UC-NRLF
7D Ihl
Sir 1
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
PRESENTED BY
PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID
GLEANINGS
FROM
FRENCH GARDENS:
COMPRISING AN
ACCOUNT OF SUCH FEATURES OF FRENCH HORTICULTURE AS
ARE MOST WORTHY OF ADOPTION IN BRITISH GARDENS.
BY W. ROBINSON, F.L.S.
tfy |tonier0tt8
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON :
FREDERICK WARNE AND CO.
BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
NEW YORK : SCRIBNER, WELFORD, AND CO.
1869.
93
PREFACE.
>ME of the matters treated of in this book have lately
been the subjects of much discussion in the Times as well
s in all the horticultural papers -, and to give the public a
fuller idea of them than could be gleaned from any or all of the
journals in which they were described or discussed, is my excuse for
writing a work which is so exceptional in its nature. I went
to France in January, 1867, wi*n a view to study the horticulture
of the country so far as possible, while continuing my connexion
with the horticultural press /and m the course of the season I noticed
in the Times, the Field, and the Gardener s Chronicle such of the
features of French gardening as seemed to me worthy of adoption
in this country. In the correspondence which resulted from this,
each journal discussed a single phase of the subject or approached it
from its own point of view 5 and the want of illustrations pre-
vented me from explaining in the most effective way several real
improvements in our gardens j thus it was difficult for the public
to get more than a vague notion of some of the matters of greatest
interest in French gardening. After the close of the discussion
in the horticultural journals, it occurred to me that a book, with
illustrations, would put the more important points in a clearer light ;
and the result is the publication of the present volume. The work
M3G3558
vi Preface.
is from its nature an imperfect one, and no less so for its object ;
but I had no thought of writing it till some time after I had
quitted Paris, and in fact I was engaged in preparations for an
entirely different work, when the animated discussions on " French
and English gardening," and allied matters, obliged me to devote
myself almost entirely to the defence of what I am convinced are
the true and practical lessons of the matter. No amount of in-
terest excited on the part of the public would have induced me to
publish, were it not that I am certain we may adopt some of the
ways of our neighbours with decided advantage.
A few words as to the comparative merits of French and English
horticulture. As regards the class of large private gardens, of which
we have such beautiful examples in many parts of this country,
there can be no comparison — there are few places in France which
equal ours. In the culture of stove and greenhouse plants, of the
vine in glass-houses, of orchids, some vegetables, and in the general
keep and finish of their large gardens, they are quite behind us, not
to mention many minor matters. The difference in the distribu-
tion of wealth in the two countries accounts for some of this in-
feriority j large gardens such as can only be supported by noblemen
and wealthy amateurs are far from being as plentiful as in this
country. Their nurseries, and especially their plant nurseries, are
proportionately smaller j and among them you may look in vain
for such splendid establishments in that way as we possess about
London and in the provinces. But when it comes to a supply
for their markets, and even for those of other countries, then I
am certain that they beat us ; and I have never anywhere seen
such perfect examples of cultivation and rapid rotation as in the
Paris market gardens — not large, but with every span of the soil
at work, and green with abundant crops at all seasons. In fruit
growing, they certainly lead 5 not always, as is commonly sup-
Preface. vii
posed, from advantages of climate, but frequently under adverse
circumstances. As for city-gardening, what has been done in Paris
of late years, on the most magnificent scale ever attempted, is beyond
all praise, and worthy of the best attention of all interested in town
improvement. Finally, the graceful way the French decorate their
apartments with plants, and develope beauty of vegetable form in
connexion with brilliant flowers, is well worthy our imitation.
However, as so many have during the past year seen their excellent
public gardens, and particularly that at Passy, their well-supplied
markets, and had a glimpse of their finished and careful fruit cul-
ture in the garden of the Exposition, I need hardly plead that we
may learn something from the French. France is the orchard of
Europe, and not only supplies us with enormous quantities of fruit,
much of which we might ourselves grow in the southern countiei
of England and Ireland, but she also sends us quantities of salads
in the winter and spring months, not grown in the mild and sunny
regions, but abundantly in the colder parts, where the climate is
quite as severe as our own j and if she only excelled in these two
points they would be worthy of the attention of the British culti-
vator.
The climate requires a little consideration. Some have held that
our "bad climate" would always prevent us from equalling the
French as fruit-growers : others contended that it produced the finest
fruits, the French being hard, gritty, sandy, &c. ; while not a few
have spoken of " the fine climate of France" as if it were some
happy region in which the fruit-cultivator had merely to plant his
trees and sit under them, nature doing the rest, and not a country the
cliffs of whose coast are as plainly seen from our own shores as if
they were those of one of our large estuaries. I am alluding to the
climate of Paris and Northern France. France has several distinct
climates ; that of Paris does not differ so much from London as
viii Preface.
London does from other parts of the British Isles, or even of Eng-
land. Practically we are under almost the same influences ; what
one succeeds with the other may attempt with confidence. The
Parisians get their finest peaches from within a few miles of the
city, where they must be grown upon walls as in England and
Ireland. Their finer winter pears they also grow upon sunny
walls, and they take more pains to protect the blossoms in spring
than we do. I well know that their climate is superior to
ours for the culture of the pear, but am convinced that the
difference in climate is not sufficient to account for our de-
ficiency with this fine fruit j that with well managed and protected
walls we can grow a supply of good winter pears for our own
markets ; and emphatically that as good and as cheap peaches may
be grown in many parts of England and Ireland as ever were pro-
duced at Montreuil. Of one thing we may rest assured, that what-
ever the climate may do, the French fruit-grower does some-
thing more for his fruit trees than the British one generally does.
The attention which is paid to equalizing the sap and keeping the
tree thoroughly under control, and the success attained, are some-
thing quite remarkable. While I write this there is not a good fruit-
garden in the neighbourhood of Paris but has its walls protected by
a wide temporary coping, while in numerous cases with us there
is no protection at all, or but a very imperfect one. This fact speaks
for itself.
As regards the difference in the climate of the southern parts of
England and the neighbourhood of Paris, considered with reference
to what is called " subtropical gardening," I can offer some
evidence. Last summer, I left Paris for six weeks from the
month of August, solely with a view to examine the state of " sub-
tropical gardening" in Britain and compare it with that around Paris.
I came direct from Paris to the London parks, and was surprised to
Preface. ix
find very little difference, all the more important fine-leaved plants
looking in splendid health, one bed of Cannas at Battersea being
nearly twelve feet high, the noble Wigandia in perfect vigour, and
the Cannas, Ferdinandas, Polymnias, &c., even in the exposed Hyde
Park and on the cold clay of the Regent's Park, quite healthy and
vigorous. I even found some of them in presentable condition so
far north as Archerfield, on the banks of the Firth of Forth. Con-
sidering how exceptionally bad was the past season, this proves that
the growth of tender plants with large and effective foliage in the
summer garden is by no means so impossible as is frequently sup-
posed. Indeed the culture of the many hardy and half-hardy plants
that may be used so advantageously to produce fine effects in the
flower-garden, from elegant dwarf Conifers to graceful Bamboos, is
much more easy in many parts of England than around Paris, where
many subjects perish in winter that we find no difficulty in grow-
ing. The fact is, an infinitely more beautiful garden, even from the
point of fine foliage, could be made in many mild spots near our
coasts than is possible around Paris with any expense.
It now remains for me to thank my French friends for kind
assistance rendered when in France and since leaving it, and among
them M. H. Vilmorin, M. Jules Posth, M. E. Andre, MM. New-
mann and Verlot, of the Jardin des Plantes, M. Ermens, of La
Muette, M. Rose Charmeaux, of Tbomery, M. Jamain, of Bourg
la Reine, M. Riviere, of the Luxembourg, M. Bergman, of
Ferrieres, Professor Du Breuil, M. Souchet, of Fontainebleau, and
many others. Some of the cuts are from the " Atlas des Fleurs
de Pleine Terre," of Vilmorin Andrieux and Co., some from
" Culture des Arbres et Arbrisseux & Fruits de Table," of Professor
Du Breuil, and a few are from the " Gardener's Chronicle." The
rest are from designs furnished by the author.
As before indicated, this book does not pretend to deal fully with
x Preface.
every feature of French horticulture, and where any reader, French
or English, may notice the omission of an interesting or instructive
point, the author will be much obliged by a communication on the
subject being addressed to him, care of the Publishers, Bedford-
street, Covent Garden, London, W.C.
W. ROBINSON.
LONDON, April, 1868.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGB
I. SUBTROPICAL GARDENING I
II. HARDY PLANTS FOR "SUBTROPICAL" GARDENING '. .3!
III. LE JARDIN FLEURISTE DE LA VILLE DE PARIS ... 64
IV. THE PUBLIC GARDENS AND PARKS OF PARIS .... 75
V. FLORAL DECORATION OF APARTMENTS IN PARIS . . . I JO
VI. THE IVY AND ITS USES IN PARISIAN GARDENS . . . I2O
VII. GLADIOLUS CULTURE ROSE-SHOWING 12^
VIII. THE CORDON SYSTEM OF TRAINING FRUIT TREES . . 136
IX. IMPROVED MODE OF GROWING THE PEAR AS AN ESPA-
LIER 15 j
X. PALMETTE VERRIER l6l
XI. PYRAMIDAL TRAINING 167
XII. COLUMNAR AND PENDULOUS TRAINING PEAR-GROW-
ING ON RAILWAY EMBANKMENTS SUGGESTIONS
TOWARDS IMPROVEMENT SHORT PINCHING AS AP-
PLIED TO THE PEACH PEACH CULTURE AT MON-
TREUIL I^S
XIII. PRESERVING GRAPES THROUGH WINTER AND SPRING
PRESERVING THE PEACH FIG CULTURE AND PRO-
TECTION 193
xii Contents.
CHAP. PAGE
XIV. A NEW AND CHEAP METHOD OF MAKING GARDEN
WALLS 208
XV. CULTURE OF THE ORANGE AND THE OLEANDER . . . 21 /
XVI. ASPARAGUS CULTURE IN FRANCE 224
XVII. SALAD CULTURE, ETC 237
XVIII. HORTICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, APPLIANCES, ETC. . . 2^O
A NEW LAWN PLANT 280
FRUIT PROSPECTS PROTECTION CORDONS, ETC 282
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGB
j. Frontispiece «> ii
2. Aralia papyrifera 7
3. Caladium esculentum 9
4. Canna nigricans 1 1
5. Ficus elastica 15
6. Polymnia grandis 17
7. Solanum Warscewiczii 21
8. „ robustum 22
9. Uhdea bipinnatifida 23
10. Wigandia macrophylla 25
1 1. Acanthus latifolius 33
12. Aralia Sieboldi 36
13. Bambusa aurea 39
14. Chamaerops excelsa 041
15. Gynerium argenteum 45
16. Melianthus major «, 48
17. Nicotiana macrophylla 50
18. Bambusa falcata ' « 54
19. Anemone japonica alba 56
20. End view of part of a new range at La Muette 67
21. Ground plan of glass covered passage at La Muette 69
22. Propagating-house at La Muette 72
23. System of propagating at La Muette 73
24. The simple cordon 138
25. The bilateral cordon • 139
26. Galville Blanche apple trained as a cordon 140
27. Border of cordons at Versailles 141
28. Section of preceding figure 142
xiv List of Illustrations.
FIG. PAGE
29. Reinette du Canada as an edging 143
30. The double oblique cordon for walls and espaliers H4
31. The double vertical cordon for walls and espaliers 146
32. Simple oblique cordon applied to the pear 150
33. The simple oblique cordon applied to the peach 153
34. M. Jamain's mode of training the peach 154
35. Trellis for pear growing 157
36. Double trellis for pear growing 159
37. The Palmette Verrier 162
*.
39" L Figures showing how to form the Palmette Verrier . . . 164, 165
40.
41. 1
42. Pyramidal pear tree . 168
43. Figures showing the way of forming a pyramidal pear tree . . .169
44. „ „ „ .... 170
45. „ „ „ .... 170
46. „ „ „ .... 171
47. „ „ „ .... 171
48. „ „ „ .... 172
49. „ „ „ .... 172
5°- » » » .... 173
51- » » » .... 174
S^* » >» »s .... 175
53. Fig. theoretically indicating the mode of forming a pyramidal pear
tree 176
54. Columnar training 1 79
55. Horizontal pear tree with bent branchlets 180
56. A self-supporting mode of training 182
57. The system of M. Grin 186
58. One effect of leaf pinching 187
59. The Lepere peach-tree « 189
60. Preserving grapes through winter and spring 195
61- ,, „ 195
List of Illustrations. xv
I'AGE
62. Fig culture and protection ............. 204
63- „ „ ............. 205
64- „ » ............. 205
65. „ „ ............. 206
66. „ „ ............. 206
67. „ „ ........ • .... 207
68. Coping for concrete wall .............. 216
69. „ .............. 216
70. Mode of forming plantation of asparagus ......... 229
71- » » » ......... 230
72. Cloches in position ........... • . . . . 239
73. Mushroom beds ................. 245
74. The Cloche ................... 250
75. Iron edging .................. 253
76. Section of hose for watering lawns, racecourses, &c ...... 255
77. Attaching wire to garden walls ............ 257
78. Trellis for fruit nurseries .............. 260
79. System of employing wire for cordons on walls ....... 261
80. Frame for protecting espalier trees ........... 262
81. Coping for walls ................ 264
82. Frame for making straw mats ............ 265
83. Narrow frames for forcing ............. 267
84. Chair for open air use ............... 269
85. Truck for carrying tubs, &c .............. 270
86. The numeroteur . . . .............. 271
87. The secateur .................. 274
88- » .................. 275
89- » .................. 275
90. Raidisseur ................... 276
91. Key of ditto ..... ............. 276
92. Raidisseur ................... 276
93- » ........... ....... 277
94- » ................... 277
95. Front view and section of improved fruit shelves ...... 278
GLEANINGS FROM FRENCH GARDENS.
CHAPTER I.
Subtropical Gardening.
