis Darwinii, and Wallichii —two very much 
alike out of bloom, and A'ery unlike in bloom ; Wallichii 
having greenish-yellow, and very peculiarly tinted floAvers. 
Heaths—as Wilmorcana, regerminans, a dwarf, strong- 
scented, light kind ; rubrocalyx, Cyndiana, suaveolcns, 
arborea, and others. 
Diosma ambigua, Avhicli makes nice dwarf standards, 
like Diosma capitata ; tree Carnations ; Tropceolum tri¬ 
color um —trained specimens, ready for exhibition. 
A lovely new form of Tetratheca ericifolia, AA’hich might 
be called dens a —the most bushy, and the most elegant 
pot-plant that was ever named ericifolia. 
Philadelphus grand'fonts, the common strong-scented 
“ Syriuga,” of the shrubberies. It Avas suggested, more 
than twenty years back, to cross Philadelphus Mexicanus 
Avith the pollen of this old Syriuga, for an improved forcer. 
I did cross them at the time ; and the seedlings were two 
years old xvhen Mr. Stevens, with his unrelenting hammer, j 
