379 
February 10, 1900 THE GARDENING WORLD. 
d'Or and W. A. Richardson from the Noisettes, 
besides Turner’s Crimson Rambler, the Multiflora 
Duplex, the Ayrshires and Evergreen Roses, of which 
latter section Felicite Perpetue was given as the 
finest variety—these and others were mentioned as 
really trustworthy. 
November was given as the best month to plant- 
though where circumstances forced one to hold over 
to a late date, say March or April, plants from pots 
ought to be chosen for the purpose. A concluding 
eulogy to the merits of Penzance Sweet Briers for 
hedges and for beds brought Mr. Gordon’s address 
to a finish. 
-— 
THE GORSE DEBATE. 
Of course I accept the statement of " C. B. G.," 
confirmed by Mr. Wright, that the Furze on Buckle- 
bury Com mon in the third week in November was a 
blaze of bloom. It is very extraordinary, but facts are 
stubborn things, and all the text books are wrong. 
I should like to hear later on from Mr. Wright 
whether this state of bloom continues, for I should 
imagine that it must have a close time. 
As to fogs, that point has been answered by 
" Qno.,” who points out that the elevated plateau, ex¬ 
tending from High Beach to Epping is quite above 
their region, and enjoys an unusual amount of sun¬ 
shine. 
Here there are hundreds of acres of Gorse and 
occasionally even now rather stunted plants may be 
found covered with buds ; but the great mass of 
luxuriant bushes, from 6 ft. to 8 ft. high, are quite 
devoid of flowers. 
Last August, in Ireland, I passed through many 
miles of Furze, and in no case could see a single 
bloom ; but at Killiney, in Dublin Bay, saw a mag¬ 
nificent bush growing on the top of a loose wall 
completely covered with flowers.— Sigma. 
To those whom it may concern there are still 
some authorities that might be quoted as showing the 
diversity of opinion that has always prevailed upon 
the subject of the flowering of the Furze or Gorse. 
G. C. Druce, in "The Flora of Berkshire,” says 
that the Furze blooms from January to April, and 
sometimes in the autumn ; while the Dwarf Furze 
flowers from July to October, and sparingly in the 
spring. F. J. Hanbury, in the “ Flora of Kent,” 
says that the Furze blooms from February to May, 
and again in the autumn; and that the Dwarf 
Furze blooms from July to October. W. Withering, 
in “ British Plants,” says the flowering period of the 
Furze is May, and occasionally at all seasons ; the 
Dwarf F'urze, he says, blooms in autumn. C. C. 
Babington says February to June is the flowering 
period of the Furze, and August to September that 
of the Dwarf F'urze. Sir J. D. Hooker says 
February and March, and August and September for 
the Furze, and July to November for the Dwarf 
Furze.— Quo. 
Surely a’ this collieshangie aboot the Furze and 
Gorse is michty muckle adae aboot naething. Cud 
the Furze flooer aneath ane to forty feet o’ snaw ? 
Ony wye, it’s gey cauld here awa the noo; ao’ it 
wud be forgettin’ itsel gin it were to flooer amon’ 
snaw. Gin ye were to speer at me whan it flooers I 
wud say it blaws whan it can, an’ that wudna be i’ 
the noo. It’s fell cauld hereawa, ye may jalouse, 
whan the hulls wear thir Furze a’ the year roon. 
Na, na ; snawba’s are mair in fashion than yallow 
flooers o’ ony kin’ ; an’ gin ye dinna tak’ my word 
for’t, come an’ see for yersel.— Geordie Tam. 
TIMELY HINTS. 
Continue to pot up or box bedding Pelargoniums, 
placing them in a closed frame with a temperature 
about 50°. Topdress or replace in basket Phalae- 
nopsis, and repot other Orchids. Pot also Carex 
brunnea variegata, Panicum, Isolepsis gracilis. Pot 
up any old zonal Pelargoniums which are to be 
grown on for summer flowering. Stake and tieMal- 
maison Carnations. Take cuttings of soft-wooded 
bedding plants, such as dwarf Lobelias, Ageratum, 
Mesembryanthemum, &c. Clean and re-arrange 
stove plants, especially where potting is well 
advanced. Sow Cabbage, Lettuce, Cauliflower, 
Sprouts, Leeks, Onions, and Spinach. So soon as 
the Melons germinate place them near the glass, 
but free from any draughts. 
