THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, December 9, 1856. 
162 
from Mexico, in 1848, and is now six feet high, 
matched with Lord Dalhousie’s—or Daihoosy, as they 
pronounce it in Edinburgh—namesake Rhododendron, 
a little taller than the American Doctor’s tree, and 
with forty flower-buds on; then a rich match pair of 
Dammar a Brownii, five feet high. Those Dammar as are 
splendid house-plants—broad-leaved Pines or Conifers. 
The accent is on the first a ; the name the native one 
for these trees. These were followed by evergreen 
Berberis, of sorts, such as Bealei and intermedia from 
China; Japonica from Japan, the home of all the Ja- 
ponicas you hear about; and Leschenaultia from the 
south of India, on the Neilgherry range; all fine-leaved 
kinds. The next were the second best matched on the 
establishment, and you will guess the best when I say 
this was the male and female Gephalotaxus Fortuni, four 
feet high; then pairs of Yucca, Chamaeropsof sorts, Arau¬ 
carias aforesaid, the different kinds of dwarf Oranges in 
pairs. Little stands of the Myrtle-leaf Orange were 
extra ; a pair of Yucca quadricolor, very extra, four 
shades in the striped leaves, and one broad band up the 
centre of each leaf; an extra Araucaria Cooltii, full five 
feet high; and an extra newish form of the Norfolk 
Island Pine, called tjlauca ; the last pair being the 
gouty Dasylirion serratifolia (dasys , thick; leirion, a 
lily), a close relative to the new Encholirium, alias En- 
cholirion of nursery lists. All these matches, with the 
different kinds of smaller or more common kinds which 
made up the rest of the plants, made both sides of the 
walk down the corridor as evenly balanced to the eye as if 
they were weighed in scales. The very same effect is 
produced on the eye, and through the eye to the mind, 
when the colours in a flower-garden are properly 
balanced; and there is no other way of accounting for 
the improved taste for plants of fine growth and foliage 
without flowers. It is the forms, the regularity of well- 
grown plants, and the beautiful outlines or forms they 
then assume, which tell on the eye; but place the very 
self-same plants, or the very self-same colours, differently, 
and you may have nothing better than pigs with one 
ear, squinting and squealing till they make the very teeth 
gnash in one’s head. 
The large conservatory with a domed roof—such roofs 
being the climax of the folly of the last age in plant- 
houses—stands east and west across the vista, through 
the vestibule and corridor; and in the centre, where the 
fountain played in Mr. Knight’s time, stands the finest 
specimen in the trade of Gordyline indivisa, commonly, 
but most erroneously, called Dracaena indivisa. The 
Dracaenas, or Dragon-trees, are all natives of the tropics, 
chiefly from the Indies and Mauritius; while the Gordy- 
lines, or Club-trees ( cordyle , a club), are all natives of 
temperate latitudes, and chiefly from New Zealand. 
This Gordyline is full six feet in the stem, and a wide- 
spreading head in proportion, quite an architectural 
plant. Right and left of it, in the line of the centre, is an 
iron column supporting the roof. The front, back, and 
the chief parts of both ends are solid brickwork up to 
the springing of the roof, and there is a wing at each 
end of it, entered by glass doors in the centre; thus 
there are two broad open spaces crossing each other in 
the centre, and dividing the conservatory into four great 
quarters or quadrants, each of which was devoted to a 
Tree Rhododendron in the first instance ; but they never 
did much good, for flower they would not. I only recol¬ 
lect to have seen one really “ good blow ” on them, about 
eighteen years back, when they were under the manage¬ 
ment of our friend Mr. Kidd, the Love-Apple grower. 
The way he effected his purpose was kept a deep secret 
at the time. I then lived close to London, and knew all 
the moves but this one, of which I got hold many years 
after. He got an iron rod with a sharp end, and made 
two circles of holes in the balls; the first circle was as 
near the stem as he could push in the rod, and the next 
half-way to the sides of the tubs, and which reached j 
down to two-thirds of the ball. These holes he kept 
full of water, while the great Rhododendrons were 
making their annual growth, and until the flower-buds 
were set. That is only historical now; but the fact may 
be of use yet to those who have large old specimens in 
pots or tubs which do not bloom as they ought, owing to 
the balls getting too dry during the rest season, and 
then resisting the ordinary waterings on the surface. 
All the stages are high enough to allow of the new 
fashion of whaleboned dresses to walk along without 
drawing down pots and plants in the train, except in 
this large conservatory, where a row of pot Rhododen¬ 
drons for forcing is placed all round the four great 
quadrants, and another row of Kalmias in front of 
them for the same purpose; but yet there is room 
enough left for all conscience, and for whalebone to 
boot; and the effect of these two rows of temporary 
plants is rich in the extreme, each quadrant being 
filled up with the finest kinds of Camellias in large 
specimen plants, and as full of bloom-buds as ever any 
plants of the kind could he. Out of sight, behind 
these, are beds against the walls, in which Camellias of 
sorts and different kinds of Acacias are planted out for 
“ good,” to be trained against the walls; but, if I had a 
new conservatory to fill, I would insist on getting up all 
these ready-trained plants for my “ good,” only I must 
pay the piper according to the tune; but if money 
makes the mare go, why not a “ go” at these very things 
in. these going times ? 
Tacsonia mollissima is planted against one of the sup¬ 
porting iron columns, which is to be inarched with 
T. manicata up at the cross-bars which tie the roof. 
The other column is planted with Hdbrothamnus elegans, 
which was in bloom on the 1st of November, when I 
called. This is an elegant plant, as the name says, and 
is not unlike H. fascicularis in the bunches of flowers, 
and is very different from another kind, which often goes 
by the same name, on the south-side walls, which have a 
north aspect. Tacsonia pinnatistipula is to be planted 
to flower more in the shade, as it must either be in the 
open air or in such a situation in-doors to do much 
good. Mrs. Marryatt’s conservatory at Wimbledon has 
taught that plan long since, and yet it was the cause of 
a most unwarrantable prejudice against that most beau¬ 
tiful climber. In that old, dark, large house this 
Tacsonia fruited as freely as a Ribston Pippin in the 
orchard; and the London trade was so easily supplied 
with seeds from that house, that for some years there 
was not a plant of it on sale but a seedling; and seed¬ 
lings took such a very long time to flower that most 
people thought the plant a shy bloomer, whereas it is 
well known now to be the easiest of all the Passion- 
worts to deal with, with the above limitation. Ten 
degrees of frost do not stop it from blooming, as I can 
vouch for from my own experience. 
I purposely left a few specimens behind for this point 
in the story. The first of them is Solanmn pseudo¬ 
capsicum trained to a single stem and a round head, to 
represent an Orange-tree in miniature. It was a favourite 
plant here in Mr. Knight’s time. The small, round, 
Orange-looking fruit holds on all the winter, and makes 
it a useful plant in that season, notwithstanding its being 
in other respects only an ordinary old plant. 
The next is an Aloe of some rare-kind-looking plant, 
which is in the stove wing of the front range, and 
named Pincinectitia tuberculata, a very fine specimen. 
I had seen the same kind at Kew this autumn when I 
called with Mr. Kinghorn, but did not look at the name 
there. The name is all I wish to allude to'now, how¬ 
ever, and that to say, that it is not to be found in any 
authentic book on genera that I have access to. The 
best of them all is one which was published last year in 
Berlin, and of which a presentation copy was sent to , 
