June 24, 1899. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
68X 
Watering is best done towards evening, because it 
gets time to moisten the soil well; the plants do not 
then evaporate so much, and they get time to gorge 
their tissues before the heat of next day. 
Roses for Exhibition.— P .: There is little you 
can do for the production of good Rose blooms, 
saving that such work as keeping greenflies, &c., at 
bay, watering with liquid manure, or probably, if 
you think mulching would be wise, then give the 
roots a top dressing. Thinning out the too crowded 
shoots, and thinning the buds to one that is strong 
and well formed, together with light shades when the 
blooms expand will sum up your work. 
Slugs.— J. Mercer, St. Albans : The time honoured 
means for preventing the ingress and havoc of these 
slimy creatures, sent to us for a good purpose 
(though good is more often undone by their miserable 
marauding), is that of sprinkling lime and soot about 
in those parts expected to be their avenues for 
transit. Custom has proved the reliability of the 
practice, and custom is hard to kill. Greased 
Cabbage blades or melted cheese smeared over the 
blades is one of the best traps ever used. Hand 
picking is the next safe way. Cleanliness and good 
culture will help you along. 
POLYSTICHUM ANGULARE DIVISILO- 
BUM PLUMOSUM. 
Of the thousands of visitors who passed through the 
tents during the three days of the Temple Show, 
probably only a very small percentage noticed the 
above Fern, and fewer still would have recognised 
that it was anything more than an ordinary Fern. 
Not so the connoisseurs and Fern lovers, who could 
see in it something very unique. The ramification 
of the frond compared with that of the wild original 
is something extraordinary. There are first the 
pinnae or primary divisions, then the pinnules or 
secondary ones, to be followed by three or four more 
ramifications into segments, so that the frond is de¬ 
compound in the highest degree, being from four to 
six times divided. The ultimate divisions are 
linear and slender, and these after they have first 
been formed commence to grow again by innovation, 
as if the plant knew not when to leave off growing. 
An expert pteridologist thinks it a case of apospory, 
as the fronds appear to be always barren, and to 
develop in a vegetative way to an extent seen, per¬ 
haps, is no other class of plants than Ferns. 
Messrs. W. and J. Birkenhead, Sale, Manchester, 
. who were the raisers of this magnificent variety are 
to be congratulated upon their success in raising 
such a remarkable Fern. The accompanying illus¬ 
tration, prepared from a photograph supplied by 
them, shows the variety in its present stage of de¬ 
velopment, whatever it may come to ultimately. 
Even photography, however, has been unable 
adequately to show the great number and exceed¬ 
ing fineness of the divisions. 
THE HOLME, REGENT S PARK. 
The Grounds. 
Very few who pass the unostentatious gates which 
usher one to the private policies of Campbell New¬ 
ington, Esq., of the Holme, Regent’s Park, London ; 
a gentleman who also owns estates in Yorkshire and 
Sussex, would imagine how much of comfort and 
beauty lies within the enclosures. 
Certainly from the roadway, skirting the south 
side there is simply no clue, and yet from this 
latter, only a dozen yards or so and we are in the 
quiet of lawns, shrubby dells, conservatories, and 
arbours. Before mention is made of what we saw in 
the plant houses, let us take a turn around the 
grounds. There are close upon three acres altogether 
so that Mr.Newington and his household have ample 
room for their summer entertainments and parties. 
But if we had not been told we should have thought 
that many more acres were included under “ The 
Holme,” for the ornamental water of Regent's Park, 
with also some of its most beautiful groups of trees, 
vistas and broad meadows, merge and flow away 
from the north, east, and west sides of Mr. Newing¬ 
ton’s residence. 
