377 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Mahch 22, 1859. 
from when you please, after the Chrysanthemums, till 
the frost is gone and forgotten, and there is no more 
room, or inclination, for stiving them in-doors at all. It 
is the best hit in London. 
I his nursery was celebrat ed for Magnolia conspicua 
ever since I can remember. The old stools are there 
now, as free and healthy, and as full of bloom, as Tom 
Thumb Geraniums. They must be in open bloom by this 
time, and continue so till May. They work them on the 
Magnolia purpurea; and I have a commission to hunt 
out a thousand of such stocks, ready to be worked on. 
The next thing we shall hear of will be this Magnolia 
conspicua, as white as a Water Lily, and not unlike one, 
for the front or back row of a ribbon border; the next, a 
scarlet row of Cydonia Japonica; and to shade with it 
Japonica carnea, the scarcest plant in England; then the 
blush Japonica—three kinds in shading, to imitate Scarlet 
and Nosegay Geraniums; and, to make up for Calceolarias, 
take Forsyth ia viridissima. 
But what the next move will be, goodness knows 
Sufficient for us to know our own next move, and that is 
for the best town plants ; the Chinese Arbor Vita? is one 
of them, and of which thousands are here to prove the 
fact, and ten thousand newly-struck cuttings of Fuonymus 
Japonica and variegata. I never saw such lots of cut¬ 
tings, except for bedding, and from that size to the 
balcony size. The place is full of them. No smell or 
smoke hurts them ; and, better still, they can be sold by 
the acre. The demand for them is enormous. 
Magnolia grandiflora seems also to be a town plant, 
as whole pits lull of it are here in pots ; and some nursery¬ 
man, from one part or other of London, is there every 
week asking to buy them by the hundred. 
There is a kind of Privet here for town gardens, and 
for country ones too, which is little known out of the 
nurseries. It seems the best of all the Privet family, 
with thick oval leaves, short stocky growth; they call it 
Ligustrum ovalifoliiun, and say it was introduced by the 
Horticultural Society. It is an excellent thing, that 
might be made half-standard of, to imitate the broad- 
leaved Myrtle for terrace gardens But the firm will, in 
time, get all these appropriate furnishing plants for their 
own terrace flower garden, to brighten it up in winter, 
and to let their customers sec how dearly practical gar¬ 
deners value these auxiliaries. Every hardy evergreen, 
from Abies Clanbrasiliana to the Portugal Laurel, which 
can be trained into standards, half-standards, or speci¬ 
men plants, for the terrace and winter garden, are sure 
to be bought up as soon as they come into the market; 
and when the common Rosemary can be trained to any 
shape, and to look more like a new plant than an old 
customer, surely our art and industry will not leave a 
stone unturned that is at all likely to pay. 
But let us get under glass again; say the show- 
house, which is a span-roofed one, about forty feet long, 
and ten feet wide, at a guess, with a walk three, feet wide 
down the centre, and raised fiat stages on each side of the 
way, and a door at each end. This is the first house of 
the kind that was erected in any British nursery, and the 
first of those with “no lights or rafters,” like Mr. Rivers’ 
orchard-house. It was put up in 1827, and is as good 
now as it was the first day. A perspective view and 
section of it arc given by Loudon, in the “ Gardeners’ 
Magazine,” vol. vii., 1831; and Mr. Buckingham, who 
was then in partnership here, thus describes it:—“The 
roof is without rafters; and, although much lighter 
in appearance than that of a house framed in the usual 
manner, is in reality much stronger, from the equal dis¬ 
tribution of its strength to all parts alike. The timber, 
which is saved by not having rafters, more than supplies 
the increased consumption in the bars, which are three 
inches deep instead of two inches—the usual depth. The 
labour cf framing the lights, making top and bottom 
rails, and also the weather-board at top, are all dispensed 
with. Hence the cost is less, and the appearance more 
elegant.” He also gives the whole of the details of build¬ 
ing, fitting, and furnishing. That was the first edition of 
this useful kind of house ; and the last edition is that in 
the Clapton Nursery, over Jones’s cannon boilers, with 
which he has been thundering away as if the Russians 
were coming. 