I HE cultivation of plants distinguished by fine foliage or
nobility of aspect, or in other words, the introduction of
beauty of form to the flower garden, is a very desirable
improvement that has been making its way in this country for a
few years past. The system originated in Continental gardens, and
has been brought to the greatest degree of perfection in and around
Paris, where as well as in this country, the writer has had full
opportunities of becoming acquainted with its merits. An attempt
is accordingly here made to give an estimate of its value in relation
to our own wants. The most desirable plants and families of
plants which we can employ under this system are treated of
rather fully, and concise selections given with descriptive notes,
with a view of assisting every lover of a garden, no matter what his
means, or where his situation in these islands, to add to his garden
that which is so very rare in our " ornamental" ones — leauty of
form. But it has been objected that the plants used for "sub-
tropical gardening" are so tender and expensive that the system
must be impossible to the greater number of British gardens.
This is true of the sorts at present generally used, but why confine
ourselves to these? No effect ever given in these latitudes by
B
2 Subtropical Gardening.
costly " subtropicals" is superior to that which may be produced by
the use of hardy plants, combined with, where the climate admits,
such of the other class as are well known to be as cheaply raised,
and as free of growth as common " bedding stuff." Therefore, in-
stead of bringing in among the plants usually termed "subtropical"
the fine hardy kinds which will be found so useful in the same way,
a special chapter is devoted to them ; and in the case both of tender
and hardy plants, lists are furnished of such kinds as seed is procu-
rable of, and which may be propagated in that way — the cheapest,
of course. It is needless to say any more in explanation of the
system, Mr. Gibson, the able superintendent of Battersea Park,
having so well shown the public of what superb results it is capable
by that not very large but inexhaustible garden, which he has so
cunningly and tastefully cut off from the rest of the park, and to a
great extent from the force of the breeze — often more injurious to
the large-leaved plants than the cold. The term. " subtropical" is
not a very appropriate one, but we have here to deal only with
what the system has taught us, and in how far it is adoptable in
our gardens.
First, then, as to its teachings. It has taught us the value of
grace and verdure amid masses of low and brilliant and unrelieved
flowers, or rather reminded us of how far we have diverged from
Nature's ways of displaying the beauty of vegetation. Previous to
the inauguration of this movement in England, our love for rude
colour had led us to ignore the exquisite and inexhaustible way in
which plants are naturally arranged — fern, flower, grass, shrub, and
tree, sheltering, supporting, and relieving each other. We cannot
attempt to reproduce this literally, nor would it be wise or conve-
nient to do so j but assuredly herein will be found the source of true
beauty in the plant world, and the more the ornamental gardener
keeps the fact before his eyes, the nearer truth and success will be
attained. Nature in puris naturalibus is not a beauty to be added
to our gardens, but Nature's laws should not be violated, and but
few human beings have contravened them more than our flower
gardeners during the past twenty years. We must compose from
Subtropical Gardening. 3
Nature, as the best landscape artists do, not imitate her basely.
We may have all the shade, the relief, the grace, and the beauty,
and nearly all the irregularity of Nature seen in every blade of
grass, in every sea-wave, and in every human countenance ; and
which may be found too, in some way, in every garden that affords
us lasting pleasure either from its contents or design. Well, then,
subtropical gardening has taught us that one of the greatest mis-
takes ever made in the flower garden was the adoption of a few
varieties of plants for culture on a vast scale, to the exclusion of
interest and variety, and too often of beauty or taste. We have
seen how well the pointed, tapering leaves of the Canna carry the
eye upwards 5 how refreshing it is to "cool the eyes" in the deep
umbrage of those thoroughly tropical Castor-oil plants with their
gigantic leaves j how grand the Wigandia, with its wrought-iron
texture and massive outline, looks after we have surveyed brilliant
lines and richly painted leaves -, how greatly the sweeping palm-
leaves beautify the British flower garden 5 — and, in a word, the
system has shown us the difference between gardening that interests
and delights all the public, as well as the mere horticulturist, and
that which is too often offensive to the eye of taste, and pernicious
to every true interest of what Bacon calls the " Purest of Humane
pleasures."
But are we to adopt this system in its purity ? Certainly not.
All practical men see that to accommodate it to private gardens an
expense and a revolution of appliances would be necessary, which
are in nearly all cases quite impossible, and if possible, hardly desi-
rable. We can, however, introduce to our gardens much of its
better features ; we can vary their contents, and render them more
interesting by a cheaper and a nobler system. The use of all
plants without any particular and striking habit or foliage, or othei
distinct peculiarity, merely because they are " subtropical," should
be tabooed at once, as tending to make much work, and to return
— a lot of weeds j for " weediness" is all that I can write of many
Solanums and stove plants of no real merit which have been em-
ployed under the name subtropical. Selection of the most beauti-
B 2
f. Subtropical Gardening.
fill and useful from the great mass of plants known to science is
one of the most important of the horticulturist's duties, and in no
branch must he exercise it more thoroughly than in this one.
Some plants used in it are indispensable — the different kinds
of Ricinus, Cannas in great variety, Polymnia, Colocasia, Uhdea,
Wigandia, Ferdinanda, Palms, Yuccas, Dracaenas, and fine-leaved
plants of coriaceous texture generally. A few specimens of
these may be accommodated in many large gardens ; they will
embellish the houses in winter, and, transferred to the open garden
in summer, will lend interest to it when we are tired of the houses.
Some Palms, like Seaforthia, may be used with the best effect for
the winter decoration of the conservatory, and be stood out with an
equal result, and without danger in summer. The many fine kinds
of Dracaenas, Yuccas, Agaves, &c., which have been seen to some
perfection at our shows of late, are eminently adapted for standing
out in summer, and are in fact benefited by it. Among the noblest
ornaments of a good conservatory are the Norfolk Island and other
tender Araucarias — these may be placed out for the summer much
to their advantage, because the rains will thoroughly clean and
freshen them for winter storing. So with some Cycads and other
plants of distinct habit — the very things best fitted to add to the
present beauties of the flower garden. Thus we may enjoy all the
benefits of what is called subtropical gardening without creating
any special arrangements for them in all but the smallest gardens.
But what of those who have no conservatory, no hothouses, no
means for preserving large tender plants in winter ? They too may
enjoy in effect the beauty which may have charmed them in a sub-
tropical garden. We have no doubt whatever that in many places
as good an effect as any yet seen in an English garden from tender
plants, may be obtained by planting hardy ones only ! There is
the Pampas Grass — when well grown unsurpassed by anything that
requires protection. Let us in planting it take the trouble to plant
and place it very well — and we can afford to do that, since one
good planting is all that it requires of us, while tender things of
one-tenth the value may require daily attention. There are the
Subtropical Gardening. 5
hardy Yuccas, noble and graceful in outline, and thoroughly hardy,
and which if planted well, are not to be surpassed, if equalled, by
anything of like habit we can preserve indoors. There are the
Arundos, conspicua and Donax, things that well repay for liberal
planting; and there are fine hardy herbaceous plants like Crambe
cordifolia, Rheum Emodi, Ferulas, and various fine umbelliferous
plants that will furnish effects equal to those we can produce by
using the tenderest. The Acanthuses too, when well grown, are
very suitable to this style j one called latifolius, which is beginning to
get known, being of a peculiarly firm, polished, and noble leafage.
Then we have a hardy palm — very much hardier too than it is
supposed to be, because it has preserved its health and greenness
in sheltered positions, where its leaves may not be torn to shreds by
the storm through all our recent hard winters, including that of
1860. And when we have obtained these we may associate them
with not a few things of much beauty among trees and shrubs —
with elegant tapering young pines, many of which, like Cupressus
nutkaensis, have branchlets finely chiselled as a Selaginella, not of
necessity bringing the larger things into close or awkward associa-
tion with the humbler and dwarfer flowers, but sufficiently so to
carry the eye from the minute and pretty to the higher and more
dignified vegetation. By a judicious selection from the vast mass of
hardy plants now obtainable in this country, and by, where con-
venient, associating with them house plants stood out for the
summer, we may arrange and enjoy a beauty in the flower garden
to which we are as yet strangers, simply because we have not suf-
ficiently selected from and utilized the vast amount of vegetable
beauty at our disposal.
Let us next select the finer tender plants for this purpose, to
speak of the treatment they require, and the uses or associations
for which they are best adapted. In selecting tender plants of
noble aspect or elegant foliage, suited for placing in the open air in
British gardens during the summer months, we shall confine our-
selves to first-class plants only.
It is necessary that they be such as will afford a distinct and beau-
6 Subtropical Gardening.
tiful effect if they do grow, and that is by no means to be obtained
from many subjects recommended for "subtropical gardening."
And above all we must choose such as will make a healthy growth
in sheltered places in the warmer parts of England and Ireland at
all events. That some of the best will be found to nourish much
further north than is generally supposed there is some reason to
believe. In all parts the kinds with permanent foliage, such as the
New Zealand flax and the hardier Dracaenas, will be found as effec-
tive as around Paris, and to such the northern gardener should turn
his attention as much as possible. Even if it were possible to culti-
vate the softer growing kinds like the Ferdinandas to the same per-
fection in all parts as in the south of England, it would by no means
be everywhere desirable, and especially where means are scarce, as
these kinds are not capable of being used indoors in winter. The
many find permanent leaved subjects that stand out in summer
without the least injury, and may be transferred to the conservatory
in autumn, there to produce as fine an effect all through the cold
months as they do in the flower garden in summer, are the best for
those with limited means.
ARALIA PAFYRiFERA(#Ae Chinese Rice-paper Plant). — This, though
a native of the hot island of Formosa, flourishes beautifully around
Paris in the summer months, and is one of the most valuable plants
in its way. It is useful for the greenhouse in winter and the
flower garden in summer. It is handsome in leaf and free in
growth, though to do well it must be protected from cutting
breezes, like all the large-leaved things, and to this protection we
must pay due attention. In some of the " armer parts of France
the peach does very well as a field tree — a low one, however. The
wind is so strong that it would be destroyed if allowed to rise in the
natural way, and so they train it as a dwarf bush, spreading wide.
Tall "subtropical plants " have with us somewhat of the same dis-
advantage. If this Aralia be planted in a dwarf and young state,
it is like to give more satisfaction than if planted out when old and
tall. The lower leaves spread widely out near the ground, and then
Subtropical Gardening. 7
it is presentable throughout the summer. Prefer therefore dwarf,
stocky plants when planting it in early summer. It should have
rich deep soil and plenty of water during the hot summer months.
The open air of our country suits it better than the stove, and
chiefly no doubt because it is very liable to the mealy bug when kept
indoors— in the free air this pest is washed away by the rain. For
the public gardens of Paris it is kept under ground in caves during
the winter ; but in private gardens with us it will doubtless be
worthy of a place in the greenhouse throughout that season. It is
FIG. 2. — Aralia papyrifera.
easily increased by cuttings of the root. It is usually planted in
masses, edged with a dwarfer plant ; but as a small group in the
centre of a bed of flowers, or even as an isolated specimen in a
like position, it is capital. The stems of this plant have a very
fine pure white pith, which, when cut into thin strips and otherwise
prepared, forms the article known as rice paper. It is rare for a
plant to be so useful both in an ornamental and economic sense.
8 Subtropical Gardening.
ACACIA LOPHANTHA. — This elegant plant, though not hardy, is
one of those which all may enjoy, from the freedom with which it
grows in the open air in summer. It will prove more useful for the
flower garden than it has ever been for the houses, and being easily
raised is entitled to a place here among the very best. The elegance
of its leaves and its quick growth in the open air make it quite
a boon to the flower gardener who wishes to establish graceful
verdure amongst the brighter ornaments of his parterre. It will
furnish the grace of a fern, while close and erect in habit, thus
enabling us to closely associate it with flowering plants without in
the least shading them — except from ugliness. Of course I speak
of its use in the young and single stemmed condition, the way in
which it should be used. By confining it to a single stem and
using it in a young state, you get the fullest size and beauty of which
the leaves are capable. Allow it to become old and branched and
it may be useful, but by no means so much so as when young and
without side branches. It may be raised from seed as easily as a
common bedding plant. By sowing it early in the year it may be
had fit for use by the first of June 5 but plants a year old or so, stiff,
strong, and well hardened off, for planting out at the end of May
are the best. It would be desirable to raise an annual stock of this
plant, as it is almost as useful for room decoration as for the garden.
CALADIUM ESCULENTUM. — This species has proved the best for
out-door work of a large genus with very fine foliage. It is only in
the midland and southern counties of Great Britain that it can be ad-
vantageously grown, so far as I have observed 5 but its grand outlines
and aspect when well developed make it worthy of all attention,
and of a prominent position wherever the climate is warm enough
for its growth. It does very well about London, and may have been
noticed in considerable masses in the London parks during the past
year, and it served to illustrate the disadvantages of that mode of
planting to some extent. When seen in wide masses the effect is
by no means so fine as when in a compact group or circle. The
dead level tine presented by their tops — which, unlike that of the
Subtropical Gardening. 9
upper surface of the taller plants, is below the eye — neutralizes con-
siderably the great lines of the leaves j but place the plant in a ring
round a central object, or in some position where its great leaves
may contrast immediately with those of a different type of vegeta-
tion, and it is beautiful indeed.
It may be used with good effect in association with many fine
foliage plants -, but Ferdinanda, Ricinus, and Wigandia usually grow
too strong for it, and if planted too close injure it. This may
FIG. 3. — Caladium esculentum.
have been noticed particularly in cases where it was used as bor-
dering to masses of the strong growing kinds above named. With
all kinds of stonework, vases, &c., it is peculiarly effective and
beautiful. C. esculentum, though a stove perennial, is very easily
kept over the winter in a dry spot under a stage or in boxes of
sand in places where hot-house room is scarce. It is readily propa-
gated by first starting the plants in heat, and when they have
io Subtropical Gardening.
pushed forth eyes near the base, catting them in pieces, an eye, or
bud, in each. In spring the older plants should be potted and
grown on in heat, so as to be fit to plant out about the middle of
June. On the whole, although so fine and distinct, it is not
suitable for any but mild and warm parts of the southern half of
these islands -, but in such is as indispensable as any other plant
herein mentioned.
