108 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION,' November 18, 1856. 
superior outline—one full of intricacy; whilst the other 
plan necessarily carries the sort of even confusion which 
generally characterises a bed of weeds. When I saw 
these borders, October 22nd, they still possessed much 
of the freshness of summer, and looked charming. The 
garden-walls here possess very thriving and finely-trained 
fruit-trees, and carry an important appearance, through 
Mr. Hill’s practice of clothing one wall with one family 
of fruits. This plan is worthy of general adoption, not 
only for effect’s sake, but even for economy of labour; 
for I take it for granted that the latter is mainly 
dependent on system. One wall, flue heated, is covered 
almost uniformly with as fine Peach-trees as I have met 
with; another, by no means less important, with our 
finest Pears; the others accordingly. 
I may now come to the fruit-houses, but fear I can 
hardly do justice to Mr. Hill’s splendid Grapes. There 
I are two Vineries and one Peach-house in a line, each 
fifty-four feet in length ; these are not trifling matters. 
One house is devoted to the Muscat of Alexandria, the 
other to the Black Ilambro, and I do think that there 
is nothing in this kingdom to excel them; if there is, 
| it would be worth a long pilgrimage to see them. I will 
1 not attempt to describe them farther than to observe, 
that the two houses are uniformly covered with these 
luscious treasures. Every rafter hears witness to the 
triumph of system over chance—of principle over rule. 
The Hambro’s are, indeed, Black Hambros’; not even a 
half-shade departure from black is here. With regard to 
colour, I may use an old Arab phrase of former days, 
j as applied to the breed of their horses—“ purer than 
j milk.” Muscats, also, magnificent; but what I have 
said of the Hambro’s may apply to them; and if any 
doubts be entertained about their deserving this un¬ 
qualified praise, I may merely add, that Mr. Glendinuing, 
of Chiswick, the eminent nurseryman, who has made 
such a noise with his fine Grapes this summer, had 
called a few days before my visit, and pronounced them 
most splendid. 
The Peach-houses are in capital trim, but at the 
moment of my visit undergoing a kind of “ careening,” 
to use an old nautical phrase: they show all possible 
promise for next year. Mr. Hill has a very good and 
economical arrangement as to Peach trellises, which 
deserves honourable mention: he so manages them as 
to present a greater degree of surface to the light than 
by the ordinary mode. By judiciously curving the two 
trellises, without going so far as to permit the front 
to injuriously shade the back, he not only accomplishes 
that important matter of creating a greater surface of 
wood and fruit, but also, at the same time, affords better 
j facilities for cultivation than is usual. Every portion 
! of his trees may be reached with facility, a consideration 
worthy of all those who would grow the Peach in-doors. 
At the back of the kitchen-garden structures is a 
building to which I would draw some attention. It is 
a general greenhouse or plant-house, 114 feet in length 
by twelve feet in width. This house, from its length, 
has a most imposing effect. But its chief features are, 
that it faces the north, and is on the ridge-and-furrow 
principle. Mr. Hill assured me that he finds such a 
house eminently adapted for a show-house, which, of 
course, is of an ever-changeable character, the plants 
being forwarded until they reach blossoming in other 
structures. There is a back stage in the intei'ior, con¬ 
sisting of three broad descents of about a yard each, 
and along the front, at the level of the sill of the front 
glass, is an excellent massive slate shelf, beneath which 
is the piping which heats the structure. This house 
was looking very rich for the season; but Mr. Hill 
cultivates things specially, in order to sustain a con¬ 
tinual display. Such houses, which may be called 
retarding-houses, are by no means common, and are 
worthy of consideration by those who contemplate erect¬ 
ing new garden structures. There is a nice nursery 
iu conjunction with the kitchen-garden, where con¬ 
siderable quantities of Hollies and other useful ever¬ 
greens are grown to supply the plantations. 
Many useful hints may be gleaned by young men 
desirous of rising in their profession from the practices 
at Keele, and even the most experienced will profit by a 
visit. Mr. Hill, it may be stated, served part of his 
time under that clever gardener and writer, Mr. Bailey, 
of Nuneham, and finished off, I understood, under 
Mr. Fleming, at the celebrated Trentham Gardens: no 
marvel, therefore, that Keele Gardens are worthy of 
notice. I may here express my thanks to Mr. Hill for 
his civilities, and the frankness of his conversation about 
gardening matters, for he is no mystery man. 
Robert Errlngton. 
KINGSTON NURSERY. 
( Continued, from page 90.) 
No. 3.—This is the old Calcutta-house, which is now 
devoted entirely to those Orchids and Ferns which need 
the greatest heat all the year round. The Messrs. 
Jackson excel in the cultivation of both families, and 
make more money of them than people at a distance 
could believe. To see the quantity of “cases” from 
foreign parts you might think they were in partnership 
with the sea serpent for enriching our collections; and 
I have heard more than once that, were it not for this 
firm, Mr. Stevens might shut up shop altogether in the 
Orchid line. All that I cau add to that, from living 
next door to them, is, that they have an enormous stock 
of Orchids and Ferns in the highest state of cultivation ; 
that they have not yet hit on a way to grow Orchids 
from seeds; but that they manage to raise the rarest and 
best kinds of Ferns from seeds in great quantities, and 
with unerring success. Those who can get up such 
Ferns can alone understand the meaning of “ unerring 
success.” The meaning of our language is not taught 
in the universities; therefore we must often explain the 
plainest thing on earth. The seed of Ferns—yes, that 
is the proper word after all, though botanists call it the 
spore—is as small as the dust in the sunbeam, and as 
insinuating. A queen going through a Fern-house when 
the seed is ripe on a fine day, with “ plenty of air ” on, 
would carry off more seeds iu number than there are 
yards in length between Kingston and the planet 
Jupiter. Then who is to know, when he gathers the seed 
of one kind of rare Fern, that he has not also collected I 
the seeds of fifty kinds of the very commonest from one [ 
and the same leaf ? Yes, again, that word leaf is the ; 
proper word; frond is only a bastard, unbotanical, and j 
pedantic contraction of the word frondeus, leafy, or full 
of leaves. Leaves or fronds of Ferns in the seed seasou 
are so dusted over with Fern seeds from all kinds 
in the house, that few gardeners can get up seed¬ 
lings of Ferns “ unerringly,” as they do here. The seed- 
pods of most Ferns are more or less roughish, and offer 
a ready lodgment to the flying-about, dust-like seeds. 
The way Messrs. Jackson manage to get up true 
seedling Ferns here is to separate the mother plant for 
awhile before seed-time, then to sow the seeds in garden- 
saucers in peat and sand, and cover them with glasses, 
which exclude all other seeds. Some kinds take a long 
time to vegetate and make plants; others are “ up in no 
time;” and, should the latter get among the former, 
it is easy to see the difficulty, and also to see how easily 
a rare kind might be lost altogether. 
I could learn the names of many hundreds of Ferns 
in this Nursery; but I never try, for fear of being a 
“ perfect” gardener, as most of them “ forget themselves ” 
very often. I asked the names of a few of those kinds 
