794 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
August 14, 1886. 
here ; and this very spring, for the first time, a pair of 
wood-pigeons brought up their young on one of the trees 
by the sub-tropical garden. But Battersea Park is par 
excellence a school for the noble game of cricket. There 
wide areas, the practice-ground, the match, and the Bat¬ 
tersea grounds, comprising probably an area of 150 acres 
in extent, are devoted to cricket, and occasionally there 
may be seen sixty games going on simultaneously. No 
one can fail to observe the superior physique, healthy 
appearance, and zest with which the young people engage 
in the games. But the gardens are the especial glory of 
Battersea Park. They are unique, and, considering the 
proximity of various manufactures carried on in the 
immediate neighbourhood, quite surprising results of 
horticultural skill. Perhaps the tidal movements of 
the river are conducive to a constant change and puri¬ 
fication of the atmosphere. This and the careful 
watering and syringing of the beds and borders keep 
the vegetation in fresh and thriving condition. Alto¬ 
gether Battersea Park and Gardens are something of 
which Londoners may well be proud, and if the ninety - 
and-nine continue to make such good use of them as 
they undoubtedly do, we need scarcely trouble ourselves 
with regrets about the unfortunate “’Arry,” who 
neither enjoys cricket nor can appreciate the “ lesson 
of the flowers.”— Echo. 
-—>$<-- 
NONSUCH PARK, CHEAM. 
The Surrey estate, of W. E. G. Farmer, Esq., is 
noted for objects of interest in its park and garden. In 
the park the avenue of Elms, one mile in length, 
running from the Cheam Lodge to the Ewell entrance, 
is what few estates can boast of, and the old Pollard 
Elm, from which, the county history tells us, Queen 
Elizabeth shot deer with the cross-bow, and the many 
other matters about the place deemed of sufficient age 
and importance to be noted by the same authority, 
amply prove that it is not only a very old and fine 
estate, but that as far back as record goes, a pride was 
taken by its owner in keeping up its pleasure grounds 
and gardens, a quality which is maintained by its 
present possessor, who, by making in his fine park plan¬ 
tations of such things as Araucaria imbricata, Cedrus 
deodara, and other trees of beauty and recent intro¬ 
duction, is preparing for posterity the wherewithal to 
change and beautify the prospect in every direction, 
when in time they get size and become leading features 
in the scenery. In the garden, although exhibiting 
has been discontinued, we all know’ or have heard of 
Mr. Farmer’s triumphs with Orchids, Azaleas, and 
plants generally, in Carson’s time, and although at 
present the plants do not make their appearance in 
public, they preserve their health and condition at 
home, and would cause much uneasiness among prize 
winners were they to enter the lists again. 
From the avenue of Elms in the park to the fine 
Tudor mansion runs a very fine row of Scotch Firs of 
great height, and measuring 9 ft. to 10 ft. in the girth 
of the trunks ; these are a noble feature in the place, 
grand in appearance, and delightfully fragrant in the 
summer. Beside them is the walled-in flower garden, 
which is just now a blaze of colour supplied by the 
scarlet, crimson, pink, and other well-known bedding- 
plants, for carpet-bedding here, as in most other places, 
is almost done aw T ay with, a bed or two only being so 
planted for a change. As a vast improvement in the 
show of summer bedding-plants, those filled with white 
Marguerites, edged with scarlet Pelargonium and blue 
Lobelia, and those planted with mixed plants give good 
examples of a much better means of occupying the beds 
than giving them over to the labour-demanding carpet 
bedding-plants ; and among those mixed beds a fine 
example may be noted formed like a Maltese cross, the 
centre being occupied by a standard covered with purple 
Clematis Jackmannii, beneath which rise the tall spikes 
of the scarlet Lobelia cardinalis Queen Victoria, the 
bed being filled-in with yellow Calceolarias, Pelar¬ 
goniums of different colours, and other flowering plants, 
the whole edged with golden Pyre thrums. Something 
like a pattern is secured, and the necessary contrast 
obtained by the judicious use of dark-leaved Perilla 
anda scarlet-flowered white variegated Pelargonium, and 
on this success depends, for if planted unskilfully mixed 
beds are very shabby affairs. The entrance to the 
flower garden has some perfect Arbor vitse’s, 30 ft. in 
height, and the wall at the side is covered with a rich 
collection of trailers—Roses, Jasmines, &c., and a 
phenomenal Wistaria sinensis, with stout, straight 
branches running nearly 200 ft., and forming a grand 
sight with its long sprays of blue flowers. 