Paint and wash the rods in late vineries with Gis- 
hurst Compound solution in the first instance, and a 
paint like mixture of clay, soot, lime, cow dung, and 
sulphur, working it well into the cracks and hollows. 
Go over Vines in the early house with soft brush 
and bottle of methylated spirits, placing just a drop 
on any mealy bugs which may be found. Set the 
blooms in the early Peach house. Noblesse is very 
shy, so that pollen should be taken from another and 
more vigorous variety, such as Early Rivers. 
Fumigation may be advisable in the early Peach 
house, no harm accruing from XL All vapouriser, 
even though the trees are in full bloom. Figs just 
breaking should be watered and constantly syringed. 
Strawberries should be kept clean. Ten fruits per 
plant is quite enough to leave.— Recorder. 
PUBLIC PARKS AND GARDENS.* 
London is, happily, not entirely covered with 
houses, as a glance at its map will show some green 
spots. Before going the round of the parks, to note 
in detail their present condition and possibilities, we 
will take a general survey. No capital in the world 
can surpass London in the number and extent of the 
parks and gardens situated within its confines. Other 
cities may be able to show more beautiful 
gardens; and if Epping Forest be excluded more 
extensive parks ; but they are generally to be found 
on the outskirts of the towns. The parks and 
gardens in the interior of fo-eign capitals are few in 
number, and small in extent when compared with 
those in London. The three famous parks of Paris, 
the Bois de Boulogne, the Buttes de Chaumont, and 
the Bois de Vincennes, are on the borders of the 
city, as are also the Theirgarten and the Victoria 
Park at Berlin, and the Prater at Vienna. The 
Central Park of New York can hardly yet justify its 
name. The citizens of other large towns of America 
have all to journey long distances before they can 
reach large parks. In Paris the gardens of the 
Tuileries, of the Parc Monceau, of the Luxemburg 
Palace, and of the Champs Elysees are within the 
city. Boston has a common, and Chicago has two 
fine parks in their centres, but there is no other 
town on either side of the ocean which can show 
such a list of public open spaces entirely sur¬ 
rounded with houses, and over ten acres in extent, 
equal in number and in size to that of the following 
parks and gardens situated within our own 
metropolis:— 
Battersea Park 
Blackheath .. 
Bishop’s Park 
Clapbam Common 
Clissold Park 
Deptford ,, 
Dulwich ,, 
Finsbury ,, 
Greenwich,, 
Green „ 
Hackney Downs 
Highbury Park 
Hilly Fields .. 
Hyde Park .. 
Kennington Park 
Kensington Gardens 
Those in the following list are partly surrounded 
by houses :— 
Acres. 
Acton Green .. 12 
,, Recreation G’d. 25 
Back Common .. 12 
Barnes ,, .. 100 
Bostal H’th & Woods 111 
Brockwell Park .. 78 
Bushey ,, .. 994 
Ealing Com. & Green 50 
,, Lammas Lands 24 
Eel Brook Common 14 
Epping Forest ..5,348 
Acres. 
Acres. 
198 
London Fields 
26 
267 
Meath Gardens .. 
11 
17 
Myatt’s „ 
14 
220 
Paddington Recreation 
53 
Ground 
25 
12 
Peckham Rye & Park 113 
72 
Ravenscourt Park.. 
34 
115 
Regent's „ .. 
473 
185 
South Hackney Com. 
20 
54 
Southwark Park .. 
63 
41 
St. James’s ,, 
93 
27 
Thames Embank¬ 
43 
ment Gardens .. 
14 
361 
Victoria Park 
244 
*9 
Waterlow. 
30 
; 275 
Acres. 
Ladywell Recreation 
Ground .. .. 47 
Maryon Park 
North Mill Field .. 
Petersham Park .. 
Plumstead Common 
Richmond Green .. 
,, Park 
Hackney Marshes 345 
Hampstead Heath 505 
Hampton Court Park 752 
Highgate Woods .. 70 
Kew Gardens .. 246 
,, Green .. .. n 
Kilburn Park .. 30 
12 
23 
hi 
100 
10 
2,358 
10 
26 
66 
17 
Royal Victoria Gdns. 
South Mill Field .. 
Streatham Common 
Sydenham Rec. Grd. 
Tooting Beck and 
Graveney Common 207 
Wandsworth Com. 183 
West Ham Park .. 80 
Wimbledon Com. 1,412 
Wormwood Scrubs 193 
(Approximately 17,000 acres. 
