July 25th, 1885. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
749 
SITES AND SOILS, AND THEIR 
SUITABLE TREES. 
Few districts in England offer within narrow limits 
more interesting and useful lessons on the sites and 
soils adapted to different kinds of trees than Sylva 
Evelyn’s own district, the Homedale of Surrey. From 
Mr. Cubitt’s residence, at Denbies, overlooking 
Dorking, or from the downs above Wotton, Evelyn’s 
residence, a great variety of soils, seen at the same 
time over a wide landscape, occasion a great variety 
of trees; while from the same chalk ridge, known 
as the backbone of Surrey, extending the whole 
distance from Dorking to Guildford, the same 
varied landscape with the same diversity of timber 
is seen. A skilful forester will not fail to notice 
the appropriateness of the planting in this 
district, and he may well suspect that this must 
in some degree be due to the influence of Evelyn 
himself. It will be remembered that the great planter 
lived just 200 years ago, and the forester looking 
around him in this delightful paradise of Surrey, 
known as the Homedale, will observe that many of 
the most notable specimens of the planter’s art, 
with several of the woods, and the salient features 
of some of the chief parks and gardens, are about 200 
years old. He will notice Norbury in the valley of 
the Mole, a beautiful park sloping down the hillside 
to the river below, and the history of the place will 
inform him, what the age of the trees would indicate, 
. that Evelyn himself directed the planting at Norbury. 
He had a hand, too, in the gardens at Albury, then 
belonging to the ducal Howards, now to the ducal 
Percies. The famous Yew tree hedge at Albury was 
all his own work ;. Wotton was his own property, and 
its noble woods of Beech, as might be guessed by their 
age, were created by his taste and judgment. 
Our native Beech woods are found on chalks and 
sands and hard soils in the south and west, as on the 
Chilterns of Bucks, and the oolite rubble of Oxford¬ 
shire and Blenheim, and in the valley of the Severn, 
but not on the slate rocks of Wales, or any other 
part of the Principality, except as an introduced tree. 
Along the Surrey backbone, in many a wood, and 
on the hard sand of Wotton—lower greensand, an 
outcrop from below the chalk—the Beech finds its 
place on its appropriate sites. Great Yew trees grow, 
too, on the chalk, and are scattered here and there on 
the better sand loams of the Homedale, Surrey being 
one of its native habitats, the site of some of the 
largest Yews in the country, as in the case of those 
grand old Yews of the “ Pilgrim’s Way ” on the 
Albury Downs. The Holly is another native tree 
growing abundantly in this district, both on the 
patches of tertiary sand that cover the chalk in many 
wild secluded spots where the indigenous wood or 
waste of Gorse and Heather has not been disturbed, 
or at Wotton, where Evelyn’s Hollies were enthusias¬ 
tically described by himself as forming an “ exquisite 
viretum.” 
Such lesser subjects as the native Cornel and 
Euonymus, Aspen, Travellers’ Joy, Butchers’ 
Broom, and Hazel, or imported Box, crowning Box 
Hill, or pyramidal Jupiter, frequent on sand and 
chalk, need not detain us. We desire to notice the 
more important timber trees which seem to present 
an unusual variety in this district, and to occupy 
generally the soils and sites best adapted for them. 
In the few remaining patches of primeval forest the 
Oak is always found even on the poor and proverbial 
Surrey sands, where it covers the ground in the form 
of scrub, proving that Nature’s list of timber trees 
at her disposal was far more limited than the 
profitable cultivation of the ground with this kind of 
crop required. She had probably the Scotch Fir, 
but that is a tree of very short duration, and all the 
lineal descendants of the original plantations of Fil¬ 
in the sand district appear to have become extinct, 
although the enduring Oak scrub remains, as well as 
several native shrubberies, both of White Thorn and 
Black Thorn, such as that near Newland’s Corner 
and another where Thorns are mixed with Hollies 
at Holm wood, near Dorking. But Nature, pure and 
simple, cannot long reign even over the most 
limited spaces, nor is her rule desirable, in proximity 
to the highly cultured properties of those fortunate 
wealthy gentlefolk who; having settled thick in 
Homedale in recent times, and who must all have 
been, as we maintain, more or less influenced in 
matters of taste and propriety in regard to planting 
and landscape gardening by the example of Mr. 