; Every part of this house was equally gay with forced 
flowers ; and the spaces between the pot3 were closely 
filled with smaller pots full of struck cuttings of bedding 
plants. I never saw anything, in that way, which looked 
naif so good, besides the economy of the thing. The tops 
of all the cuttings were as evenly placed as a new-mown 
lawn, and as closely together as if they were all in one pan; 
the show-plants, being thick enough for effect, stood like 
what we gardeners call starers, or the surface of a varied 
green carpet, as it were. Beautifully bloomed Cyclamens, 
Fairy Roses, Epacrises, Fuchsias (all in bloom), Cytisuses, 
Cinerarias, Dielytras, Azaleas, Tulips, Hyacinths, Nar¬ 
cissuses, Lilies of the Valley, Correas, Heaths, China 
Primulas, Scarlet Geraniums (Mrs. Rickets), Cherry 
Pies or Heliotropes, Mignonette, Violets, and Geraniums 
Alba muUiJlora, and Crimson King which was lately 
sent out by the Messrs. Wood and Ingram, to the great 
comfort of all foreing-of-flower-people, as it forces just as 
well as Alba midti/iora in the dead of winter, which no 
other Geranium has ever yet done. Mrs. Rickets is, 
I perhaps, the best of the Scarlet Geraniums to force. It 
is of the breed of Baron huge/, and with a much larger 
flower, and better white eye. 
The bedding-out plants include every good thing that 
: has been served up at our own table; and you must all 
own by this time, that, although we are very choice that 
way, we are never extravagant, or too old to learn ; but 
we never change colour like the Doctor. But, with it all, 
is it not a cause of rejoicing to see a man like Dr. Bindley 
turned as completely round from the errors of his flower- 
■ garden notions, a3 if his face were between his shoulder- 
blades ? Verily, the constant dropping of water will not 
more surely wear down the hardest marble than the 
foi’ce of tnith ; and so, too, the natural, and high-born, 
perceptions of the ladies of Queen Victoria’s reign, in the 
matter of their own flower gardens, will wear down all 
obstacles, and obsolete notions, no matter how high or 
how low the banks and sand flats which may obstruct the 
tide for a while. 
In one of the stoves, a lot of /Euphorbia splendens, 
trained against the back wall just like youug Peach trees, 
were in full bloom all the winter; and with double China 
Primroses, and sprigs of Ferns for nosegays, made a 
smart figure in the books of the treasurer. Here were 
all the fancy Begonias, and many new plants, new Bou- 
vardias, all the variegated Geraniums, double Petunias, 
Tropceolum elegans, the Crystal Palace bedder, Dracrenas, 
and a lavender-coloured Datura, called metcloidcs. 
In the selling way, Farfugium grande takes the lead 
after the Camellias ; and there is a collection of a new race 
of crossed Achimenes, with Gloxinia, as is said, and with 
Gesncra, as they themselves affirm, which will be highly 
appreciated for their mixed colours and new style of 
, growth. I saw some of them in bloom last autumn, and 
met Mr. Veitch there, to look at them. AVc both put 
them down as A-l. D. Beaton. 
FAILURES IN PEACH-HOUSES. 
“ Or it Peach trees have bloomed well, but very few 
fruit have set . The bloom stood much longer than usual; 
but on examining it carefully on that account, we found 
the embryo fruit in the centre wanting. What could be 
the reason ? ” 
It is difficult to assign a reason with certainty, after 
such an autumn as the last. I once was troubled with 
a similar evil, and only secured a crop by fertilising 
with care every perfect flower that appeared on some 
trees. In this case, 1 attributed the evil chiefly to a cold, 
