369 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Septembee 18, 1860. 
which is tills, that there are more fresh-water sailors in 
London than volunteers. The Illustrated, London News 
gave a plan of the lake as it will be ; and these worthies 
went down in shoals, by the wrong end of the rope, to 
see it in their element, bothered the guides out of all 
patience to know its whereabouts, and finding it still a 
gravel-pit, ankle deep in water, they changed the quid, 
hitched their nether canvass, and went back in high 
dudgeon. 
Keeping still in sight of the Thames, we have Mount 
Pleasant in our front, opposite the extreme end of the 
lake that is to be—a recent name for the pleasant oppor¬ 
tunity of piling up the extra soil in making that end of 
the avenue so close at hand. Mount Pleasant, like 
Arthur’s Seat, in Edinburgh, is too steep on one side to 
get up at all that side, therefore was planted from their 
own stores, of course. On the opposite side you can 
ascend by easy gradients to different levels and “flats ” 
till you reach the summit, which is flat also, and an 
Araucaria imbricata is planted in the centre of it. Here 
is a rich view of a sweep of the Thames on to Isleworth ; 
and another sweep in the walk, in the direction of London, 
brings you to the head of the Rhododendron valley, the 
Sikkim of Kew, and the land of G-oshen for country 
planters of that fine tribe of evergreens. Whether this 
valley is some flaw of Nature or the work of giants of a 
former age you are not told; but to form an idea of it 
you should read Dr. Hooker’s journals of the far-off end of 
the Himalayas, and I can tell that all his toil and troubles 
in these regions are already paid for in the health, looks, 
and variety of his Rhododendrons, all of which that will 
stand our climate are out in large beds, along the bottom 
and sides of the route the whole way. They are there in 
the shade of lofty trees ; and as soon as they are of the 
size of specimen plants, they are removed from the beds 
to be planted out singly, and at suitable distances apart 
from one another, and from your eye, along the grassy 
slopes of the enchanted valley. After them come all the 
hardy Heaths in their order; and one of them looks like 
what our Irish cross-breeder is driving at, as if it were a 
cross between the tallest of the Scotch Heather and the 
smallest Bell Heath—the Cape gracilis perhaps, or may 
be by a crimson Epacris. Who can venture an opinion 
on such origins ? The name of that Heath is Alportii, 
and you must order it this fall, for it is the showiest of 
the race. 
But we have not yet done with half the races of Rho¬ 
dodendrons. All the celebrated breeds in the kingdom 
are represented in and about the valley, from Higli- 
clere to the Kinoul nurseries at Perth. The last addition 
is some fine strains of Lord Liverpool’s Rhododendrons, 
from Kingston here ; and one of the best of them is tallied 
“ Lilly Noare,” after Mr. William Hoare, a trust¬ 
worthy attendant on that very family at Kew, for the last 
thirty years. Hodgesonii is the finest leaved of the 
Sikkims, and one of the largest leaves amongst them. It 
is as smooth as a Magnolia leaf, and as big as the rough 
woolly-looking leaf of Falconeri, and both are doing 
there remarkably well. But I need not name sorts—every¬ 
body will now go to that valley ; ’and I will go out of It 
to the right, and what should meet me next but a large 
bed of the larger Asiatic Berberis, to prove a fact which 
Mr. Standish, of Bagshot, first discovered or made known 
to us first. 
The fact is, this Lerberis japonica and the like of it. 
as you will see at page 290 of the nineteenth volume of 
The Cottage Gaedenee, will do better under the deep 
shade of tall trees, and here were one hundred of them 
from Mr. Standish to prove it, in the midst of a forest, 
as it were ; and well they certainly looked, proving the 
proof of the pudding, for not one out of the lot failed. 
Here we got on to the “Princess Walk,” and there 
found the finest specimen of Beech I ever saw, sweeping 
the grass all round it, and rooting its branches in the 
common soil—a thing one seldom sees or hears of; it is 
I ninety-eight yards round the tip of the branches as they 
touch the grass. And along that walk may be seen many 
fine specimens of park and timber trees. At the London 
end of the Princess Walk, another crosses and goes to 
Brentford ferry, another way of reaching Kew Gardens. 
Between that walk and Kew Palace is the Park Nursery 
of four acres, reclaimed from a piece of almost waste 
ground. The idea of it is due to Lord Llanover when 
he was Sir Benjamin Hall and First Commissioner of 
Works. Sir William Hooker took it up in the spirit of a 
volunteer; and I would back these four acres at this 
moment against an equal number of the same description 
of trees in any part of Europe—in fact, there is nothing 
under the British crown at all like it. I never saw such 
fine healthy-looking and such well-selected stock in all 
: my experience. 
Talk about botanists being mad for collections, why 
we have been all mad without knowing it. The collection 
consists of half-a-dozen kinds only, and three kinds are 
the principal stock over the whole four acres—the true 
English Elm, all from grafted plants. The Elms are 
numerous, but this, the Ulmus campestris, is one of the best 
of them for the parks; seedlings an d 1 ayers of it are so prone 
to throw up suckers that it is necessary to have it grafted 
very low, and to see that the graft does not touch the 
soil at planting finally out that it may not take root, and 
make suckers. The Scotch Elm, Ulmus montana, is the 
best stock to graft it on, and the next best Elm for parks 
and pleasure-grounds. The thousands of standards of 
both these ready, and getting on that way, for final plant¬ 
ing will be seen from the figures below.* The tallest 
and largest-headed of these are planted six feet row from 
row, and in the centre, between the rows, are single lines 
of common Hollies doing better in the shade, and coming 
away with freer leaders than are ever seen in the open 
quarters at that size and age. They are completely 
taken up and transplanted after every second growth, 
so as to keep the roots near home, and render them more 
sure for the last move. Their health and symmetry are 
; faultless. 
The third tree of which they have the largest stock is- 
the “ Park Plane tree,” which is neither the orientalis or 
occidentalis, but the variety of the former called aceri- 
\ folia, the finest park tree in the world for our climate, 
also the hardiest when young and full of sap; their 
heights and numbers are also below, but that gives no 
idea of their rapid growth and vigorous, healthy looks. 
They come from cuttings freely, and after a couple of 
seasons’ growth they are cut down to the ground, in 
order to open a more free communication between the 
roots and the stems. The average growth of thousands 
of them in 1859, after being so cut back, is seven feet; and 
last winter did but just nip off the tips, and now they 
average twelve feet in two growths, and no sign of the 
frost-mark is visible. Never plant another tree of 
Platanus in British soil but this acerifolius. The value 
of this one tree at the lowest figure of a country nursery 
is far beyond the whole expense of these four acres from 
first to last. And the value of the lesson we are thus 
taught is much more than that. 
One-half of the foresters, two-thirds of us gardeners, 
and nine-tenths of the amateur classes, err grievously in 
the first setting off of young plants, be they trees or 
Heieht. 
Number. 
Height. 
Number. 
* PLANES 
. 2 feet 
... 1800 
ELMS . 
. 5 feet 
... 1160 
. 3 feet 
... 207 
>» . 
.. 3544 
.. 5958 
it •• 
. 4 feet 
... 811 
. 8 feet 
511 
. 5 feet 
... 1892 
.. 2193 
... 720 
it . 
.. 1568 
. 11 feet 
.. 1782 
it 
. 7 feet 
... 1394 
.. 1035 
... 2286 
. 14 feet 
. 1368 
. 9 feet 
... 650 
If . 
.. 1374 
470 
a ••• 
. 10 feet 
.. 846 
162 
. 12 feet 
.. 558 
.. 182 
. ?» 
. 14 feet 
.. 609 
it . 
.. 153 