THE CANNAS. — If there were no plants of handsome habit and
graceful leaf available for the improvement of our flower gardens
but these we need not despair, for they possess almost every quality
the most fastidious could desire, and present a most useful and
charming variety. The larger kinds make grand masses, while all
may be associated intimately with flowering plants — an advantage
that does not belong to some free-growing things like the Castor-
oil plant. The Canna ascends as boldly, and spreads forth as fine a
mass of leaves as any 5 but may be closely grouped with much
smaller subjects. The general tendency of most of our flower-
garden plants is to assume a flatness and dead level, so to speak,
and it is the very qualities possessed by the Cannas for counteracting
this that makes them so valuable. Even the grandest of the other
subjects preserve this tameriess of upper surface outline when
grown in great quantities : not so these, the leaves of which, even
when grown in dense groups, always carry the eye up pleasantly
from the humbler plants, and are grand aids in effecting that har-
mony between the important tree and shrub embellishments of our
gardens and their surroundings, and the dwarf flower-bed vegeta-
tion which is so much wanted.
Another charm of these most useful subjects is their power of
withstanding the cold and storms of autumn. They do so better
than many of our hardy open-air plants, so that when the last
leaves have been blown from the lime, and the dahlia and heliotrope
have been hurt from frost, you may see them waving as greenly and
gracefully as the vegetation of a temperate stove. Many of the
subtropical plants, used for the beauty of their leaves, are so tender
Subtropical Gardening.
ii
that they go off in autumn, or require all sorts of awkward protec-
tion at that season ; but the Cannas last in good trim till the
borders must be cleared. All sheltered positions, places near warm
walls, and nice snugly-warmed dells, are capital positions for them.
FIG. 4. — Canna nigricans.
They are generally used in great ugly masses, both about Paris and
London, but their true beauty will never be seen till we learn to
place them tastefully here and there among the flowering plants—
12 Subtropical Gardening.
just as we place sprigs of graceful fern in a bouquet. A bed or two
here and there solely devoted to them will, of course, prove very
effective ; but enormous meaningless masses of them, containing
perhaps several hundred plants of one variety, are things to avoid
and not to imitate. As to culture and propagation nothing can
be more simple : they may be stored in winter as readily as potatoes,
under shelves in the houses, in the root-room, or, in fact, anywhere
covered up from the influences of frost. And then in spring, when
we desire to propagate them, nothing is easier than pulling the
roots in pieces, and potting them separately. Afterwards it is
usual to bring them on in heat, and finally harden them off pre-
vious to planting out; but some modification of this practice is
desirable, as some kinds are of a remarkably hardy constitution, and
make a beautiful growth if put out without so much as a leaf.
In rambling through an obscure part of Paris one evening, I
encountered a tuft of Canna springing up strongly through and
around a box-edging — pretty good evidence that it had remained
there for some years. Upon inquiry of the proprietor of the garden
I found this was the case, and that he had no doubt of the hardiness
of several other kinds. How deep were they planted ? Not more
than eight or ten inches. When we consider that the Cannas are
amongst the most valuable plants we use for giving grace and verdure
to the flower garden, this surely is worthy of being acted upon.
Considering their diversity of colour and size, their graceful pointed
habit and facility of propagation, we must concede them the first
place, but their capability of being used by anybody who grows
ordinary bedding plants, and the fact, that they may be preserved
so very easily through the winter enhances their value still more.
The following are among the best of the hardiest kinds: —
C. Annaei, musaefolia, gigantea, limbata Warscewiczii, nigricans,
and zebrina. Of course they will prove equally hardy with us.
As it is desirable to change the arrangements as much as possible
every year, it may not be any advantage to leave them in the
ground, and in that case they may be taken up with the bedding
plants, and stored as simply and easily as carrots, parsnips, or
Subtropical Gardening. 13
potatoes. A bed of Cannas, protected by a coating of litter, was
left out in Battersea Park through the severe winter of 1866-7.
During the unfavourable summer of 1867 they attained a height of
nearly twelve feet.
THE DRACAENAS. — Long as this noble family have been known
in our gardens we have yet to learn a great deal about its use and
beauty. Hitherto allowed to grace a stove or conservatory now
and then, for the future Dracaenas will be among the most indis-
pensable ornaments of every garden where grace or variety is
sought. They are among the very best of those subjects which
may be brought from the conservatory or greenhouses in early
summer, and be placed in the flower garden till it is time to take
them in again to the houses, where we protect them through the
winter. And if it were not necessary to protect them through the
winter it would be almost worth our while to bring them indoors at
that season, so graceful are they, and so useful for adding the
highest beauty to our conservatories. One well filled with such
plants presents a very different appearance to what most English
plant-houses do in winter. The hardier and most coriaceous kinds,
like indivisa and Draco, may be placed out with impunity very far
north. The brightly coloured kinds, like terminalis, have been
tried in the open air at Battersea, but not with success. It would
be dangerous to try them in the open air much further north,
except in very favourable spots. The better kinds are indicated in
the select list of subtropical plants. I have seen D. indivisa grow
well in the open air in the south of England.
ECHEVERIA METALLICA. — This is scarcely elevated enough to
be suitable for association with such plants as the foregoing, but it
is so very distinct in aspect, and has been proved to grow so well in
the open air during the past two unfavourable seasons, that we
must not pass it by. I purposely exclude from this selection many
things sometimes included in lists of "subtropical" plants, but
which may be classed most properly with bedding subjects. But
14 Subtropical Gardening.
this, although not very large, forms an agreeable and distinct object,
and is very well calculated for producing a striking effect among
dwarf bedding and edging plants. It should, however, be placed
singly, and among veiy dwarf things, such as Sedum, Sempervivum,
and its dwarf relative E. secunda. So arranged, it was very beauti-
fully seen at Battersea last year ; also charmingly done by Mr.
Roger, at Bury Hill, Taplow j and even so far north as Osberton,
Notts, by Mr. Bennett. It may be propagated by the leaves or by
cuttings, and requires a dry greenhouse shelf in the winter. Light
sandy earth, not of necessity very poor, will suit it best in the
open air.
FERDINANDA EMINENS. — This is one of the tallest and noblest
subtropical plants, growing well in the southern and midland
counties : wherever it is supplied with rich soil and abundant
moisture. It is also very much the better of being sheltered, and
so are all large and soft-leaved plants. Where the soil is rich, deep,
and humid, and the position warm, it attains great dimensions,
sometimes growing over twelve feet, and suspending immense pairs
of opposite leaves. It will in all cases form a capital companion to
the Castor-oil plant, and though it may not be grown with such
ease as that in all parts, it should be in every collection, growing
quite as well in the south of England as in the neighbourhood of
Paris. It requires to be planted out in a young state, and grows
freely from cuttings. Greenhouse treatment will do in winter. It
is better to keep a stock in pots through the summer to afford
cuttings, though the old ones may be used for that purpose.
Ficus ELASTICA (Indiaruller Plant}. — Another fine old plant,
for which we have lately found a new use. It is one of those
valuable leathery-leaved things that are useful in hothouse, drawing-
room, or flower garden. It not only exists in the open air in
summer in good health, but makes a good growth under the in-
fluence of our weak northern sun. Never assuming the imposing
proportions of other plants mentioned here, it is best adapted for
Subtropical Gardening. 15
select mixed groups, and in small gardens as isolated specimens
amongst low bedding plants. It requires stove treatment, and is
propagated from cuttings. In all cases it is better to use plants
with single stems. It is especially valuable in consequence of doing
perfectly well in the dry air of inhabited rooms, and this ill
FIG. 5. — Ficus elastica.
enable many to enjoy a fine-leaved plant in the flower garden who
have not a glass house of any kind on their premises.
MUSA ENSETE. — The noblest of all the plants yet used in the
flower garden is Musa Ensete — the great Abyssinian Banana, dis-
covered by Bruce. The fruit of this kind is not edible, unlike that
of the Banana and Plantain (Musa paradisiaca and sapientum), but
1 6 Subtropical Gardening.
the leaves are magnificent ; and, strange to say, they stand the rain
and storms of the neighbourhood of Paris without laceration, while
all the other kinds of Musa become torn into shreds. It is an in-
teresting and hitherto unknown fact, that the finest of all the
Banana or Musa tribe is also the hardiest and most easily preserved.
When grown for the open air, it will of course require to be kept
in a house during winter, and planted out the first week in June.
In any place where there is a large conservatory or winter garden,
it will be found most valuable, either for planting out therein,
or for keeping over the winter, as, if merely housed in such a
structure during the cold months, it will prove a great ornament
among the other plants, while it may be put out in summer when
the attraction is all out of doors. Other kinds of Musa have been
used with us, but have barely grown more in the open air than to
make it clear that they should not be so cultivated in this country.
This is the only species really worth growing for the open air. Where
the climate is too cold to put it out of doors in summer, it must yet
be grown in all conservatories in which it is desired to establish the
noblest type of vegetation. It has hitherto been generally grown in
stoves. Not only are the leaves magnificent in their development,
but of a texture that seems to withstand the heaviest rains and
storms. The plant is difficult to obtain as yet, but will, I trust, be
sought out and made abundant by our nurserymen. It is not gene-
rally known that this plant is of a remarkably hardy constitution,
and that it will grow well in a greenhouse or conservatory. Planted
out in a winter garden, it will grow healthfully, and I need not say
what a magnificent object it is for the decoration of such a place.
It also, strange to say, stands the drought and heat of a living room
remarkably well, and though, when well developed, it is much too
big for any but Brobdingnagian halls, the fact may nevertheless be
taken much advantage of by those interested in room decoration
on a large scale.
POLYMNIA GRANDIS, MACULATA, AND PYRAMIDALIS. These
belong to the great composite order, and are distinguished by rich
Subtropical Gardening.
•7
and handsome foliage, and rapid summer growth, which, moreover,
never becomes objectionable from any trace of raggedness, the
erect shoots growing away till the end of the season in our climate.
Doubtless, there is a point at which in their native country seedi-
ness does arrive, but with us they, like the Ricinus of one summer,
FIG. 6. — Polymnia grandis.
always look fresh and young, and are most appropriate for form-
ing luxuriant masses of foliage in the flower garden, and for
diversifying its aspect P. grandis is best known in this country,
and is second to no other plant for its dignified and yet finished
effect in the flower garden , but P. maculata and P. pyrami-
c
1 8 Subtropical Gardening.
dalis are also excellent and distinct. They are easily struck from
cuttings taken from old plants put in heat in spring, and are, like
most large soft growing things in this way, best planted out in a
young state, so as to insure a fresh and unstinted growth. P. pyra-
midalis is the newest of the group, and that least known in cultivation.
I saw it several times during the past season in Paris. The leaves
are not so large as those of the other species, and differ in shape,
being nearly cordate, but the growth is most vigorous and the habit
distinct. It pushes up a narrowly pyramidal head of foliage to a
height of nearly ten feet in Paris gardens, and will be found to do
well in the south of England.
PHORMIUM TENAX (the New Zealand Flax). — This is tolerably
well known among us as a greenhouse and conservatory subject,
but not nearly so much grown as it ought to be. What a grand
use the French make of it, both indoors in the winter, and in
the conservatory and out of doors in summer ! About Paris it is
of course as tender as with us, and requires the same amount of
attention, which, after all, is very little. They grow it by the
thousand for the decoration of rooms, and in the great nursery
of the city of Paris at Passy there are 10,000 plants of it, chiefly
used for the embellishment of the Hotel de Ville. I need hardly
say that we are much worse off for graceful things for indoor de-
coration than the French, and should in consequence grow this
plant abundantly, according to our space. When grown to a
medium size its leaves begin to arch over, and when in that con-
dition nothing makes a more graceful and distinct ornament for
room or hall. It may be grown to presentable perfection in an
eight-inch pot, or to a great mass of bold long leaves in a tub a yard
in diameter. Generally with us it will be found to enjoy greenhouse
temperature, though in genial places in the south and west of
Ireland and England it does very well in the open air. Its best
use is for the decoration of the garden in summer, a few speci-
mens well grown and plunged in the grass or the centre of a bed
giving a most distinct aspect to the scene. The larger such
Subtropical Gardening. 19
plants are the better the effect, of course. The smaller plants will
prove equally useful and effective in vases, to which they will add a
grace that vases rarely now possess. It is pre-eminently useful from
its being alike good for the house, conservatory, and even the living
rooms in winter. Wherever indoor decoration on a large scale is
practised it is indispensable, and it should be remarked that, unless
for vase decoration, it requires to be grown into goodly specimens
before affording much effect out of doors ; but when grown large
in tubs, it is equally grand for the large conservatory and for im-
portant positions in the flower garden.
RICINUS COMMUNIS (the Castor-oil Plant}. — When well grown
in the open air, there is not in the whole range of cultivated plants
a more imposing subject than this. It may have been seen nearly
twelve feet high in the London parks, and with leaves nearly a yard
wide. It is true we require a bed of very rich deep earth under it to
make it attain such dimensions and beauty ; but in all parts, and
with ordinary attention, it grows well. In warm countries, in which
the plant is very widely cultivated, it becomes a small tree, but is
much prettier in the state in which it is seen with us — i.e., with an
unbranched stem, clothed from top to bottom with noble leaves.
Soon after it betrays a tendency to develope side-shoots, the cold
autumn conies and puts an end to all further progress; and so
much the better, because it is much handsomer in a simple-
stemmed state than any other. And the same is true of not a
few other large-leaved plants — once they break into a number of
side-shoots their leaf beauty is to a great extent lost. In the plant-
ing out of some other subjects, it has been considered well to raise
the beds on lime-rubbish, &c., or in other words, building them
upon it, sloping up the edge with soil and turf. But to grow this
to perfection, the best way is to deeply excavate the bed, and place
some rich stuff in the bottom, making all the earth as rich as
possible. It is as easily raised from seed as the common bean,
requiring, however, to be raised in heat. The Ricinus is a grand
plant for making bold and noble beds near those of the more
c 2
so Subtropical Gardening.
brilliant flowers, and tends to finely vary the flower garden. It is
not well to closely associate it with bedding plants, in consequence
of the strong growth and shading power of the leaves, so to speak.
