88 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, May 17, 1859. 
record it as a very remarkable fact, that Mr. Brodie—a 
clever man in Mosses and other Cryptogams —“ if he had 
lived long enough,” would have made something of the 
kind which Mr. Mongredien, a gentleman of similar 
taste, has actually done so many years afterwards. We 
'.never hear from Mr. Grigor, the nurseryman at Forres; 
else we might ask him if any traces of this fancy are now 
to be seen at Brodie House; and one does not like to 
trouble gentlemen in the neighbourhood, such as the pro¬ 
prietors of Altyre and Delvey, who have the best gardens 
thereabouts. 
The thick bushy evergreen, which'I mentioned as 
looking like Bridgesia, in Mr. Mongredien’s experimental 
bed is Griselinea litoralis. I did not spell it right in the 
report at page 75. Two of the Scotch Lycopods in the 
rockwork I intended to write about for a long while; but, 
seeing such a collection as this, I was at the end of my 
tether, and brought to a stand-still; and all I could do 
was to ask Mr. Summers to give me a general idea of the 
collection, and the principal mode of management, for 
The Cottage Gakdenek : and through his kindness 
here it is. 
Thousands of amateurs who have little space for gar¬ 
dening could have a rockery for rare and delicate alpine 
plants, low Ferns, the commoner Mosses, and all the odds 
and ends they could pick up, as a sort of beginning; and 
when they come to understand the subject there is no 
end to the interest they would derive from it. Mr. 
Mongredien has his bedding plants, Iris exhibition plants, 
his orchard-house plants, and the new and rare in all the 
classes of plants: but, from personal experience, I could 
venture to affirm that he derives more real pleasure 
from his cryptogamic garden than from all the rest put 
together. 
' The experience I speak of was my first start, as head 
gardener, with one of the best self-taught practical 
botanists of the age; it was then I learned what little 
insight I have of bulbs. Mr. Summers, the head gardener 
at Forest Hill, is just such another man as I was thirty 
years back in head, hands, and circumstances; and al¬ 
though it is much easier to rise in gardening now than it 
was then, yet it is much more difficult to do, if you can 
understand how that can be. An idler may now rise 
easily in the knowledge of our craft by good, sound, 
practical books ; but the competition between clever 
heads is now ten times more than it was then. Therefore 
a man may be almost as wise as Solomon, and have nine 
chances against his succeeding to a higher situation than 
he now holds. 
But let us read Mr. Summers’ paper on the Moss 
garden. Who knows but he will have to write a “ Moss 
Book for the Many ” yet? 
“ In Mr. Mongredien’s grounds at Forest Hill a small 
piece of rockwork has been laid out as a Bryarium; and, 
although it has only been planted six or seven months, 
the experiment has been sufficiently successful to refute 
the common notion that the artificial cultivation of most 
of the Cryptogams is beyond the skill of the horticul¬ 
turist. In Wardian Cases they have already been grown 
on a small scale; and an interesting account is given, in 
vol. ii. of the “ Journal of the Linnean Society,” of a 
collection of Mosses so grown by the Rev. H. II. Higgins. 
Several thrived very well, whilst others either languished, 
or died outright. But the writer is not aware of any 
previous attempt to cultivate Mosses, Lichens, and Hepa¬ 
tic® in a garden by themselves, and thus to obtain a 
collection of living specimens of a tribe so exceedingly 
interesting and so beautiful, but yet so little known 
except to the botanist. 
“ Mr. Mongredien’s collection is far from complete ; and 
he is taking measures to increase it considerably. But, 
for the short time he has been at work, a good deal has 
been done. As every species in his collection is marked 
on a small zinc label, the enumeration is easily made. The 
mossery at present includes about 160 species of Mosses, 
thirty of Hepaticfe (chiefly Jungemiannias), sixty of 
Lichens, and four of Lycopods. 
“The rockwork is so arranged, as to offer as great a 
i variety of habitats as possible. There are shady nooks, 
exposed hillocks, wet banks, small swamps, and every 
sort of aspect, but chiefly the north, which Mosses mostly 
: affect. By these means each species receives as nearly 
as possible the treatment that is most congenial to it; 
and the result is, that the plantation, with few ex- 
j ceptions, is in the most healthy condition. 
“ The general impression it produces, even at first 
sight, is delightful. The freshness, the varied tints, the 
rich covering spread over every stone, all affect the eye 
most agreeably. But a closer and more minute inspec¬ 
tion reveals an infinite multitude of beauties in the 
growth, the leaf, and the fructification of these minute 
plants. With a lens in hand, days might be spent in 
this little spot without exhausting the objects of interest 
which it presents. 
“ Amongst the Mosses which seem most to luxuriate 
in the spots here allotted to them may be quoted— 
Bryuni iulaceum, alpinum, and capillar c; Hypnum den- 
ticulatum, undulatum, ptirum, splendens, Schreberi, and 
cupressiforme; HooJceria lucens ; all the species of Mnium 
and Polystichum ; jRacomitrium canescens, LesTcea sericea ; 
several Tortulas ; JBartramia fontana and pomiformis ; 
Dicranum Scottianum; Weissia controversa; Grimmia 
Donniana, pulvinata, and leueophcea, &c. 
“ Several of the Jungermanni® are doing remarkably 
well, and some have flowered abundantly, such as the 
J. pumila, bicuspidata, pinguis, &c. 
“ The progress of the Lichens cannot yet be reported 
upon; as, from their nature, a longer time is required for 
their development. The four species of Lycopodium are 
the clavatum, selago, alpinum, and inundatum, all of which 
appear to be doing well. 
“ The most important point in the cultivation of Mosses, 
after the proper selection of site and soil, is (with by far 
the greater number of species), not to allow them to get 
dry. All thrive better for copious irrigation ; and most 
of them will not live without it. The mossery at Forest 
Hill is watered freely three times a day, except in rainy 
weather; and when dry winds prevail, which cause rapid 
evaporation, an additional sprinkling or two are given. 
This is the most troublesome operation connected with 
Moss cultivation, and may prove an obstacle to mosseries 
becoming so common and general as they might but for 
this expenditure of time and labour. Otherwise, the 
small backyard of-a cottage might suffice for the cultiva¬ 
tion of fully half of the known species of British Mosses, 
of which the total number described in Wilson’s “ Bryo- 
logia Britannica,” is 450; and the Palm-house at _Kew 
does not afford, by any means, the same number of in¬ 
teresting subjects for observation as would that little 
backyard, if so cultivated. 
“ Besides the Cryptogams, and mingled with them, but 
only so as either to be in keeping with them, or to afford 
them shade and protection, Mr. Mongredien has planted 
the rockery with a variety of other plants and shrubs. 
On the highest parts are a few dwarf Pines, such as the 
Mughus, inopus, &c.; lower down hang some of the trailing 
Junipers, among which is a fine specimen of the J. tama- 
riscifolia. A variety of Ferns (both British and half- 
hardy exotics), are interspersed in appropriate places. A 
good specimen of Daphne cneorum crowns one of the 
hillocks, and is now a mass of blossom. Amongst the 
Mosses grow Saxifrages, Sedums, a few British Orchids, 
Pyrola, Paris quadrifolia, Linncea borealis, Sibthorpia, 
i Veronica repens, Thymus languinosus, and Corsicus, 
and a number of. other small and trailing plants, which 
assist in covering all available space with vegetation, and 
by contrast of foliage and flower heighten the general 
J effect. 
“ The entire area devoted to the mossery is only a few 
i squave yards; and yet a botanist might probably enume- 