The Pinetum. 
This is always a delightful retreat, the different tints 
and forms of its occupants and their pleasant odour 
being grateful at all times. That at Nonsuch Park 
has been planted a long time ; the air of newness has 
passed off, and the rare specimens are of all the greater 
interest, that time has allowed them to assume their dis¬ 
tinctive habits, and thus the resemblance which many 
of the Pines bear to each other in their young stage has 
vanished, and their present dissimilarity is such as to 
cause one to wonder how one could be confounded with 
the other. Many of the things which we are accustomed 
to see planted in little specimens as rare trees in newer 
gardens, are here from 30 ft. to 50 ft. in height, the 
varieties of Pinus being especially handsome. One 
specimen of P. excelsa is literally laden with purple 
cones, and P. Lambertiana, P. cembra, P. Massoni and 
others, are of noble proportions ; Picea pinsapo, P. 
nobilis and P. Nordmanniana are superb, and Abies 
cephalonica and A. Douglasii from 50 ft. to 80 ft. in 
height. At the edge of the Pinetum, too, the weeping 
Beech and cut-leaved Birch are very effective. 
From the terrace in front of the Pinetum, on which 
stands some very fine Irish Yews and a dozen large 
vases of flowering plants, a view over the Rose garden 
and pleasure grounds is obtained, away to the Rose- 
covered way leading to the flower garden and mansion. 
From this point a view is obtained, in which comes in 
some very fine trees, such as Magnolia grandiflora, 
with a perfectly round head some 25 ft. across, some 
giant Yews and Chestnut trees, and a noble Cedar of 
Lebanon. Away to the left is a delightful dell, planted 
ages ago with Yews, Chestnuts, Walnut and other 
trees, and more recently with Mock Orange and other 
flowering shrubs. In this delightful part of the garden 
stands an immense Oriental Plane, branched to the 
ground, and measuring over 100 ft. across, which must 
certainly be one of the first of its kind ever planted in 
England. 
The Glass Department. 
The garden under glass consists of a good range, the 
whole of which is heated by one of the Thames Bank 
Iron Company’s upright tubulars, fitted with one of 
their improved flue-caps, which is a great improvement. 
Heat enough and to spare is thus secured in a satisfac¬ 
tory manner. The large span-roofed greenhouse con¬ 
tains the specimen Azaleas in grand order and of ele¬ 
phantine proportions, one fine old white being 8 ft. in 
height and 7 ft. 6 in. across, and many others nearly as 
large, and Rhododendron Gibsoni matches well with 
them. The house is enlivened with Coleus, Begonia 
Weltoniensis, and Fuchsia Rose of Castile, which, if 
one of our oldest light Fuchsias, is one of the best 
either for in or outdoors and for vases and beds outside, 
in summer especially. The next house has the pyramid 
specimen Fuchsias, about 6 ft. high, and laden with 
bloom, the most elegant single red being Charmer. 
Pelargoniums, Begonias, and other plants also occupy 
this house ; an immense specimen of the fragrant white 
Jasminum gracillimum, which is noteworthy on account 
of the special treatment which Mr. T. Sillence, the 
gardener, gives it, whereby he grows it to that perfec¬ 
tion, which he seems to attain with all things which 
he takes in hand. It is complained of by many that 
this section of Jasmine often grow too much, and to 
counteract this tendency, which he had noticed in J. 
gracillinum, Mr. Sillence grows it well in the stove 
during winter and until the beginning of May, when it 
is placed with the Fuchsias in a cool house, where it 
blooms profusely and continually until early winter, 
when it is returned to the stove. 
