286 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Arrrn, 1899. 
Popular Botany. 
OUR BOTANIC GARDENS. 
No, 9. 
By PHILIP MAC MAHON, 
Curator. 
THE illustration which forms the frontispiece to this number of the Journal 
is taken from a point which, if you have the plan published with the first of 
this series, you will find in the square marked F. 4, You may reach it by 
entering at the George-street gate, and keeping along the main walk until 
you come to a point where two walks diverge, each sloping downwards to a 
hollow along which there ran, apparently, in former days a creek or water- 
course. From this point may be commanded a view of much interest, and 
many plants of botanical, horticultural, or economic value come immediately 
under notice. To the left of the walk which leads straight down, and along 
which the three young ladies are advancing, will be seen a trellis of roses of 
climbing varieties. Ten years ago these were old, exhausted, and almost 
flowerless, and the only thing which seemed possible with them was to grub 
them out; but it was decided to give themachance. ‘They were carefully root- 
pruned, all useless roots being cut back as far as possible; all dead wood was 
removed ; the branches which remained were spread out on a trellis; the 
stronger shoots of the tea roses were encouraged to ramble at will; and 
insecticides were applied, each stem being washed with an emulsion of soap 
and kerosene diluted in the proportions often published in the Journal. The 
result was that the plants acquired a new lease of life, and many a bushel of 
roses they have yielded since then. 
There is one rose on this trellis of which particular mention may be made. 
Its name is Lamarque. The flower is pure white, and therefore in continual 
request for social functions. Most of its class will not take kindly to the- 
pruning-knife, but Lamarque is different. You remember seeing in gardens, 
especially in the old country, apple and pear trees trained on trellises and 
“spurred’’—that is, briefly, the side shoots cut back close to the main 
branches within 2 or 3 inches. Treated in this way, Lamarque produces 
immense numbers of fine flowers, and a well-grown plant on a trellis presents 
a beautiful appearance. Some native shrubs, such as Randia Hitzalani, which 
are almost always infested with scale, were growing in this border, but have 
now been removed, and there are, consequently, gaps caused by this and the 
recent removal of sundry older roses. These gaps will, at the earliest suitable 
time, be filled up, and the older roses replaced by others. 
It is always difficult to deal with an old garden so as to obtain harmonious 
and artistic effect. It is much easier to lay out a new one. Great care and 
gradual thinning out and replanting, however, will work wonders in the course 
of a few years. The great thing is to fix definitely what you want, and 
gradually. work up to it, and, before you plant a tree or shrub or climber, to 
have a definite idea of the size, form, colour of foliage and flower, &c., which 
it will present in the course of some years, and how these will contrast with 
their immediate surroundings and even with the remote background. 
From where we stand, looking along the straight walk just referred to, but 
slightly to the left, we note against the skyline a large Sugar Palm (Arenga 
saccharifera). A great old warrior this: stricken in years, his end is not far 
off. A fine self-sown staghorn fern grows upon his stem, and the spaces formed 
by the bases of the long since dead leaves are filled with ferns of several species, 
buta fine bunch of flower-buds hangs from the old Paim. When these open into 