To make a compact group of the plant in the centre of some
wide circular bed, surrounded with a band of a dwarfer subject, say
the Aralia or Caladium, and then whatever arrangement may be
most admired of the flowering plants, is a good plan — a bold and
magnificent centre is obtained, while the effect of the flowers is
much enhanced, especially if the planting be nicely graduated and
tastefully done. It is a judicious combination of both the green
and the gay that we are most in want of, and few things can do
so much to effect it for us in the flower garden as the common
Castor-oil plant. This combination may, and must be, effected
in any way that taste may direct. A graceful handsome-leaved
subject in the centre of a flower bed will help it out, and so will
bold groups of fine-leaved plants towards the outer parts of the
flower garden. These bold masses connect in some degree the
larger ligneous vegetation that usually surrounds our flower gardens
with the small and low-lying brilliant flowers. For such groups
the varieties of the Castor-oil plant are not likely to be surpassed.
SEAFOKTHIA ELEGANS. — This is perhaps the most elegant and
useful of all palms which may be safely placed out in summer. It
is too scarce as yet to be procurable by horticulturists generally,
but should be looked for by all who take an interest in these matters,
and have a house in which to grow it. It stands well in the conserva-
tory during the winter, though generally kept in the stove, where of
course it grows beautifully. There are hardier kinds — the dwarf
fan palm for example, but on the whole none of them are so valu-
able as this. The following palms are suitable for like purposes : —
Areca lutescens.
Caryota urens.
„ sobolifera.
Chamserops humilis.
Fortunei.
Chamserops Palmetto.
Latania borbonica.
Phoenix dactylifera.
„ sylvestris.
Corypha australis.
Subtropical Gardening. 21
THE SOLANUMS. — This family, so wonderfully varied, affords
numerous species that look fine and imposing in leaf when in a young
and free-growing state. In the nursery garden of the city of Paris
there is, entirely devoted to the family, a very large house in which
are preserved over the winter months more than sixty species for
the embellishment of Parisian gardens. But in selecting from this
great genus we must be much more careful, as our climate is a shade
FIG. 7. — Solatium Warscewiczii.
too cold for them, and many of them are of too ragged an aspect
to be tolerated in a tasteful garden. Half-a-dozen or more species
are indispensable, but quite a crowd of narrow-leaved and ignoble
ones may well be dispensed with. The better kinds — as seen both
in London and Paris gardens — are marginatum, robustum, macran
thum, macrophyllum, Warscewiczii, crinipes, callicarpum, jubatum,
Quitoense, galianthum, hippoleucum, crinitum, and Fontainesianum,
an annual with pretty leaves, crisped and distinct looking.
2,2,
Subtropical Gardening.
Most of these plants may be raised from seed, while they are
also freely grown from cuttings. As a rule hothouse treatment
in winter is required, and in summer rich light soil, a warm
position, and perfect shelter. S. marginatum planted in a very
FIG. 8. — Solanum robustum.
dwarf and young state, furnishes a most distinct and charming
effect : it should be planted rather thinly, so that the leaves of
one plant may not brush against those of another. If some very
dwarf plants are used as a groundwork so much the better, but the
downy and silvery leaves of this plant are sure to please without
Subtropical Gardening. 23
this aid. It is very much better when thus grown than when per-
mitted to assume the bush form. All the other kinds named are
suitable for association with the larger leaved plants, though they
do not attain such height and vigorous development as those of the
first rank, like the Ricinus.
UHDEA BIPINNATIFIDA. — This is one of the most useful plants in
its class, producing a rich mass of handsome leaves, with somewhat
FIG. 9. — Uhdea bipinnatifida.
the aspect of those of the great cow-parsnips, but of a more re-
fined type. The leaves are of a slightly silvery tone, and the plant
24 Subtropical Gardening.
continues to grow fresh and vigorously till the late autumn. It is
freely propagated by cuttings taken from old plants kept in a very
cool stove, greenhouse, or pit daring the winter months, and
placed in heat to afford cuttings the more readily in early spring.
Under ordinary cutting treatment on hotbeds or in a moist warm
propagating house, it grows as freely as could be desired, and may
be planted out at the end of May or the beginning of June. It is
well suited for forming rich masses of foliage, not so tall, however,
as those formed by such things as Ricinus or Ferdinanda.
VERBESIXA GIG ANTE A, and other species. — To these somewhat
the same remarks will serve as have been applied to the preceding.
They require about the same treatment, and are useful in the pro-
duction of like effects. They, like their fellows, will be much the
better for as warm and sheltered a position and as rich and light a
soil as can be conveniently given them.
WIGANDIA MACROPHYLLA (caracascina) . — This noble plant, a
native of the mountainous regions of New Granada, is unquestion-
ably, from the nobility of its port and the magnificence of its
leaves, entitled to hold a place among the finest plants of our
gardens. Under the climate of London it has made leaves which
have surprised all beholders, as well by their size as by their strong
and remarkable veining and texture. There can be little doubt
that it will be found to succeed very well in the Midland and
Southern counties of England, though too much care cannot be
taken to secure it a warm sheltered position, free good soil, and
perfect drainage. It may be used with superb effect either in a
mass or as a single plant. It may be raised from seed, and seed is
offered of it in some of our catalogues. W. urens is a relative,
not so good by any means ; and W. Vigieri has been recently added
to our collections, and given a very good character. Some have
even asserted it to be better than W. macrophylla, but that is not
the case. So far as I have observed it makes a respectable growth
in the neighbourhood of Paris, but never assumes the majestic aspect
Subtropical Gardening. 25
of W. macrophylla when well grown j but being readily raised from
seed, it is worth a place. Seeds of the three species are offered in the
seed lists for the present year. W. macrophylla, the most valuable
species, is frequently propagated by cuttings of the roots and grown
on in a moist and genial temperature through the spring months,
FIG. 10. — Wigandia macrophylla (W. caracasana).
keeping it near the light so as to preserve it in a dwarf and well
clothed condition ; and, like all the other plants in this class, it
should be very carefully hardened off. It is, however, much better
raised from cuttings of the shoots, if these are to be had.
25 Subtropical Gardening.
A select list, with notes, of 100 of the subtropical plants best
suited for use in our climate. The most indispensable kinds
are marked *.
1. *Acacia lophantha, does freely in open air, and is very graceful and suitable
for mixture with flowers. It is easily raised in abundance from seed.
2. *Agave americana with variegated varieties, was used for placing in the open
air in summer long before any of the other subjects named here, and when
well grown looks very imposing.
3. Abutilon striatum and its varieties, such as Due de Malakoff and others, flower
and grow freely out of doors in summer, and are more enjoyable when so
grown than they are under glass.
4. Alsophila australis, a tree and large stove fern, may be placed in the open
air in thoroughly well-sheltered and shady positions if it can be spared for
such purposes.
5. Alsophila excelsa, ditto.
6. Anthurium Hookeri, a noble species; stands well.
7. Aralia macrophylla, stands beautifully in the open air, but does not grow freely
there.
8. *Aralia papyrifera, one of the best and freest of all.
9. „ reticulata.
10. Araucaria excelsa. Where there are nice specimens of this plant in the con-
servatory, they may be used out in summer with much taste.
11. Areca lutescens.
12. Balantium culcitum.
13. Bocconia frutescens.
14. Brexia madagascariensis, a good plant, and stands well in the open air.
15. *Caladium esculentum. One of the best; fine for association with sculpture,
vases, &c. Likes rich soil, warmth, and shelter.
1 6. *Canna Annei superba. Of this and the other Cannas little need be said, espe-
cially as they are alluded to elsewhere. It is by far the most useful group of
plants of all used in this way. Among the better kinds are the following : —
17. *Canna Annei limbata.
1 8. „ *robusta.
19. „ *musaefolia hybrida.
20. „ *nigricans.
21. „ *grandiflora floribunda.
22. „ *Ge'ant.
23- » *discolor floribunda.
24. „ *metallica.
25. „ *rubra superbissima.
Subtropical Gardening. 27
26. Carludovica palmata.
27. Caryota urens.
28. „ sobolifera.
29. Cassia corymbosa, flowers pretty freely, but is scarcely distinct enough to be
generally admired.
30. Cassia floribunda, ditto.
31. Chamaepeuce diacantha, a plant of very striking aspect.
32. Chamaerops humilis.
33. „ *excelsa.
34. „ *Palmetto.
35. Colea Comersoni, a plant with very noble leaves, as yet rare.
36. *Colocasia odorata, when old looks peculiarly distinct and magnificent, in con-
sequence of being elevated on a bold stem.
37. Cordyline indivisa. This fine thing will stand out of doors without injury in
summer, even in the far north.
38. Corypha australis.
39. Cyathea dealbata. For use where other tree ferns are ventured out.
40. *Cycas revoluta, as useful in the conservatory as in a flower garden j will em-
bellish the first through the cold months, and form a distinct and graceful
subject in the centre of a choice bed of flowers all the summer.
41. Dahlia imperialis.
42. Dicksonia antarctica. Probably the best of the tree ferns for placing in the
open air.
43. *Dracaena australis. The Dracaenas here given are all fine, and very useful in
their way.
44. *Dracaena indivisa.
45. „ *Draco.
46. „ *braziliensis.
47. „ nutans.
48. „ Rumphi.
49. „ erithorachis.
50. „ *cannsefolia.
51. „ *lineata.
52. *Echeveria metallica, very distinct in colour and appearance, and grows well
out of doors in England.
53. Erythrina crista-galli, and its varieties, flower well in the south of England, as
well as around Paris.
54. *Ferdinanda eminens, one of the best and most popular.
55. *Ficus elastica, never suffers, but makes free growth in the open air, and is
useful at all seasons, indoors or out.
56. Ficus nympheaefolia, scarce in private collections, but very fine.
57. Grevillea robusta.
28 Subtropical Gardening.
58. Hedychium aurantiacum, a well known old stove plant, which, placed in a
favourable position, opens its flowers freely in the open air; that, however,
does not make it worth growing for this purpose, except in large collec-
tions.
59. Hedychium Gardnerianum, ditto.
60. Lomatia Bidwilli, has finely dissected and handsome foliage.
61. „ silaifolia, ditto.
62. Lomatophyllum borbonicum.
63. *Melianthus major, of very handsome foliage and agreeable glaucous colour.
Out of doors in a dry place it gets cut down annually by frost, but comes up
again in spring, and makes a very presentable show of dwarf and well-
clothed shoots, and is in fact much handsomer when seen in this state than
when grown indoors. It is better when left out of doors in winter and
slightly protected, than when turned out annually from the houses.
64. Monstera deliciosa, a fine stove fruit; may be placed in the open air in summer
with impunity.
65. *Musa Ensete, the great Musa of Abyssinia, discovered by Bruce; the noblest
of all subtropical plants.
66. Neottopteris australasica. Striking fern for placing in shady nooks.
67. Nicotiana Wigandioides.
68. Papyrus antiquorum.
69. Philodendron Simsi, stands well out in England.
70. „ macrophyllum, ditto ; is a very fine plant.
71. Phoenix dactylifera.
72. „ sylvestris.
73. *Phormium tenax, a most useful plant for this purpose, and for every purpose of
ornament, whether indoors or out.
74. *Polymnia grandis, also first rate.
75. „ maculata, ditto.
76. Pothos acaulis, suffers a little, and should be placed in a well-sheltered and
warm place.
77. Rhopala corcovadense, one of a type of fine-foliaged stove plants that may be
placed out of doors in summer in a sheltered spot.
78. *Ricinus communis, in many varieties, is perhaps on the whole the most useful
and easily raised of all subtropical plants except the Cannas.
79. Sanseviera zeylanica.
80. *Seaforthia elegans, a palm which stands our summer climate without injury,
and is of course among the most useful of ornamental plants indoors at all
other seasons.
81. Selinum decipiens, an umbelliferous plant, of distinct character and handsome
leaves.
82. Senecio Ghiesbreghti.
Subtropical Gardening.
29
83. Senecio Petasites.
84. Solatium crinipes.
85. „ macranthum.
86. „ macrophyllum.
87. „ marginatum.
88. „ robustum.
89. „ Warscewiczii.
90. Sonchus laciniatus.
91. Sparmannia africana, produces its singularly pretty flowers freely in the open air.
92. Stadmannia Jonghii.
93. Tradescantia discolor, very useful as a bordering plant to beds of subtropical
flowers, from the attractive colouring of the backs of its leaves.
94. Tradescantia zebrina.
95. Tupidanthus calyptratus, grows a little in the open air, and stands well.
96. *Uhdea bipinnatifida, a free-growing, large-leaved, and very useful plant for this
purpose.
97. Verbesina gigantea.
98. „ *verbascifolia.
99. *Wigandia caracasana, one of the noblest of fine-leaved plants when grown in
the flower-garden in summer.
100. Wigandia Vigieri.
List of the best twenty-four Subtropical Plants.
1. Acacia lophantha.
2. Agave americana.
3. Aralia papyrifera.
4. Caladium esculentum.
5. Canna Annei superba.
6. Chamaerops excelsa.
7. „ humilis.
8. Cordyline indivisa.
9. Cycas revoluta.
10. Dracaena Draco.
IT. „ indivisa.
12. Ferdinanda eminens.
13. Ficus elastica.
14. Melianthus major.
15. Musa Ensete.
1 6. Phormium tenax.
1 7. Polymnia grandis.
1 8. Ricinus communis.
19. Seaforthia elegans.
20. Solanum marginatum.
21. „ Warscewiczii.
22. Uhdea bipinnatifida.
23. Verbesina gigantea.
24. Wigandia caracasana.
Subtropical Plants that may be raised from Seed.
Abutilon, in variety.
Acacia lophanta.
Andropogon bombycinus.
u formosus.
Andropogon Sorghum.
Aralia australis.
„ elegans.
„ papyrifera.
Subtropical Gardening.
Aralia Sieboldi.
„ trifoliata.
Areca sapida.
Artemesia argentea.
Bambusa himalaica.
Bocconia cordata.
„ formosa.
„ frutescens.
„ japonica.
„ macrophylla.
Brugmansia, in variety.
Canna, in profuse variety.
Cassia corymbosa.
„ floribunda.
Chamaepeuce Cassabonse.
„ diacantha.
Chamaerops humilis.
„ macrocarpa.
Cineraria platani folia.
Cordyline indivisa vera.
„ nutans „
, superbicus.
„ Veitchii.
Corypha australis.
Cyperus vegetus.
Dahlia imperialis.
Erianthus Ravennae.
„ violaceus.
Erythrina caffra.