In the first stove house Allamanda Hendersoni has 
been blooming profusely on the roof ever since May, and 
the carmine Dipladenia Brearleyana is equally lovely ; 
the specimens of Crotons, Acalypha Macafeeana and 
other foliage plants, were very clean and perfect; the Gar¬ 
denias well set with buds, and the Tabernsemontana 
Camassia, which might be called the mock Gardenia, 
was covered with double white flowers. In this house 
too, a lovely covering is made for the grotto and wall 
at the back by the fine violet, green and silver foliage 
of the rapid!}’- climbing Cissus discolor; the mauve 
sprays of Bougainvillea, the feathery fronds of Nephro- 
lepis and other Ferns, and the variegated foliages of 
Dieffenbachias and Tradescantias. The next stove has 
many fine Orchids, although the collection has been 
given up some years back ; among them Dendrobium 
chrysanthum, with growths over 4 ft. in length, is in 
bud, and Lafiia crispa, Ccelogyne speciosa and some 
others are in bloom. Also in bloom are fine specimens 
of Hedychium c-oronarium, a lovely and fragrant old 
plant, the orange - scarlet Rondeletia speciosa, the 
brilliant scarlet Hibiscus rosa sinensis, Stephanotis 
grandiflora, and on the end of the house a perfect 
avalanche of the fragrant white Jasminum grandiflorum, 
which is almost perpetual blooming ; the specimen 
Eueharis too are in grand order, and the scarlet An- 
thurium Scherzerianum very showy. 
The Frame Ground. 
In the frame ground, which is enclosed by a neatly 
clipped Yew hedge 8 ft. high, are the forcing houses in 
which Mr. Sillence has been very successful with 
Melons, getting two crops off each. In the one, the 
first crop came in on the 20th of May, and the second 
in the first week in July ; and the house is again 
planted while the second crop in the next house is yet 
on. On a shelf in the same house a very large and 
healthy lot of Calanthes are grown, and beneath 
Maidenhair Ferns. In the cold frames are a large 
young stock of Poinsettias, and outside are Pelargoniums 
for winter blooming, and in bloom some specimens of 
single and double white Brugmansia. The kitchen 
garden which contains the Yineries is of the old- 
fashioned kind and well cropped, all the available 
space which can be spared being devoted to hardy 
herbaceous perennials for supplying cut flowers, Yiolets 
for forcing, &c. The borders along the walks, generally, 
are planted with such things, and a great profusion 
and variety of flowers is thus obtained from early 
spring until winter. The Phloxes, Pentstemons, and 
other hardy florists’ flowers are just now very gay, and 
so also are the large masses of yellow Harpalium 
rigidum, Rudbec-kia Newmanni; the different va¬ 
rieties of perennial Sunflower, and the silvery clouds 
of the pretty Gypsophila paniculata ; admirable both 
on account of their own beauty, and from their dis¬ 
similarity from the numerous other pretty things which 
abound in this pleasant garden. 
-- 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE 
CHRYSANTHEMUM. —XIII. 
Continuing my remarks upon insects, one of the 
worst pests is the green fly, but, with very little trouble, 
the plants can be kept free from it. During the winter 
months the houses or frames should occasionally receive 
a smoking out with tobacco rag, this will soon destroy 
what insects there may be on the plants. After the 
plants are stood out-doors, and during the whole of the 
time they are out-doors, they should be gone over 
frequently to see that they are perfectly clean. If any 
signs of green fly appear, the plants should he dusted 
with tobacco powder while the dew is on the leaves ; 
this will effectually destroy the insects. The fly will be 
found on the young leaves at tl;e end of each shoot, but 
when the plants are badly infested (although no grower 
should allow his plants to become so), they will be found 
also on the underside of the leaves. The powder can 
be put on the plants by taking a pinch between the 
finger and thumb, or a better plan is to procure a 
powder distributor, which can be had very cheap, and 
when once filled is always handy to give a plant a puff 
when required. 
Another insect that sometimes infests the plants is 
the cuckoo spittle. This will generally be found on the 
plants early in the season, and can be distinguished by 
a white frothy substance appearing at the axils, and 
also on the undersides of the leaves. The best remedy 
is to remove and destroy them as soon as they make 
their appearance ; a little perseverance in this wav will 
keep the plants perfectly clean. 
Another insect that does great mischief to the foliage 
of the plants is a small maggot. When a plant is at¬ 
tacked, the foliage will become marked or “veined” 
with brown or dark marks. As soon as a leaf is seen to 
be so affected it should be at once looked at, and there 
will be observed a small maggot working about in the 
leaf, and upon slight pressure with the thumb and 
finger, this maggot can be destroyed. If not looked 
carefully after at first appearance, the whole plant will 
soon present an unsightly appearance, and the foliage 
be destroyed, and this is a serious matter where the 
plants are intended to be exhibited as specimens. 
The plants should be frequently gone over during 
then- whole season of growth to keep them perfectly free 
from all kinds of insects, as the cleaner they are kept 
the better they thrive. 