Several others might be named which, if not 
already, will soon be added to the above list. 
Some critics have held that a gatden and not a 
park is the place for flowers; that the attraction of 
a park should consist only of leafy glades, soft turf, 
*Read b7 Mr. W. B. Gingell, superintendent of Ravenscourt 
Park, at a meeting of the Ealing and District Gardeners’ 
Society, January 2nd, 1900. 
and fine timber, and should depend altogether on the 
beauty of its landscape scenery. This may, in the 
abstract, be true, but, on the other hand, it must be 
remembered that brilliant and artistic displays of 
many coloured bloom and foliage plants may not 
form part of the park scenery, yet they are a power¬ 
ful inducement to the people to spend their Sunday 
evenings and holidays in the park rather than the 
public-house. Each year this feeling is growing 
stronger, and I am sure that any attempt to reduce 
the flower display would provoke discontent. Th-n 
again, the finest scenery, when it has become familiar 
to the eye, no longer excites admiration of the un¬ 
educated, and would therefore, after a time, fail in 
attracting to the parks those very people for whose 
especial benefit they were intended. 
One thing is quite clear, that whatever is attempted 
in the way of gardening in our parks should both as 
regards the laying out of the beds and the arrange¬ 
ment of the flowers be as complete and perfect as 
possible. To design the patterns of 200 beds in 
Hyde Park is a most difficult task for any man, 
especially as they are in such close proximity to each 
other. The remedy here is to dispense with a large 
number of the beds. Attempts have been made to 
compare the cost of maintenance between the parks 
and gardens of London and those of Paris, but such 
a comparison is quite fallacious. No one denies that 
the Bois de Boulonge has been well laid out, but 
what sum would it cost to do Hyde Park in the same 
way ? The fact is, as a rule very little money has 
been spent on the artificial lay out of our parks. In 
many cases a space is bought, and immediately 
thrown open to the public, and the improvements 
are done little by little. Compare our expenditure 
with France or America. The Central Park, New 
York, 300 acres, cost over £2, 000,000 in twelve years. 
The expenditure in the last year was /io8,ooo— 
nearly as much as the London County Council 
spends on the whole of its parks and open spaces, 
which are over 3,000, against 300 acres in the 
Central Park, New York. The French parks cost 
considerably more than ours. 
Some of the Royal Parks should be a good invest¬ 
ment for the Government. When Regent’s, Batter¬ 
sea, and Victoria Parks were laid out, the outer 
circle of land was reserved for building leases ; and 
as these are producing ground rents there is no 
excuse for niggardly economy. Many improve¬ 
ments might be made in Hyde Park, especially on 
the north side, to hide from the eye the untidy paper 
strewn Sahara in the centre. I know from experi¬ 
ence the difficulty of preventing the nuisance of 
waste paper blowing about, which is very trying to 
those in charge of public places; therefore I am 
not surprised that private owners of parks are 
rescinding the privilege of allowing the public to use 
their grounds, simply because the people will throw 
their waste papsr and other rubbish about, which 
has to be collected at the owners’ expense. 
Another great eyesore in many of the public parks 
is that people will make short cuts from point to 
point. The average Londoner has a decided objec¬ 
tion to walking on a path made for that purpose 
He prefers going on the edge of the turf, on either 
side of it, or striking out a new tract for himself. 
One does not see abuses of that sort on the 
Continent, as people there seem to respect public 
property ; therefore, the edges of their paths always 
look trim and neat. Our parks are not large enough, 
and are too much used, ever to be able to suggest to 
the minds of visitors the fiction of wilderness. It 
would be better to treat the grass on the outskirts of 
the park much in the same way as St. James’ Park 
has been dealt with, by fencing the spaces near the 
entrances, keeping the grass inside these inclosures 
neatly mown, and interspersed with raised shrub¬ 
beries and a few flower beds; to leave the larger 
portion of grass behind these enclosures for public 
use. By this means the untidy parts would be more 
concealed from the eyes of the pedestrians who 
follow the ordinary paths ; and by breaking up the 
park into portions, its apparent extent and the 
number of views and surprises offered to the visitor 
would be greatly increased. Of course, there is a 
difficulty if large spaces are required for games, but 
these should only be allowed in very large parks. 
Footballers and cricketers should not be allowed to 
spoil the turf, but avail themselves of the cheap 
locomotion to get further out into the suburbs, 
where there is more space and less chance of 
accidents. 