„ crista galli.
„ Hendersoni.
„ lauri folia.
Eucalyptus globulus.
Ferdinanda eminens.
Grevillea robusta.
Hedychium Gardnerianum.
Humea elegans.
Latania borbonica.
Melianthus major.
„ minor.
Musa Ensete.
Nicotiana grandiflora, a variety of
N. tabacum.
Nicotiana Wigandioides.
Owenia cerasifera.
Paratropia tomentosa.
„ venulosa.
Phormium tenax.
Phytolacca dioica.
Polymnia grandis.
Ricinus, in variety.
Seaforthia elegans.
Solanum acanthocarpum.
„ auriculatum.
„ giganteum.
„ glaucophyllum.
„ glutinosum.
,, lanceolatum.
„ macrocarpum.
„ macrophyllum.
„ marginatum.
„ pyracanthum.
„ robustum.
„ verbascifolium.
Sonchus pinnatus.
Sparmannia africana.
Uhdea bipinnatifida.
Verbesina verbasci folia.
Wigandia macrophylla.
„ urens.
„ vigieri.
Zea japonica variegata, and others.
All the above have been offered in Seed Catalogues of the current year.
CHAPTER II.
Hardy Plants for "Subtropical" Gardening.
| HE taste for varying the surface of the flower garden, and
for adding to its interest and character by using plants of a
nobler type than we have already generally done, is suffi-
ciently developed to make it desirable that we should search out the
most desirable hardy plants for such purposes. There are a great
many tender plants recommended, a great many used ; but, as usual,
the really meritorious are in a minority. In many parts it is a dange-
rous and useless thing'to place tender plants in the open air for the
sake of producing such an effect as may have been seen at Bat-
tersea. Some have placed out things that have no chance of look-
ing to any advantage out of a hothouse in this country — for
instance, all the Bananas except M. Ensete. Only such things
should be used as will stand our summer climate without injury, or
grow freely and luxuriantly in it. Of course, hardy plants are the
very best of all, but as yet we are far from having a sufficiency of
these of the precise type that is required, and we rarely make good
use of some fine subjects pretty well known. Nothing is more
lamentable than to see a flower garden with tender plants perishing
from cold in the middle of summer. The climate and altitude
of the garden will frequently prevent the use of tender things, for
it is well known that you may grow many things in the open air
about London and southwards which will barely exist, if at all, in the
north. Therefore, the position and capabilities of a garden are the
32 Hardy Plants for
first things that should be taken into consideration. It by no
means follows that because a place proves cold and uncongenial to
many tender subjects which have afforded a good effect about
London, that we should rest satisfied with the usual tame aspect of
things. There is no part in these islands for which fine, verdant,
and distinct-looking hardy flower-garden plants will not eventually
be found, if they be not in the country already.
More than that, we may produce as good effects from the use of
hardy plants alone as any afforded by what are called " subtropical,'
and in the following pages an attempt is made at pointing out the
most suitable kinds to use. It is a most important subject, and
concerns every gardener in the British Isles -, for however few can in-
dulge in the luxury of rich displays of tender plants, or however rare
the spots in which they may be ventured out with confidence, all may
enjoy those that are hardy, and that too with infinitely less trouble
than is required by the tender ones. Those noble masses of fine
foliage first displayed to us in this country by the able and energetic
superintendent of Battersea Park, have done much towards cor-
recting a false taste. What I wish to impress upon the reader is,
that let him live where he may in these islands he need not despair
of producing enough of like effect to beautifully vary flower garden
or pleasure ground ly the use of hardy plants alone ; and that the
noble lines of a well-grown Yucca recurva, or the finely-chiselled,
yet graceful fern-like spray of a graceful young conifer, will aid
him as much in this direction as anything that grows either in
tropical or subtropical climes.
The herbaceous collections in the Jardin des Plantes are very full,
and correctly kept 5 and being much devoted to such plants, I
rarely spent a week without visiting them, chiefly to discover
useful plants in this class j while, of course, such as are used
in the various public parks and gardens also came repeatedly
under my observation. Of their relative importance and value I
was, perhaps, the better prepared to judge from having visited for like
purposes all the botanic gardens in the British Isles within the past
few years. The following are the finest subjects we can use : —
Subtropical Gardening. ^
ACANTHUS LATIFOLIUS.— This is a plant that anybody can grow,
and \vhich is in all respects fine. The leaves are bold and noble in out-
line, and the plant has a tendency, rare in some hardy things with
FIG. ii.— Acanthus latifolius.
otherwise fine qualities, to retain its leaves till the end of the season
without losing a particle of its freshness and polished verdure. In fact
the only thing we have to decide about this subject is, what is the best
34 Hardy Plants for
place for it ? Now, it is one of those things that will not disgrace any
position, and will prove equally at home in the centre of the mixed
border, projected a little from the edge of a choice shubbery in the
grass, or in the flower garden ; nobody need fear its displaying any-
thing like the seediness which such things as the Heracleums do
at the end of summer. In fact, there are few things turned
out of the houses that will furnish a more satisfactory effect.
I should not like to advise its being planted in the centre of a
flower bed, or in any other position where removal would be neces-
sary j but in case it were determined to plant permanent groups of
fine-leaved hardy plants, then indeed it could be used with great
success. Supposing we have an irregular kind of flower garden or
pleasure ground to deal with (a common case everywhere), one of
the best things to do with it is to plant it in the grass, at some little
distance from the clumps, and near perhaps a few other things of
like character. It is better than any kind of Acanthus hitherto
commonly cultivated in botanic gardens, though one or two of these
are fine. Give it deep good soil, and do not begrudge it this atten-
tion, because, unlike tender plants, it will not trouble you again for
a long time. How about a ring of it around a strong clump of
Tritomas (grandis in the middle, and glaucescens surrounding it?)
the very dark polished green Acanthus being in its turn surrounded
by that fine autumn-flowering Sedum spectabile ? There would be
little difficulty in suggesting a dozen equally suitable uses for
this fine plant. It is to be had now in some London nurseries,
and in nearly every Paris one. The plant best known by this name
as also known under the name of A. lusitanicus. Both are garden
names, the first the best. It came into cultivation in the neigh-
bournood of Paris about six or eight years ago, and has since spread
about a good deal. Nobody seems to know from whence it came.
Probably it is a variety of Acanthus mcllis — a striking one, of course.
The plant itself varies a good deal; I have seen specimens of it
about a foot high, with leaves comparatively small and stiff and
rigid, as if cast in a mould, by the side of others of thrice the
development, and of the usual texture.
Subtropical Gardening. 35
ANDROPOGON SQUARROSUM is a hardy plant in the neighbour-
hood of Paris, or survives with but slight protection, making
luxuriant tufts seven feet high or more, when in flower. It would
probably make a beautiful object in the warmer and milder parts
of England and Ireland, and in good soil, but, unlike the preceding,
it is not a subject which can with confidence be recommended
for every garden. But all who value fine grasses should try it.
ARALIA EDULIS (Siel. and Zucc.) — This is a vigorous plant,
highly suited for adding distinction to those positions in which we
desire a luxurious type of vegetation. It is perfectly hardy, grow
six, seven, and even eight feet high in good soil, is of a fresh and
luxurious habit, and this so early as the end of June. The leaves
attain a length of nearly a yard when the plant is strong, while
the shoots droop a little with their weight, and thus it acquires a
slightly weeping character. It is a little curious that plants so
famous for their medicinal or other uses as the Castor-oil the
Chinese rice-paper, and the Indian-rubber plants, should have be-
come so very useful in the flower garden. For this edible Aralia
we may claim as high a position as a hardy plant. For planting
singly few things surpass it. It is very rare in this country now,
but being easily propagated, may, it is to be hoped, not long prove
so. I have seen it nine feet high ; but as it dies down rather early
in autumn it must not be put in important groups, but rather in
a position where its disappearance may not be noticed. An
isolated place, or one near the margin of an irregular shrubbery,
fernery, or rough rockwork by the side of a wood walk, will best
suit.
ARALIA JAPONICA. — A frutescent species, and fine plant for
varying the garden, bearing immense and graceful leaves, and
delighting most in a warm and sheltered position — plenty of sun,
but little exposure to wind. It is best when the stem is rather short
and simple, and has an advantage that few things of the kind have —
D 2
36 Hardy Plants for
it may be used with a stem of considerable height, or with a very
dwarf one.
ARALIA SPINOSA, the angelica tree of North America,, is highly
useful in this class, in consequence of its beauty of foliage and dis-
tinct aspect. It, like many of the hardy things, should be placed
in positions where it would not be necessary to remove it, or closely
associate it with tender plants requiring frequent disturbance of soil.
Both this and the preceding kind may be had in our nurseries.
ARALIA SIEBOLDI is also a valuable species, usually treated as a
FIG. 12. — Aralia Sieboldi.
greenhouse plant. It has been known to stand severe winters
and afterwards grow better than plants that had been housed.
ARUNDO DONAX, the great reed of the south of Europe, is a
very noble plant on good soils. In the south of England it forms
canes ten feet high, and furnishes a very distinct and striking aspect.
Subtropical Gardening. 37
It will do more than that if put in a rich deep soil in a favoured
locality 5 and those who so plant clumps of it on the turf in their
pleasure grounds will not be disappointed at the result. Nothing
can be finer than the aspect of this plant when allowed to spread
out into a mass on the turf of flower garden or pleasure ground.
It seems to much prefer dry sandy soils to moist ones ; indeed, I
have known it refuse to grow on heavy clay soil, and flourish most
luxuriantly on a deep sandy loam in the same district. It, like all
large-leaved plants, loves shelter. No garden or pleasure ground
in the southern parts of England and Ireland should be without a
tuft of it in a sheltered spot. But, fine as it is for effect and dis-
tinctness, its variegated variety is of more value to the flower
garden proper.
ARUNDO DONAX VERSICOLOR. — This is a wonderfully effective
and beautiful plant, that is made little or no use of. We have
already noticed several fine things for grouping together, or for stand-
ing alone on the turf and near the margin of a shrubbery border j
and this is as well suited for close association with the choicest
bedding flowers as an Adiantum frond is with a bouquet. It will
be found hardy in the southern counties j and considerably north of
London may be saved by a little mound of cocoa-fibre, sifted coal ashes,
or any like material that may be to spare. In consequence of its
effective and beautiful variegation, it never assumes a large develop-
ment, like the green or normal form of the species, but keeps tidy
and low, and yet thoroughly graceful and effective. It is of course
suited best for warm, free, and good soils, and abhors clay, though
it is quite possible to grow it even on that with a little attention to
the preparation of the ground. But it is in all cases better to avoid
things that will not grow freely and gracefully on whatever soil we
may have to deal with j and it is to those having gardens on good
sandy soils, and in the warmer parts of England, that I would
specially recommend this grand variegated subject. For a centre
to a circular bed, nothing can surpass it in the summer and
autumn flower garden, while of course many other charming uses
3 8 Hardy Plants for
may be made of it, not the least happy of which would be to plant
a tuft of it on the green grass, in a warm spot, near a group of
choice shrubs, to help, with many other things named, to fill up
the gap between ordinary fleeting flowers, and the taller shrub
and tree vegetation that is now nearly everywhere observed. It is
better to leave the plant in the ground, in a permanent position,
than to take it up annually. Protect the roots in the winter,
whether it be planted in the middle of a flower bed or planted by
itself in a little circle on the grass.
ARUNDO CONSPICUA is a worthy companion for the Pampas,
though by no means equal to it, as has been stated by some
writers. As a conservatory subject nothing surpasses it, and it will
be seen often in large conservatories after a few years. A large pot
or tub will be necessary if grown indoors. The drooping leafage
will always prove graceful, and then it sends up long silvery plumes,
drooping also, and strikingly beautiful. Judging by its different
appearance when freely grown in a tub indoors, and when planted
out even on favourable spots, my impression is that it by no means
takes so kindly to our northern climate as the Pampas grass. How-
ever, it is well worth growing, even in districts where it does not
attain great development ; it comes in flower before the Pampas,
and may be considered as a sort of forerunner of that magnificent
herb.
BAMBUS VIRIDIS-GLAUCESCENS, and others. — I wish to call the
attention of all horticulturists who live in the southern and more
favoured parts of these islands to the fact that there are several
bamboos and bamboo-like plants from rather cool countries that
are well worth planting. Nothing can exceed the grace of a
bamboo of any kind, if freely grown j but if starved in a dirty hot-
house, or grown in a cold dry place, where the graceful shoots
cannot arch forth in all their native beauty, nothing can be mere
miserable in aspect. On cold bad soils, and exposed dry places in the
British Isles, these bamboos have no chance ; but, on the other hand,
Subtropical Gardening. 39
they will be found to make most graceful objects in many a shel-
tered nook in the south and south-western parts of England and
FIG. 13. — Bambusa aurea.
Ireland. Nowadays there is a growing taste for something else
*than mere colour in the flower garden, and these will in many cases
40 Hardy Plants for
be found a graceful help. We have some knowledge of the capa-
bilities of one kind in this country. In a well sheltered moist spot
at Bicton many have seen Bambusa falcata send up young shoots,
long and graceful, like the slenderest of fishing-rods, while the older
ones were branched into a beautiful mass of light foliage of a dis-
tinct type. The same plant has been grown in the county of Cork
to a height of nearly twenty feet. This is the best known kind
we have. At Paris I was fortunate enough to observe several other
kinds doing very well indeed, although the climate is not so suitable
as Cork or Devon. These are Bambusa aurea, nigra, Simmonsii,
mitis, Metake, and viridis-glaucescens, the last of this group being
very free and good. All the others will prove hardy in the south
of England and Ireland, though, as some of them have not yet
been tried there, it requires the test of actual experiment. Those
who wish to begin cautiously had better take B. Simmonsii, viridis-
glaucescens, and nigra to commence with, as they are the most
certainly hardy, so far as I have observed. The best way to treat
any of these plants, obtained in summer or autumn, would be
to grow them in a cool frame or pit till the end of April, then
harden them off for a fortnight or so, and plant out in a nice warm
spot, sheltered also, with good free soil — taking care that the roots
ire carefully spread out, and giving a good free watering to " settle"
all. There are no plants more worthy of attention than these
where the climate is at all favourable, and there are numerous
moist nooks around the British Isles where they will be found
to grow most satisfactorily. The pretty little Bambusa Fortune!
is also hardy.
