WAHLENBERGIA. 
602 
nearly all over with yellow brown and ash brown, 
and measure 84 lines in length and 63 in width. 
WAHLENBERGIA. A genus of ornamental, 
exotic, herbaceous plants, of the bellflower fa- 
mily. Two annual species, one erect perennial- 
rooted species, and one creeping evergreen spe- 
cies, all hardy and blooming in the latter part of 
summer and early part of autumn, have been in- 
troduced to Britain ; and they have either blue 
or whitish flowers, and are nearly allied to the 
true campanulas, and will generally thrive in any 
common garden soil. 
WAIF. A strayed animal or drifted piece of 
goods which, for want of the owner’s appearance 
after it has been cried and published in the 
neighbouring markets, is forfeited to the lord of 
the manor. The law of waifs, however, belonged 
properly to the old feudal system. 
WAIN. A large, rude, or ox-drawn variety of 
agricultural waggon. The wain of some districts 
is simply any large vehicle drawn by oxen; that 
of others differs from a waggon principally in 
wanting side-rails or ladders; and that of others 
differs from any coarse kind of waggon in little 
else than the name. See the article Waceon. 
WAKE-ROBIN. See Arvm. 
WALDSTEINIA. A handsome, hardy, yellow- 
flowered, perennial-rooted, annual-stemmed plant 
of the rosaceous family. Ithasa height of about 
6 inches, and blooms in June and July, and 
thrives best in a soil of loamy peat. It is a na- 
tive of Hungary, and was introduced to Britain 
about 45 years ago; and it constitutes a genus of 
itself, and is specifically called geovdes or avens- 
like. 
WALK. Anartificial footpath through a gar- 
den, pleasure-ground, or park. See the article 
LanpscapPe-Garpenina. A walk may be either 
straight, curved, or serpentine; and may be 
formed either of grass, or of gravel, sand, pow- 
dered brick, powdered coal, or any similar ma- 
terial. 
Grass walks were formerly held in great es- 
teem, and, during the prevalence of the Dutch 
taste, were regarded as necessary ornaments to 
gardens; but they eventually became unfashiona- 
ble, and have long been voted untidy, disagree- 
able, and vulgar. “These long narrow slips of 
grass,” it is said, “are far from being pleasing to 
the eye, and are for the greatest part of the year 
useless, being generally too damp for persons of 
tender constitutions to walk on; and wherever 
they are constantly used, they become bare in 
the places frequently trodden, and so are rendered 
more unsightly. And as the intention of walks 
in gardens is to have at all seasons a dry com- 
munication through them for exercise and re- 
creation, grass walks are very improper, because 
every shower of rain makes them so wet as not 
to be fit for use for a considerable time, and the 
dews render them too damp to walk on either in 
the morning or evening; and if they are not 
kept constantly close mowed, they become not 
WALK. 
only unhealthful but troublesome to the feet. 
Besides, whenever the ground is so dry that per- 
sons may with safety walk upon grass, the lawns 
and other parts of verdure in gardens are most 
suitable for the purpose.” Yet, in some situa- 
tions, particularly behind lengthened screens of 
trees, or in some portions of gardens which do 
not contain any lawn, grass walks form an agree- 
able variety and are highly desirable. The space 
intended for them should be digged and levelled ; 
the surface soil itself should be good, yet a thin 
layer of sand or of poor earth should be spread 
immediately below it, to prevent excessive luxu- 
riance; and the grasses sown should not com- | 
prise any annual, coarse, or wiry species, and may 
consist of Poa trivialis, Festuca ovina, Festuca du- 
riuscula, Cynosurus cristatus,—and, in shady si- 
tuations, of Poa nemoralis. 
Gravel is the best material for a firm or earthy 
walk ; but is exceedingly various'‘in quality, and 
may make either a prime walk or a very bad one 
according to itskind. Very good gravel is some- 
times found on the sea-shore; but the better 
sorts are generally obtained from inland pits; 
and the most celebrated in Britain occurs at Ken- 
sington and Blackheath, and is conveyed thence 
in considerable quantity to remote parts of the 
kingdom. The space for a gravel walk—as also for 
one of any similar material—should be excavated 
to the depth of about 20 inches; and the lower 
half of its depth should be filled with rock rub- 
bish, flint-stones, small boulders, or any similar 
substance, to prevent worm-casts and the growth 
of weeds, and the other half filled with successive 
assortments of the gravel, or with a mixture of it 
and loam, according to the degrees of its coarse- 
ness and cohesiveness. The common superficial 
convexity allowed for a gravel walk of five feet 
in breadth is an inch in the crown; so that if a 
walk or drive be twenty feet wide, it should be 
four inches higher in the middle than at the 
sides. When a gravel walk has been evenly laid, 
trodden down, and raked, it should be rolled 
well both in length and in width; and in order 
that it may be sufficiently firm, it should receive 
three or four water rollings, or rollings imme- 
diately after a heavy fall of rain, so that the gra- 
vel may bind, and become as hard as stone pave- 
ment. Jn summer, the walk must, from time to 
time, be hand-hoed and raked, to clear it from 
weeds and tufts of grass; and after every such 
operation, or even sometimes after a simple 
sweeping, it should be rolled with a hand roller. 
Sand walks are less expensive to make and 
keep than gravel ones; and sand walks which 
go through woods and plantations are much 
drier and wholesomer than gravel ones; and 
whenever they appear mossy or weedy, if they 
are scuffed over with a Dutch hoe in dry wea- 
ther, and raked smooth, they will appear as fresh 
and handsome as when first laid. The breadth 
of such walks and drives should be proportioned 
to the size of the ground; and in a large extent 
