THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND GENTLEMAN’S COUNTRY COMPANION.— October 7, 1S5C. 
near the old Cytisus vhodophena. Of these 3000 avc con¬ 
sumed annually; hut this season they will have to Luy 
in at least another thousand. 
I counted thirty-eight lights, same size, full of mixed 
greenhouse plants in small sixty-pots. These, having no 
rims, stand so close together that each light holds about 
500 of them ; multiply that by thirty-eight, and it makes 
19,000 young plants, but they reckon on 20,000 in the 
whole. Twenty-five lights of fine dwarf, saleable plants 
of the different Epac rises, and 187 plants in each light, 
or 4675 plants of one uniform size, being about one- 
third of the whole stock, youuger and older, or 15,000 
Epacrisesof different kinds, with 5000 hardy Conifers : of 
sorts, and 2000 Pinuspalustris from seeds. White Gly¬ 
cine, or Wistaria Sinensis, from eyes grafted on the roots of 
the old one, and come as freely as leaf and bud Geranium 
cuttings did in the Experimental. This led to a secret of 
great importance. The whole of the Kennedyas , Zicliyas, 
and such like, will graft on the roots of Wistaria , and 
grow to double the usual size as conservatory climbers. 
The continental mode of splitting the crown ol the 
stock seems the easiest and best way for this root graft¬ 
ing also; but get one of the Catalonian Jasmines to 
learn the exact way. I begged that they should not be 
sold in lumps to the trade for one month, in order to 
give so many more the chance of learning how to 
practise the French mode of grafting Geraniums and 
all manner of plants. 
A new hardy Oak, which came from the Alps of 
Bhootan with the aforesaid Rhododendrons, promises to 
be one of the finest for park scenery, being exactly in¬ 
termediate between an Oak and a Spanish Chestnut in 
the leaves. Quantities of Pinus JUifolia, one of the 
finest of the long-leaved kinds, but not quite hardy, 
therefore only fit for the Crystal Palace. Pinus orientalis 
looks much like a young spruce. Chironia glutinosa so 
covered with bloom that it ought to make a good bedder 
in peat to come in after the Scarlet Crassulas. Cldronia 
decussata, one of the best of the good old greenhouse 
plauts, I was told, is now all but lost everywhere. Can 
that be a true entry in the chronicles of the Experi 
mental ? Chironia Fischerii turns out to be an alias of 
Floribuncla. 
Among these substantial I noticed a good-looking 
stranger to my eye—some Leptospermum, no doubt, or 
one of the Adenandras. “Not very likely,” said Mr. 
Low; “ this is a plant which my son found high up on 
the Kenalalow Mountain, the highest we know of in 
Borneo; and, strange to say, it will not stand heat; but 
what it really is no one can tell.” 
Now to the Camellia and Azalea ground. They stand 
the Camellias in beds, with the highest plants in the 
middle row, and then fall down both ways as the roof of 
a house. The whole look like ridge-and-furrow, and 
comprise 7000 plants from one to four feet, all best 
kinds, and at from 21s. to 60s. per dozen. Three thou¬ 
sand Chinese Azaleas next to them, and the next all the 
Pompones and Chrysanthemums, just as I arranged them 
last year iu The Cottage Gardener. 
In “ the bedding-out way " I found more than I can 
touch on to-day, and I must pass that branch for some 
thing else. 
A Weeping Birch, the first of them iu England, which 
I saw planted tho week before the passing of the 
Emancipation Bill, in 1829, used to be crowded with 
“stocks” of common Birch to inarch on; but that 
practice is given up now, and one great branch of the 
tree is trained down to near the ground, and the young 
wood is layered, and thus Weeping Birches on their own 
roots are obtained at less bother, and far better for the 
planter. 'The original appeared first in the collection of 
M. Soulange Bandin, of Paris, and the tree is about as 
great an ornament as any one could find in an Arboretum. 
When Prince Albert planted Librocedrus Chilense at 
Shrubland Park the price was one guinea the inch. 
The best plant of it here now is about five feet high for 
the same price. Q- Beaton. 
ORNAMENTAL PLANTING. 
Under this head I mean to throw together a few ideas 
on the best way to plant such trees and shrubs as may 
be most conducive to give a pleasing effect in after years 
to the plantation. Ornamental plantations and shrub¬ 
beries are generally placed on the borders of the carriage- 
drive, or surround the pleasure-ground and the flower- 
garden, or serve as belts to hide such objects as the farm¬ 
yard, the kitchen-garden, or, may be, a public road, or 
any other unsightly object. They also have been planted 
to separate the kept ground from the park and the 
ground appropriated for farming purposes Such grounds 
and plantations should be so fenced in that bares and 
rabbits cannot break or creep through ; but such fences 
should be so light as almost to be invisible at a certain 
distance. 
The way in which such ornamental plantings have, in 
many cases, been managed or made is far from satis¬ 
factory. A certain breadth of ground is set out, and a 
certain number of trees and shrubs ordered from the 
nurseries. The land has, probably, been dug well 
enough, and the planting is commenced; an equal 
number of trees and shrubs selected; and the planter, 
accompanied by a gang of labourers, commences the 
operation by laying clown the trees, &c. He lays down 
one of every kind till he has gone through the whole 
of the species ho has to plant the entire space with. 
As soon as he has got through them he commences 
again with the first species the same as he began, 
goes through the whole over again, and so repeats the 
sets till all the ground is filled. Many hundreds of such 
plantations have I noticed in various parts of the 
country. This is called the mixed method, and the 
greater the number of species the planter can cram in 
the greater, as he thinks, is his ability displayed. 
Perhaps this mixture, as far as the varieties used extend, 
may reach twenty, thirty, or forty yards. It is evident 
the next length will be exactly similar, so that then the 
spectator need not seek any further for variety; the 
pattern is all the same to the end of the plantation. 
The proprietor wonders why his shrubberies give him 
so little pleasure; they are neglected, and become in a 
few years a tangled, unsightly thicket, without meaning 
or beauty. 
How different would their appearance have been had 
they been judiciously grouped! The planting would 
then have been interesting at the first, and the interest 
would have increased every year. There would then 
have been great pleasure in pruning, thinning, and keep¬ 
ing the groups distinct enough to give the effect desired. 
By grouping I mean the placing together a number of 
trees or shrubs of one variety, so as to give breadth 
and depth to that one variety. Now, almost every 
species of tree has a distinct character, though some 
approach very near in appearance. The different forms, 
in general, are as follows Round-headed, which is the 
most common, such as the Oak and the Lime; oblong- 
headed, as the Ash; spiry-headed, as the Fir; and acute- 
topped, as the Lombardy Poplar. Now, if these are 
planted in groups of from three to a score, the sky¬ 
line will be broken and beautifully diversified, and will 
give a decided character to the view even in a level 
country, but still more so on the summit of a hill; 
whereas, had they been planted in the mingled method, 
the effect would be tamo and spiritless, and distressing to 
the eye of taste. 
Just the same effect may be produced by planting 
shrubs in masses. Deciduous shrubs are almost out of 