CHAM/EROPS EXCELSA. — It may not be generally known that
this palm is perfectly hardy in this country. A plant of it in
her Majesty's gardens at Osborne has attained a considerable height.
It is also out at Kew, though protected in winter. On the water
side of the high mound in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Regent's-
park, it is in even better health than at Kew, though it has not had
any protection for years, and has stood the fearfully hard frost of
Subtropical Gardening. 41
1 860. If small plants of this are procured, it is better to grow
them on freely for a year or two in the greenhouse, and then turn
out in April, spreading the roots a little and giving deep loamy soil.
Plant in a sheltered place, so that the leaves may not be injured by
winds when they get large and grow up. A gentle hollow, or
FIG. 14. — Chamasrops excelsa.
among shrubs on the sides of some sheltered glade, will prove
the best places. The establishment of a palm among our some-
what monotonous shrubbery and garden vegetation is surely worthy
of a little trouble, and the precautions indicated will prove .'quite
sufficient.
42 Hardy Plants for
CRAMBE CORDIFOLIA. — This is unquestionably one of the finest
of perfectly hardy and large-leaved herbaceous plants. It is as
easily grown as the common seakale — easier, if anything ; and in
heavy rich ground makes a splendid head of leaves, surmounted in
summer by a dense spray of very small flowers. Doubtless, if
these be pinched off, a larger development of the fine glossy leaves
may be expected, but as the shoots are so vigorously shot up and
converted into a distinct and pretty inflorescence, many will prefer
to "leave the plant to Nature." In planting it, the deeper and
richer the soil, the finer the result. It will prove a capital
thing for every group of fine-leaved hardy plants, and may also be
popped in one or two places where a bold though low type of
vegetation is desired. There is another species, C. juncea, which is
also effective, but not so valuable as C. cordifolia.
CUCUMIS PERENNIS (the Perennial Cucumber}. — This has not
the quality of leaf which we could desire, but it will prove interest-
ing to many. It is perfectly hardy, and possesses, so to speak,
great trailing power. Its leaves are strong, rough, and of a glaucous
colour j and the shoots run about freely if the plant be in very rich
soil. Where bold trailing plants for high trellis-work, or rough
banks, or shaggy rockwork are desired, it will be found distinct ;
but withal we cannot give it a place in the front rank, and the small
select garden without any of the above-mentioned appendages will
certainly be better without it. For the botanical garden and curious
collections it is indispensable. It is strong and lasting when well
established, and may be allowed to fall over rough banks, stumps,
or be trained up trellis-work, &c.
DATISCA CANNABINA. — The male plant of this has long been
known as a very strong and effective herb — graceful too 5 but I saw
female plants associated with males for the first time in the Jardin
des Plantes, and since then I have a higher opinion of the species.
The female plant remains green much longer than the male,
and being profusely laden with fruit, each shoot droops and
Subtropical Gardening. 43
the whole plant improves in aspect. It must not be forgotten in
any selection of hardy plants of free growth and imposing aspect.
From seed will probably be found the best way to raise it, and then
one would be pretty sure of securing plants of both sexes.
ELYMUS ARENARIUS. — This British grass — this strong-rooting and
most distinct-looking herb — is capable of adding a striking feature
to the garden here and there, and should be quickly introduced to
civilization. Planted a short distance away from the margin of a
shrubbery, or on a bank on the grass, and allowed to have its own
way in deep soil, it makes a most striking object. In short, it
deserves to rank fourth among really hardy big grasses, the Pampas
and the two Arundos alone preceding it. I am not quite certain that
it is not more useful than the Arundo, being hardy in all parts of
these islands. In very good soil it will grow four feet high, and as
it is for the leaves we should cultivate it, if the flowers are removed
they will be no loss. It is found frequently on our shores, but more
abundantly in the north than in the south. The variety called geni-
culatus, which has the spike pendulous, is also worthy of culture,
and in its case the flowers may prove worth preserving. It may
possibly be useful for covert, and is certainly so for rough spots in
the pleasure ground and in semi-wild places.
ERIANTHUS RAVENNA. — This is noticed more in consequence
of its being recommended in some of our seed catalogues of late
than from any merit it is likely to possess for the English cultivator.
Around Paris it makes a tolerably strong growth, but I fear it is not
worthy of extensive cultivation there or in England.
THE FERULAS. — I wish it were not necessary to write in praise
of such very fine plants as these, so noble in aspect and beautiful in
leaf. If you grow 2000 kinds of herbaceous plants, the first things
that show clearly above the ground in the very dawn of spring
(even in January) are the deep green and most elegant leaves of
these ferulas. In good garden soil they look like masses of
44 Hardy Plants for
Leptopteris superba, that most exquisite of ferns. Their chief
charm will probably be found to consist in their furnishing masses
of the freshest green and highest grace in early spring. The leaf is
apt to lose some of its beauty and fade away early in autumn, but
this may to some extent be retarded by cutting out the flower-
bearing shoots the moment they appear. Not that these are ugly;
for, on the contrary, the plants are fine and striking when in flower.
It is indispensable that the Ferulas, like some other hardy foliaged
plants, be planted permanently and well at first, as it is only when
they are thoroughly established that you get their full effect. At a
first view, the best way to treat them would appear to be, so to
arrange them that they would be succeeded by things that flower
in autumn, and only begin their rich growth in early summer; but
equally wise will it be to plant them near the margin of a shrub-
bery, where it is desired to have a diversified and bold type of vege-
tation. In the rougher and more solid ground, so to speak, near
large rockwork or rootwork, they would of course prove grand.
The Heracleums, so often recommended in garden literature for
planting near water, &c., are mere coarse rags compared to the
Ferulas, while the Ferulas may be used in the places recommended
for Heracleums. We may look forward to a day when a far
greater variety of form will be seen in English gardens than is at
present the case, and these Ferulas are thoroughly well worth
growing for their superb spring and early summer effect. The best
species are F. communis, tingitana, and neapolitana. Probably a
few others, including sulcata, ferulago, and glauca, may with ad-
vantage be added where variety is sought, but the effect of any of
the first three cannot be surpassed. Among " aspects of vegetation''
which we may enjoy in these cold climes, nothing equals that of
their grand leaves, pushing up with the snowdrop. In semi-wild
spots, where spring flowers abound, it will prove a most tasteful and
satisfactory plan to drop a Ferula here and there, in a sunny spot, and
leave it to nature, and its own good constitution ever afterwards.
GYNERIUM ARGENTEUM (the Pampas Grass}. — This is so well
Subtropical Gardening.
45
known to the reader that there is no excuse for naming it here except
an opportunity to say a few words as to the splendid use we may
make of it in the branch of gardening we are now discussing. It
FIG. 15. — Gynerium argenteum.
is to the Dublin Botanic Gardens we owe the introduction of this
noble plant, now grown in every country where ornamental gar-
dening is pursued. It really deserves as much attention as any
4<5 Hardy Plants for
plant in cultivation, and yet how rarely is any thorough preparation
made for its perfect development. A paltry class of tender plants
may cost more labour and time in the course of a few months than
would suffice to plant a field of the Pampas grass, yet such a
glorious thing as this may be put in with perhaps a barrowful of
mould to start on a bad soil, and then perhaps be placed by the
water or some other secondary spot called its " proper place."
What is there growing in garden or in wild more nobly distinct
and beautiful than the great silvery plumes of this plant waving
in the autumnal gusts — the burial plumes as it were of our
summer too early dead ? What tender plant so effective as this in
giving a new aspect of vegetation to our gardens if it be tastefully
placed and well-grown ? Long before it flowers it possesses more
merit for its foliage and habit than scores of things cultivated
indoors for their effect — Dasylirions, &c., for example, and it would
be well worthy of being extensively used if one of its silken-
crested wands never put forth in autumn. It is not enough to
place it in out-of-the-way spots — the general scene of every garden
and pleasure ground should be influenced by it — it should be
planted even far more extensively than it is at present, and given
very deep and good soil either natural or made. The soils of very
many gardens are insufficient to give it the highest degree of strength
and vigour, and no plant better repays for a thorough preparation,
which ought to be the more freely given when it is considered that
the one preparation suffices for many years. If convenient, give it
a somewhat sheltered position in the flower garden, so as to prevent
as much as possible that ceaseless searing away of the foliage which
occurs wherever the plant is much exposed to the breeze. We
rarely see such fine specimens as in quiet nooks where it is pretty
well sheltered by the surrounding vegetation. It is very striking to
come upon noble specimens in such quiet green nooks ; but, as
before hinted, to leave such a magnificent individual out of the
flower garden proper is a decided mistake.
HELIANTHUS ORGYALIS. — They use this in some parts of the
Subtropical Gardening. 47
Continent as an ornamental-leaved plant in the pleasure ground,
&c. It is as hardy as the common dandelion, grows to a consider-
able height, and is of a very distinct habit. Its distinction arises
from the fact that the leaves are recurved in a peculiarly graceful
manner. At the top of the shoots indeed their aspect is most
striking, from springing up in great profusion and then bending
gracefully down. It will form a capital subject for the group of
fine-leaved, hardy plants, not running through the ground and re-
quiring all the room for itself to spread about. As it is apt to come
up rather thickly the cultivator will act judiciously by thinning out
the shoots when very young, so that those which remain may prove
the stronger and the better furnished with leaves.
HIBISCUS ROSEUS. — This is a very noble hardy perennial, grow-
ing from four to six feet high about Paris, and having the upper
part of each of its abundant shoots set thickly with buds which
produce flowers fully six inches across, of a showy rose, with straight
deeply coloured veins running from the rich dark crimson base of
the petals, and gradually becoming lost towards the margin. There
is reason to think it thoroughly hardy, and it is well worth a trial in
good soil in the southern and milder parts of England and Ireland.
The show it makes in autumn is really very fine, and it will probably
be found a grand thing for association with noble autumn flowers,
like the Tritoma and Pampas grass. As regards leaf effect, it is
scarcely subtropical — to use again that awkward term — and should
perhaps be classed with showy herbaceous plants j but as it was used
with pretty good effect in one of the Paris parks, I name it here.
It should have a warm position, and deep, rich, and light soil.
MACLEAYA CORDATA. — This is a fine plant in free soil, but com*
paratively poor in that which is bad or very stiff. It is quite distinct in
habit and tone, and sometimes goes beyond six feet high. The flowers
are not in themselves pretty, but the inflorescence when the plant
is well grown has a distinct and pleasing appearance. It will prove
a good thing for associating with other fine hardy plants suitable
48 Hardy Plants for
for making bold groups. With some of the things before named,
and with other perfectly hardy plants, there should be no difficulty
in producing as bold and striking groups of vegetation as any ever
seen either with us or in Paris, and afforded by costly and tender
exotics requiring winter protection.
MELIANTHUS MAJOR. — This is usually treated as a greenhouse
plant, and is sometimes put out of doors in summer. So treated,
however, the full beauty of the plant has not time to develope -} and
FIG. 16. — Melianthus major.
much the better way is to treat it as a hardy subject, putting it out
in some sunny and sheltered spot, where the roots will not suffer
from wet in winter. The shoots will be cut down with frost,
but the root will live and push up strong ones in spring, forming
by midsummer a bush of very distinct and beautiful leaves.
Subtropical Gardening. 49
I have grown it in this way to a much more presentable condition
than it ever assumes indoors, where it is usually drawn too much.
I used to protect the roots in winter by placing leaves over them,
and then covering all with a handlight, but have seen the plant sur-
vive without this protection. It is, however, best to make quite
sure by using protection, except where the soil and climate are par-
ticularly favourable.
MOLOPOSPERMUM cicuTARiuM. — There is a deep-green and fern-
like beauty displayed profusely by some of the umbelliferous family,
but I have rarely met with one so remarkably attractive as this
species. Many of the class, while very elegant perish quickly, get
shabby indeed by the end of June, and are therefore out of place
in the tasteful flower garden ; but this is firm in character, of a dark
rich green, stout yet spreading in habit, growing more than a yard
high, and making altogether a most pleasing bush. It is perfectly
hardy, a native of Carniola, easily increased by seed or division, but
very rare just now. I doubt if it is even in our botanic gardens,
but hope to see it in cultivation ere long.
NICOTIANA MACROPHYLLA (Fig. 17). — This is simply a garden
name for a fine large variety of the common tobacco. As it is
so readily raised from seed, and grows luxuriantly in rich soil, I
need not say it is a very desirable subject for association witn tne
castor-oil plant and the like, and especially suited for the many
who desire plants of noble habit, but who cannot preserve the
tender ones through the winter under glass. The flowers are very
ornamental. It should be raised on a hotbed, and put out in May.
PANICUM BULBOSUM is a tall and strong grass, with a free and
beautiful inflorescence. It grows about five feet high, and the
flowers are very gracefully spread forth. It forms an elegant plant
for the flower garden, in which grace and variety are sought 5 for
dotting about here and there, near the margins of shrubberies, &c. j
and indeed for the sake of its flowers alone. P. virgatum is also
E
50 Hardy Plants for
a good bold grass. Both of these may be raised from seed, and are
well worthy of cultivation.
FIG. 17. — Nicotiana macrophylla.
PHYTOLACCA DECANDRA. — The true plant of this name forms a
very free and vigorous mass of vegetation, and though perhaps
scarcely refined enough in leaf to justify its being recommended
for flower garden use, no plant is more worthy of a place wherever
a rich herbaceous vegetation is desired : whether near the rougher
Subtropical Gardening. . 51
approaches of a hardy fernery, open glades near woodland walks,
or any like positions.