Evelyn. Mr. Gladstone remarked in the House of 
Commons on the general absence of a good 
“custom” in the management of woods, and spoke 
of the “ superstition ” of ignorance, which, unfor¬ 
tunately, is too prevalent. Some such custom, handed 
down through 200 years by the influence of the 
greatest English teacher of forestry, we claim for this 
part of Surrey. 
To confirm this contention, look at the Scotch Fir 
plantations clinging to the steep sides and brows of 
the sandhills, where no other tree would yield so much 
profit, or lend so much beauty to the landscape. Look 
at the old English Elm, an introduced tree constantly 
found in its favourite sites in the watered valleys, 
growing by the streamlets, feeders of the Mole and 
Wey, or near the villages, to a great size, with the Ash 
on a stiffer soil generally, both trees yielding timber 
much sought after by country wheelwrights and 
carpenters now as in past times. 
Are not the trees and shrubs at Deepdene—from 
the great Spanish Chestnuts on the richer loams to 
the modern Conifers and Rhododendrons near the 
house, planted respectively by the Howards and their 
successors, the Hopes—are not they appropriately 
placed ? 
Several Lime avenues of noble size might be named 
as growing on the same warm loam, especially when 
the roots are not very distant from water. But those 
who know the Homedale are aware that while its 
poorest lands will yield only the Birch, the better loams 
produce every kind of forest tree, giving to the neigh¬ 
bourhood exquisite variety both in the hues and the 
forms of the leaves. 
Other characteristic trees of this district consist of 
ponderous Oaks and occasional Walnuts, growing in a 
narrow belting beneath the chalk ridge. We spoke of 
the lower greensand and its timber, but between it 
and the chalk is a strip of strong soil formed by the 
outcrop of the upper greensand, and commingling with 
it is another and much poorer clay belonging to the 
cretaceous series, and known as the gault. These, 
too, have their appropriate timber trees—the Oak, 
Ash, and Walnut—both in planted woods and isolated 
specimens. In naming the Willows and Alders that 
affect the waterside, the latter supplying the charcoal 
of the Albury powder-mills, we shall have completed 
our list of the trees appropriate to the various soils of 
this well-known district, though no doubt many kinds 
have been omitted.— H. E., in Gardeners' Chronicle. 
SEQUOIA (WELLINGTONIA) 
GIGANTEA. 
To the Editor of this magazine (American Gardeners' 
Monthly ) one of the most interesting lessons learned 
in California was one which only one experienced in 
the culture of trees could learn; namely, that the 
Sequoia gigantea is by nature a swamp tree. The 
places where they grow now are comparatively dry; 
but two or three thousand years ago they followed the 
track of receding glaciers, and they received the melt¬ 
ing snows from the tops of mountains that have no 
summer snows now. The ground on which these 
mammoth trees stand, once very wet or even swampy, 
has become drier through the long ages. Horticul¬ 
turists know that swamp trees generally grow very 
well in ground that is comparatively dry, but seeds of 
such trees will not sprout in anything but the moist, 
oozy moss on the top of a swamp or damp ground. 
Hence, the only young trees we find in the mammoth 
tree locations, are where a chance seed happens to fall 
on a moist rock, or other damp situation. Young trees 
are common only in one location where clouds con¬ 
dense against a mountain side, and the whole situa¬ 
tion abounds with springs and oozy spots. Here in. 
the east hundreds of trees have been planted during 
the past quarter of a century, but rarely has one 
lived more than a few years. They do not mind the 
winters. We have known them stand 20 degs. below 
zero uninjured, but some fungus, favoured by a dry 
atmosphere, carries them off gradually during the 
summer season. 