Bounding a walk to the north front of the house, 
and at the outer reaches of the lawns around the 
same, we find great white swans and the German 
Irises together in the water, a broad curving belt 
banked up on the opposite side by a fine tree-clothed 
bank and leading our eyes in the eastern points to 
the handsome Baptist College; while otherwise all 
around are graceful and beautiful spaces. The 
Holme is even an improvement upon the surround¬ 
ing environs, for the groups of flowering and ever¬ 
green shrubs are extremely well planned and 
grouped. Guelder Roses and Lilacs, Laburnums and 
Weeping Willows, Weigelias, Cytisus, flowering 
Thorns, Rhododendrons and flowering Currants 
(Ribes) were freely arranged. In a part named 
"The Dell” the sight of thousands of Blue-bells 
quite surprised the writer ; there they were, one 
great blue wave painted all over a rising mound and 
fitting it like a cap, the strings of which were found 
in the scattered lines of the lower grounds. Bamboos 
and big clumps of Ivy, yards and yards of the 
common Bracken and the rising groups of Solomon’s 
seal and the beds of Catchflies made such a delightful 
medley that in imagination we still are wandering 
there. Roses do not thrive out of doors, so of course 
these are not so much employed. Rhododendrons 
Melon house must surely be a record one for having 
the greatest number of plants in the smallest space 
and all doing so well. Of Melons, only two varieties 
are cultivated, Taunton Yellow and Sutton’s Per¬ 
fection. In the vinery we saw rods of between 15 ft. 
and 20 ft. long, bearing each a score of bunches. 
These Vines have only some 2 ft. depth and 3 ft. 
width of inside border, and with these facts before 
one—well, just nod your bead. It takes ninety 
gallons of water weekly for their support, and the 
top dressings of artificial manures were very evident* 
And we can quite unreservedly say that the rods, the 
fruit bunches, and the foliage were as good as any 
man could wish them to be. The varieties were 
Black Hamburgh and Madresfield Court. We next 
had three very fine varieties of zonal Pelargoniums 
pointed out. They are hybrids of Messrs. Cannell, 
of Swanley, named Mdme. J. Chretien, having a rosy 
edge and a white disc, lovely for tracing over a 
dinner-table; Amy Amphlett, a very large, pure 
white variety ; and M. Bruant, a splendid scarlet. 
Strawberries were in fair abundance. Sir Charles 
POLYSTICHUM ANGULARE DIVISILOBUM PLUMOSUM. 
are largely to be found, however, and they gave 
promise of a rich display. 
Mr. Abbott, the gardener, told us that during the 
summer parties he places pot Liliums among the 
Rhododendrons of the front rows. The various 
forms of Vitis or Ampelopsis are used on the brick 
foundation walls of nearly all the plant houses, 
around the walls and pillars of the summer-arbours 
and “ The Temple.” This latter is a fine architec¬ 
tural adornment. There is also a splendid croquet 
or tennis lawn. 
Regarding the number of plants used for bedding 
I learned that as many as 10,000 are employed one 
way and another, and the yearly supply of bulbs is 
of an equal number. 
But we must pass on to the plant houses, for 
though there is a nice little kitchen garden very 
clean and neatly stacked, yet the supply of vegetables 
is not relied upon from this town garden. 
The Plant Houses. 
The general show in all the houses made the fact 
plain that the gardener knows his work and does not 
stint his time and powers to attain and uphold the 
high-class stock of plants under his care. The 
Napier, strange to say, and, of course, Roy 
Sovereign, are the favourite varieties. Here al 
were staged a numerous batch of Calanthe Veitch 
growing splendidly in rather a peaty compos 
Gloire de Dijon Rose, from which as many as 31 
blooms were taken in February, half filled one sit 
of a long span-house; and for healthy and vei 
strong Liliums let us mention those at The Holm 
Tomatos in pots were in fair proportion. Hackwoc 
Park is the main stay for a crop. On our way to tl 
Orchid house we had a peep in at a fine Mushrooi 
house properly made and well heated. 
The Orchids suffer a disadvantage in having t 
neighbour with huge Bananas, &c., the house nc 
being at all large. There is a talk, however, of di: 
carding the larger-growing plants, and of aevotiD 
the space entirely to Orchids. 
The Bananas, despite their restricted condition: 
had produced very handsome bunches of fruits thi 
year. Of the Orchids we noted Lycaste aromatica 
Dendrobium moschatum, D. nobile, and others 
with Cypripediums, Cymbidiums, Saccolobiums 
and the beautiful Chysis bractescens, Glorios; 
superba was flowering very low down; here alsc 