POLYGONUM CUSPIDATUM. — This is an unusually large herba-
ceous species of a genus which, as cultivated in our botanical col-
lections, does not appear likely to afford an elegant or a graceful
subject for our gardens. But it is one of the best hardy things
which can be recommended for their embellishment. The growth
is rapid, the size unusual, perhaps eight or ten feet in very good soil,
and the bearing of the plant not at any season shabby. It is covered
with flowers in autumn. The same plant is often called P. Sieboldi,
and frequently sold by that name. When planted singly, and away
from other subjects, its head assumes a rather peculiar and pretty
arching character, and therefore it is not quite fit for forming
centres or using in groups, so much as for planting singly on the
turf, there leaving it to take care of itself and come up year after
year. In this way it would be particularly useful in the pleasure
ground or diversified English flower garden. It is also good for
any position in which a bold and distinct type of vegetation is de-
sired, while of course, when we come to have fine groups of
hardy "foliage plants" in our gardens, its use will be much ex-
tended. The deeper and better the soil, the finer will its deve-
lopment prove. You cannot make the soil too deep and good if
you want the plant to assume a fine character. As with tender
plants we have no end of attention to bestow, often daily attention,
the time and labour necessary to well prepare the ground for a
hardy subject should never be begrudged. This plant will probably
be also found useful for game covert. It is easily procured in our
nurseries, and there is plenty of it at Kew, or used to be.
RHUS GLABRA LAciNiATA. — We have known this plant for about
two years as a subject of much promise for garden decoration, and
may now be certain of its being one of the most useful and elegant
dwarf shrubs we can employ to furnish an attractive effect from
leaves. It is a small kind, with finely cut and elegant leaves,
E 2
53 Hardy Plants for
the strongest being about a foot long when the plants are established
a year or two. When seen on a nicely established plant, these leaves
combine the beauty of those of the finest Grevillea, with a fern
frond, while the youngest and unfolding leaves remind one of the
dainty ones of a finely-cut umbelliferous plant in spring. The variety
observable in the shape, size, and aspect of the foliage makes the
plant charming to look upon, while the midribs of the fully grown
leaves are red, and in autumn the whole glow off into bright colour
after the fashion of American shrubs and trees. During the entire
season it is presentable, and there is no fear of any vicissitude of
weather injuring it. Its great merit is that in addition to being so
elegant in foliation it has a very dwarf habit, and is thoroughly
hardy. Plants at three years old and undisturbed for the past two
years are not more than eighteen inches high. The heads are
slightly branched, but are not a whit less elegant than when in a
simple-stemmed and young state, so that here we have clearly a
subject that will afford a charming fern-like effect in the full sun,
and add graceful verdure and distinction to the flower garden.
When the flowers show after the plant is a few years old they may
be pinched off, and this need only be mentioned in the case of
permanent groups or plantings of it. To produce the. effect of a
Grevillea or fern on a small scale, we should of course keep this
graceful Rhus small, and propagate it like a bedding plant. The
graceful mixtures and bouquet-like beds that might be made with
the aid of such plants need not be suggested here, while of course
an established plant, or groups of three, might well form the centre
of a bed. Planting a very small bed or group separately in the
flower garden and many other uses, which cannot be enumerated
here, will occur to those who have once tried it. Some hardy
plants of fine foliage are either so rampant or so top-heavy that
they cannot be wisely associated with bedding plants — this is, on
the contrary, as tidy and tractable a grower as the most fastidious
could desire. It would be a pity to put such a pretty plant
under or near rough trees and shrubs — give it the full sun, and
good free soil.
Subtropical Gardening. 53
SEDUM SPECTABILE. — This is one of the finest autumn flowering
plants introduced of late years, being at once distinct, perfectly
hardy, fine in flower, and pretty before it unfolds from its dense
bush of glaucous leaves. It is hardly large enough to be included
here, but is so valuable for association with the nobler hardy plants
in beds, for use around shrubberies, as a pot plant, a rock plant, or
a first-class border plant, that I cannot pass it by. When specimens
of it are fully exposed to the sun and air, and well-established —
which they become in a year or so — it is particularly fine, and
flowers till the season is just over, keeping company with the
Tritomas. It begins to push up its fat glaucous shoots in the
very dawn of spring, keeps growing on all through the early
summer, and continues in a perfectly presentable condition. The
plant is known by the name of "fabarium " or " fabaria " in our
gardens, and that has caused some little confusion,, as the true S.
fabaria of Koch is quite distinct from, and a very poor plant com-
pared with it. It was in the first place named fabarium by
M. C. Lemaire, but as this was likely to cause some confusion,
M. Boreau named it spectabile, which, considering its very noble
character as a Sedum, and the desirability of having a distinct name
for a plant so distinct, is on the whole the best. The plant is one
of the easiest to propagate and grow that has been introduced
to this country, and deserves to rank among the very best herbaceous
subjects. It is extensively employed in Parisian gardens.
THE TRITOMAS. — So hardy, so magnificent in colouring, and so
fine and pointed in form are these plants, that we can no more dis-
pense with their use in the garden where beauty of form as well as
beauty of colour is to prevail, than we can with the noble Pampas
grass. They are more conspicuously beautiful when other things
begin to succumb before the gusts and heavy rains of autumn,
than any plants which flower in the bright days of midsum-
mer. It is not alone as component parts of large back ribbons
and in such positions that these grand plants are useful, but
in almost any position in the garden. Springing up as a bold close
54
Hardy Plants for
group on the green turf and away from brilliant surroundings, they
are more effective than when associated with bedding plants 5 and
FIG. 1 8.— Bambusa falcata.
of course many such spots may be found for them near the margins
of the choice shrubbery in the generality of pleasure grounds. It
Subtropical Gardening, 55
is as an isolated group flaming up amid the verdure of trees and
shrubs and grass that their dignified aspect and brilliant colour are
seen to best advantage. However tastefully disposed in the flower
garden they will prove generally useful, and particularly for asso-
ciation with the finer autumn-flowering herbaceous plants. It
seems we do not sufficiently appreciate the advantage of good
hardy plants, however much we may grumble at the consump-
tion of coals. Here are the finest of all autumnal flowers, never
causing a farthing of expense for wintering, storing, replant-
ing, &c., but merely asking for a little ordinary preparation of
the soil at first, and yet they are merely grown as adjuncts even in
good gardens, and in many you can scarcely find them. For every
quality that should make a plant valuable in the eyes of the
flower gardener, they cannot be surpassed by any subjects that
require expensive care all through the winter j indeed we may
say they cannot be equalled by any of such — a sufficient proof that
it is not only those who possess stoves, greenhouses, and glass-gar-
dens, so to speak, that may enjoy the highest beauty in their gardens -,
and that it is not solely among tender plants we must look for sub-
jects wherewith to carry out that most desirable end — the adding
of a greater degree of interest and beauty to British flower gardens.
There can be little doubt but T. glaucescens is the most generally
useful kind, flowering profusely, no matter what the weather, in
August and September, and coming in at a time when people
frequent the country garden so much. Next to it in importance,
and greater than it in stature, is T. grandis, which comes in flower
very late. The stems grow to six or even seven feet high, sometimes
throw out a side spike, and flower away if the season prove mild
tilt Christmas, or even till the end of January. T. Rooperi, with
which this has been confounded, appears to be quite a different
plant, one of very strong agave-like habit of leaf, and flowering
very late — so late indeed that it is all but useless for open-air work,
though it may make a useful pot plant, and flower indoors in winter.
T. serotina would seem to be a variety of T. uvaria, and not far
removed from what we call grandis. T. media is not worth grow-
56 Hardy Plants for
ing, so far as I have observed, in consequence of sending up its
stems so very late in autumn. The best of all those dubious kinds
is one called grandifiora, which is more distinct than the others,
forming a sort of large corm-like base, and producing, when in
good soil, large heads of finely coloured flowers. So much for
these not often seen kinds or species. The important fact is that
we have two kinds, glaucescens and grandis, that make a splendid
display on any soil, and only require tasteful planting and arrange-
ment to produce a noble feature in the flower garden in autumn.
FIG. 19. — Anemone japonica alba.
The deep London clay is highly inimical to most kinds of herba-
ceous plants, but by making some preparation in it for the Trito-
mas I have found them do nobly, and they may be grown to per-
Subtropical Gardening. 57
faction in all parts of these islands without any trouble beyond
planting in good and deep soil, and with some deepening and
" making " of the soil in poor arid very shallow ones.
A most satisfactory result may be produced by associating these
Tritomas with the Pampas and the two Arundos, the large Statice
latifolia and the strong and beautiful autumn flowering Anemone
japonica alba (See Fig. 19). This is peculiarly suited for association
with hardy herbaceous plants of fine habit, and should be in every
garden where a hardy flower is valued.
VERBASCUM VERNALE. — Most of us know how very distinct
and imposing are the larger verbascums, and those who have
attempted their culture must soon have found out what transient
far-seeding things they are. Of a biennial character, their culture
is most unsatisfactory: they either migrate into the adjoining shrub-
bery or disappear altogether. The possession of a thoroughly noble
perennial one must therefore be a desideratum, and such a plant
will be found in the Hungarian Verbascum vernale. This is fine
in leaf and stature, and produces abundance of flowers. The
lower leaves grow eighteen or twenty inches long, and the plant
when in flower to a height of seven or eight feet, or even more when
in good soil. It is a truly distinct subject for helping us to vary
matters, and may, it is to be hoped, ere long be to be had in our
gardens and nurseries. It is a scarce plant in England, and perhaps
not as yet to be had hi many of our nurseries or botanic gardens,
though it is certainly the best plant of the genus as known to us in
gardens. I first saw it in the Jardin des Plantes.
THE YUCCAS. — Among all the hardy plants ever introduced to
this country, none surpass for our present purpose the various
kinds of Yucca, or "Adam's Needle," as it is sometimes called.
There are several species hardy and well suited for flower garden
purposes, and, more advantageous still, distinct from each other.
The effect afforded by them, when well developed, is equal to that
of any hothouse plant that we can venture in the open air for the
58 Hardy Plants for
summer, while they are hardy and presentable at all seasons. They
may be used in geometrical "English," or any other style of garden j
may be grouped together on rustic mounds, or in any other way the
taste of the planter may direct. The best perhaps, considering its
graceful and noble habit, is Y. recurva, which is simply invaluable
in every garden. Old and well established plants of it standing
alone on the grass are pictures of grace and symmetry, from the
lower leaves which sweep the ground to the central ones that point
up as straight as a needle. It is amusing to think of people putting
tender plants in the open air, and running with sheets to protect
them from the cold and rain of early summer and autumn, while
perhaps not a good specimen of this fine thing is to be seen in the
place. Than this there is no plant more suited for planting between
and associating with flower beds. Next we have Y. gloriosa, more
pointed in habit and rigid in style, and also large and imposing in
proportions. Lacking the grace of recurva, it makes up for that to
some extent by boldness of effect, while, like the preceding, it some-
times sends up a huge mass of flower. Y. gloriosa varies very much
from seed — an additional recommendation, as the more variety of
fine form we have the better. Then there is Y. glaucescens, with
a sea-green foliage, and rather free to flower, the buds being of a
pink tinge, which tends to give the whole inflorescence a peculiarly
pleasing tone. This is a first-class plant. Y. filamentosa is smaller
than these, but one which flowers with much vigour and beauty.
It is well worth cultivating in every garden ; not only in the flower
garden or pleasure ground, but also for the rough rockwork, or any
spot requiring a distinct type of hardy vegetation. Yucca flaccida
is somewhat in the way of this, but smaller. It flowers even
more abundantly and regularly than filamentosa, and is well worthy
of cultivation. The preceding species, if not so much used in our
gardens as they deserve, are at all events known in them. The
following I met with for" the first time in Parisian gardens :
Y. lutescens. This is a species of neat habit and slightly yellowish
tone, of shining green, arid very distinct. Y. flexilis is an orna-
mental; though not large growing kind. Y. stricta is a rigid species
Subtropical Gardening. 59
scarcely so effective as the preceding j and Y. angustifolia has
narrow pointed leaves and a distinct habit. Y. Treculeana is a very
noble species, which will be found perfectly hardy on good soil and
in warm situations. It has deeply furrowed and very large rigid
leaves, and is well worthy of culture even in a cool house, in which
it is sometimes kept in this country. If we had but -this family
alone, our efforts to produce an agreeable effect with hardy plants
need not be fruitless. The freely flowering kinds, filamentosa and
flaccida, may be associated with any of our nobler autumn flower-
ing plants, from the Gladiolus to the great Statice latifolia — the
species that do not flower so often, like recurva and gloriosa, are
simply magnificent as regards their effect when grown in the full
sun and planted in good soil $ and I need not say bold and hand-
some groups may be formed from devoting isolated beds to this
family alone. They are mostly easy to increase by division of the
stem and rhizome ; and should in all cases be planted well and
singly, beginning with healthy young plants, so as to secure a per-
fectly developed single-stemmed specimen.
Hardy Fern-like Plants for the Flower Garden.
However much we may appreciate the grace of ferns in the
conservatory or plant-house, we have yet but very rarely employed
them in the flower garden, and there are obstacles which are likely
to prevent their use in such ; but it has often struck me that we
may amongst herbaceous plants find many things that afford all
the grace of a fern, and yet withstand the sun as well as a stone-
crop. I have frequently drawn attention to several good things
in this way, and particularly to Thalictrum minus, which, while
growing freely in ordinary soil in the full sun, and being per-
fectly hardy and permanent, will afford us a beauty almost
identical with that of Adiantum cuneatum, and which may be
made the nicest use of by the flower gardener. In consequence
of recommending it so strongly through various channels, there
have been many demands for the plant. It is to be had in abun-
60 Hardy Plants for
dance in some parts of Britain, particularly in the north and
north-west. It is also freely found in Ireland, and is abundant in
the Lake District, growing high up amongst T. alpinum, and a
taller and coarser species. In the Jardin des Plantes, I ascertained
that T. fcetidum, a dwarf, slightly glaucous species, with very
elegantly divided leaves, is much better than even the best form of
T. minus. Once established, the only thing that need be done is
to pinch off the growing" flower stems, and thus keep the poor
little flowers out of sight. The Italian Isopyrum thalictroides is
dwarfer in growth and with a similar aspect, though the leaflets are
larger. It is grown in most botanic gardens, and may doubtless be
had in profusion in its native country. It would form a graceful
dwarf fern-like fringe, but is not equal to the pretty T. fcetidum
when once firmly established in nice cushiony tufts. It is doubtful
if we shall ever surpass or equal that as a little fern-like plant for
the flower garden. The Isopyrum must also have its young flower
shoots pinched carefully off. There is another fern-like plant use-
ful in the same way, quite distinct in aspect from either of the fore-
going, and likely to furnish a most useful fern-like effect. It is Spiraea
filipendula, the dropwort — either the single or the double kind will
do, the last the best. The plant is found frequently wild in England.