Profiting by these facts, the writer brought three 
strong plants from California and set them in a 
swamp. Usually, when we set swamp trees in a 
swamp, they will not grow unless they are suffered 
to grow into the swamp themselves. We make a 
mound and plant them in the mound, from whence 
they root down as suits themselves. These three 
plants have had two winters and one summer; the 
past winter being a terribly severe one. To-day they 
look perfectly sound and flourishing, and the Editor 
believes that he has at last discovered how to 
make the great tree of California thrive in eastern 
gardens. 
ROCKWORK FOR GARDENS. 
Most people in designing and forming rockwork for 
gardens have their own notions on the subject, and 
as tastes differ, so do the different kinds of rockwork. 
Nothing may appear easier than the construction o f 
rockwork, but, as a matter of fact, there are few things 
in a garden that it is more difficult to carry out suc¬ 
cessfully. If the body of the rock is intended to be 
raised much above the ground level a quantity of soil 
and rubbish should be placed in the centre of the 
space. This soil, besides serving to support the rock- 
work, will also form a border for the plants to grow in. 
Lay in a store of large, rough stones, broken bricks, or 
stony rubbish of any kind or colour; proceed with 
these so as to imitate the form of natural rock as 
nearly as possible. Rough, bold, angular projections 
and deeply formed chasms are the principal features 
in natural scenery which please us most. A rock with 
a flat, unbroken surface, whether horizontal or per¬ 
pendicular, presents too much sameness to the eye; 
therefore, in imitating nature, the projections should 
be varied and bold, and, unless raggedness and 
intricacy form principal features in the composition 
of rockwork, it will lose much of jts effect. If on a 
large scale it should not be one continued line, but 
broken at intervals, in one part lost beneath the 
surface of the ground, then rising and resuming its 
varied forms. When this purely constructive part has 
been completed, the work is generally considered to 
have come to an end. So far as momentary effect 
goes this may be so, but when a really good and per¬ 
manent result is wished for the following additional 
measures are recommended :—- 
When the stone has been arranged to suit the eye, 
the interstices should be filled up with any kind of 
rough mortar. Of course, fissures intended for the 
plants which are to cover the rocks must be left open, 
so that the roots may reach the soil beneath the 
stones. Next, go over the whole mass with Roman 
cement, which must be mixed with water until it is of 
the consistence of thick paint. Apply it with a large 
painter’s brush. The spaces between the stones having 
been filled with rough mortar prevents the cement 
being wasted. The thickness of this on the stones 
need not be more than the eighth of an inch. It will 
unite the whole into one mass, and rockwork thus 
constructed is beyond all comparison better than that 
made in the usual way. It has none of the disjointed 
appearance which usually accompanies rockwork 
made without cement. After a few months’ exposure 
to the weather, rockwork made in this way, if the 
work has been skilfully done, cannot well be distin¬ 
guished from a natural mass. When the cement of 
itself is too light, a little colouring matter, such as 
lamp black or soot, may be incorporated with it. In 
erecting the rockwork, be careful that no absorbent 
material is used on the surface to which the cement 
has to be applied, otherwise it will peel off after frost 
In using the cement, moisten only a small quantity at 
a time, otherwise it will set before it can be applied to 
the work, which will, of course, render it useless.—■ 
— D. T. Y., in The Field. 
-— e_- - ' "n -O- jT- . __p — 
Tanners’ Refuse as Manure.—M. Baudinfils, of 
Bron, advocates the utilization for fertilizing purposes 
of the water which has been used in the rinsing of 
skins. He also recommends the preservation of the 
refuse products of tanning by means of layers of 
used tan. He further recommends the so-called 
animalized tan being treated with water in which 
bones have been dissolved by a special process. 
This admixture completes the manure. It is remarked 
that such a method of treating animal refuse is in 
strict accordance with fundamental principles of 
natural economy, as the earth thereby receives 
back elements which it has indirectly furnished 
through the medium of the plants on which the 
animals in question have been fed. 