The leaves are cut into deeply toothed segments, will of course
stand any amount of exposure, are pleasing in outline, lasting in
character, and certain to produce a good fern-like effect of the
pinnated type. Pinch off the stems and you will then have no
further trouble in producing a dense green margin with this plant.
The leaves will grow from five to eight inches long, according to
the soil. The flower gardener who is at all inclined towards variety
and interest, can of course make a tasteful use of these plants.
The leaflets of T. fcetidum may be used among flowers with good
effect. They are of a more lasting character than those of the
maiden-hair fern.
ANTHRISCUS FUMARIOIDES is a lovely fern-like plant, as hardy
as the common parsnip, a native of Croatia, and fresh as an emerald
Subtropical Gardening. 61
to the very end of autumn. It is one of those plants occasionally
to be found in botanic gardens, but which the general public cannot
readily get. Ever since I first became acquainted with the dark green
and delicately graceful Meum athamanticum, I have had the fullest
confidence that from this Parsley order we shall yet get some of the
most charming ornaments for our flower gardens. However, in
looking through the species with a view of selecting some for this
purpose, we find that, however beautiful are the leaves of some
umbellates, their value is but slight in consequence of their perishing
early in the year. I made a point of looking at this family every
time I went to the Jardin, and found that the following species
with elegant leaves preserved their verdure sufficiently long to
make them valuable as flower garden or pleasure ground orna-
ments -, indeed, some of them were as green as an emerald at the
end of the season : Seseli elatum, globiferum, and gracile, Atha-
manta Matthioli, Silaus tenuifolius, Meum adonidifolium, Peuce-
danum longifoliurn, Petteri, and involucratum, and Anthriscus fuma-
rioides. These were all in prime verdure the last week in August,
and would no doubt preserve their freshness to the last moment in
these islands. To these I would also add, as "fern-leaved plants,"
Pyrethrum tanacetiodes and achillaefolium, and Tanacaetum elegans,
a distinct silvery-leaved species.
List of Hardy Herbaceous and Annual Plants, &c., of
fine habit, worthy of employment in the flower garden or
pleasure ground.
Acanthus, several species.
Asclepias syriaca.
Statice latifolia.
Morina longifolia.
Polygonum cuspidatum.
Rheum Emodi, and several other
species.
Euphorbia Cyparissias.
Datisca cannabina.
Veratrum album.
Tritomas, in variety.
Thalictrum foetidum.
Crambe cordifolia.
Althaea taurinensis.
Geranium anemonaefolium.
Melianthus major.
Panicum, several species.
Spiraea Aruncus.
„ venusta.
Astilbe rivularis.
„ rubra.
Eryngium, several species.
Ferula, „
Seseli, „
Chamaerops excelsa.
Cucumis perennis.
Hibiscus roseus.
Rhus glabra laciniata.
Artemesia annua.
Phytolacca decandra.
Centaurea babylonica.
Lobelia Tupa.
Pencedanum ruthenicum.
Heracleum, several species.
Dipsacus laciniatus.
Alfredia cernua.
Cynara horrida.
„ scolynus.
Carlina acanthi folia.
Telekia cordifolia.
Echinops exaltatus.
„ ruthenicus.
Helianthus argophyllus.
„ orgyalis, and others.
Gunnera scabra.
Funkia subcordata.
„ japonica.
Tritoma, in varieties.
Arundo Donax.
„ conspicua.
Gynerium argenteum.
Elymus arenarius.
Bambusa, several species.
Arundinaria falcata.
Yucca, several species.
Verbascum vernale.
Aralia spinosa.
„ japonica.
„ edulis.
Macleayia cordata.
Panicum bulbosum.
„ virgatum.
Kochia scoparia.
Datura ceratocaula.
Silybum eburneum.
„ marianum.
Onopordon Acanthium.
arabicum.
List of Hardy Plants of fine habit, that may be raised
from Seed.
Among suitable hardy plants that may be raised from seed,
the following are offered in the seed catalogues for the present
year : —
Acanthus latifolius.
„ mollis.
„ spinosus.
Artemesia annua.
Astilbe rivularis.
Campanula pyramidalis.
Cannabis gigantea.
Carlina acanthifolia.
Datura ceratocaula.
Echinops, several species.
Eryngium bromeliaefolium.
„ campestre.
„ coelestinum.
„ giganteum.
Ferula communis.
„ tingitana.
Geranium anemonaefolium.
Gunnera scabra.
Gynerium argenteum.
Helianthus argyrophyllus.
„ orgyalis.
Heracleum eminens.
„ giganteum.
„ platytaenium.
Kochia scoparia.
Lobelia Tupa.
Morina longifolia.
Onopordon arabicum.
„ tauricum.
Centaurea babylonica.
Panicum, several species.
Phytolacca decandra.
Salvia argentea.
Silybum marianum.
„ eburneum.
Statice lati folia.
Tritomas, in variety.
Yucca, several species.
CHAPTER III.
Le Jar din Fleuriste de la Vill&de Paris.
I HIS, the great nursery and propagating garden for the
tender plants employed for the decoration of such of the
parks and gardens as belong to the city, and also for de-
corating the Hotel de Ville on festive occasions, is so very remark-
able an establishment, that no excuse is needed for publishing a de-
scription of it. In Paris of recent years the making of new gardens
has had as much attention as the pulling down of old streets, and
the richness and extent of the collections in this establishment are
quite astonishing even to visitors from our own great gardens. In
addition to La Muette — the name by which the establishment at
Passy, that I am about to describe, is generally known — there
are two other establishments for the supply of the city with plants
— one for trees and shrubs in the Bois de Boulogne, and the other
for herbaceous plants, &c., in the Bois de Vincennes. It should
also be remarked that it is only for the supply of the gardens of the
Ville — as distinguished from those of the State. The gardens of the
Tuileries, Luxembourg, at the Museum, &c., grow their own
supplies.
Imagine yourself prepared to visit a t( propagating establishment,"
and then ushered into a magnificent span-roofed curvilinear camellia
house — quite a grand conservatory of camellias — and in connexion
with it on one side a great conservatory filled with Aralias, Yuccas,
Beaucarneas, tree ferns, Nicotianas, Dasylirions, Dracaenas, and a
Le Jardin Fleuriste de la Ville de Paris. 65
host of such plants all in fine condition, and arranged as closely and
well as possible, everything being clean and orderly. Then, on the
other side, another very fine span-roofed structure for palms. And
such a noble collection of healthy palms in a fresh green state ! They
were arranged in three longitudinal beds, while all along the sides
of the house ran a belt of the smaller and younger kinds, plunged in
tan to give them a little encouragement. To look along the path-
way between these long beds was like glancing into a fresh young
tropical palm grove, in such perfect health were the plants. When
it is considered that many other great houses are in the garden,
and a large field of pits and frames, the reader will agree that
examining or relating the particular interest of each subject is out
of the question, and particularly when it is stated that there are
nearly 400 kinds of palms alone in this establishment. Though
it is essentially a business garden, and one in which an almost innu-
merable host of plants have to be annually developed, no slovenli-
ness of arrangement or culture was apparent in any part. The
plants generally are clean, well-grown, and well-arranged. Seldom
indeed do we see such efficient economy of space in gardens as
is the rule in these houses. Under the benches are packed
quantities of Caladiums, Fuchsias, Cannas, and hosts of things
that may be efficiently preserved in such places in winter 5 and
even after the great Arums, &c., are potted off in spring, they
are thickly placed underneath for a short time, every available
inch being taken advantage of. Some of the houses are large
lean-to's, and instead of the back wall being left naked, or with
one shelf placed against it at the top, there are a series of shelves
one above another, six altogether, and on these a multitude of
plants are accommodated — Coleuses, &c., in the warm houses j
Lantanas, and the like, in the cool ; they keep readily enough on
these during the winter, and, if drawn a little or discoloured, a few
weeks of bright sun in spring in the frames before putting out
in the open air, soon puts that to rights. In the large span-roofed
curvilinear houses, with a narrow passage through the centre,
there are a series of shelves affixed to erect irons on each side of the
F
66 Le Jardin Fleuriste de la Ville de Paris.
central pathway, and on these a great number of plants are stored,
so that every space is taken advantage of without in the slightest
degree interfering with the health of the plants, which is indeed ad-
mirable. But doubtless it is necessary thus to economize space, for
the enormous number of nearly three million of plants is annually
required from and furnished by this establishment for the embel-
lishment of Paris and its environs. These are raised at a very cheap
rate — less than a penny each. And observe that many of the plants
are such as would be fit to embellish any exhibition, numbers of
them being palms and fine-leaved plants, while of course the least
valuable are simply bedding plants, from Nierembergias to Pelar-
goniums, of which last there are annually sent out from hence
400,000 plants !
Without seeing the houses or plants, the potting-shed would tell
of extraordinary horticultural operations, for in the centre there is
a great wide bench, around which sixty men can work. Ordinary
bedding plants are kept here at an extraordinarily cheap rate — I
think more economically than I have observed them in English
gardens. A very large space of ground is covered by parallel lines
of rough and rather shallow small wooden frames, very simply and
cheaply made. They are rather closely placed, and the pathways
between, and, in fact, all the spaces around them, filled up with
leaves and mossy rakings from the adjacent Bois de Boulogne.
These are nearly or quite filled up to the edge of the frames, and
of course keep the plants warm and snug through the winter. In
winter the floor of the frames is low j in spring their bottoms
are raised so as to bring the foliage of the plants right up to the
glass; and the men were engaged in doing this by putting in a
quantity of the pretty well consolidated leafy stuff before named.
When this becomes decomposed around the . rough and simple
frames, it is taken away and preserved for potting purposes, making
of course excellent leaf-mould. With the frames thus plunged in
a comforting mass of genially warm leaves, and the plants lowered
inside in winter, protection is a matter of easy accomplishment.
They were crammed with healthy bedding plants — the most
Le Jar din Fleuriste de la Ville de Paris. 67
precious of the variegated Pelargoniums, &c., being of course in
the houses ; but the great mass of bedding stuff is grown in this
way in miles of cheap framing. There is no
means of heating these otherwise than by the
leaves j and as it would in any case be very
desirable to accumulate a goodly store of leaf-
mould, that means is anything but expensive.
The foregoing is a very common method for
protecting plants in France, and this description
of it was written early in the spring of 1867.
But things are only beginning at La Meutte,
from what we hear of future glasshouse buildings.
The municipality have arranged to build sixty
more of them in this really excellent town-
garden. Apart altogether from this series, a
number of houses were erected at La Muette
during the past summer, which materially en-
croach upon the space occupied by the rough
framing alluded to. These houses are especially
intended for bedding plants, and are so well
adapted for that end that some details about
them may be useful. They have been designed
on an excellent plan for the culture of bedding
plants, raising of seedlings, &c., growth of
seedling palms, and in a word, of all dwarf
plants. I have seen a good many houses de-
voted to similar purposes in all parrs of these
islands, but never in public, private, or com-
mercial garden anything so complete in its way
as the block of houses, of which Fig. 20 repre-
sents part of the end view. They are low, and
rather narrow, so that all operations may be con-
ducted from the central pathway.
They are cheaply made of thin iron, and the
roof consists of one sash at each side. Many of
F 2
68 Le Jar din Fleurlste de la Ville de Paris.
the frames before alluded to were furnished with iron sashes;
and many of these were utilized in the building of the houses.
Passing along by the ends of these houses you may see a bench
about a hundred feet long, filled completely with the deeply-dyed
Alternantheras — a sheet of colour j the next devoted to young
palms, as green and vigorous as if in their native wilds ; another
devoted to young Dracaenas and fine-leaved plants generally ; and
so on. The benches are of slate, and the plants are held well up
to the glass, while quantities of plants in the way of Canna and
Dahlia may be stored beneath. We generally prefer wooden
houses, but any horticulturist who has seen the plants in the low
range at Passy will agree with me that no plants were ever seen in
finer health or condition than the numerous species in it : while
the very permanent nature of the structure is a great gain, inasmuch
as a wooden series of the same character would require a complete
overhaul in the course of a dozen, and perhaps reconstruction at the
end of twenty years. A mode of protecting these houses in very
severe weather is deserving of notice. It is by means of wooden
shutters, each being about the size of the sash of the house. As will
be seen by the engraving, the gutters, strongly lined with zinc,
are wide, so that men can run along with the greatest ease to
perform any operation between them. In winter, the gutter space
is frequently filled with leaves, to prevent the influence of frost
settling down between each house ; while the glass of the houses
likely to suffer most is protected at night by the shutters. These
are not taken from between the houses every day, but simply left in
piles often or so over some unoccupied spot, or if the range happens
to be completely filled, shifting the position devoted to each pile of
shutters every day, so as to prevent the plants beneath from suffer-
ing. The facility and simplicity with which these houses may be
thus encased in wood to meet a very severe frost, and in a few
minutes, and without the least untidiness of any kind, during day
or night, are quite admirable. Matters are so arranged in the
houses that they could dispense entirely with this precaution,
which is simply noticed from its adaptability to many places
Le Jar din Fleuriste de la Ville de Paris. 69
where a great number of bedding plants have to be kept,
and where means of heating sufficiently to keep out very severe
frosts, are not forthcoming. But the ground plan of the range
is also worthy of particular notice. By thoughtful attention to
that, the men at work in any one of the eighteen houses of
the block already completed may pass and convey plants from
one to the other without passing through the open air -, and thus
one important point, both as regards the comfort of the men and
the health of the plant is secured, and in this way. To put it
simply, the great mass of long houses is cut in two by a covered
glass passage, or rather all the houses communicate with it. This
simple diagram will show the arrangement at a glance, and the
FIG. 21.
passages of the various houses diverging from the central covered
way. Already nine houses are arranged on each side of this
passage, and it is proposed to continue the arrangement till all the
ground previously devoted to framing is covered with this excellent
class of house. The visitor, entering at the end shown by Fig. 20,
and continuing his way through the first house, would at its
further end meet with the covered way running at right angles to
the houses, and through this he could enter any of the other houses
he wished to see without again exposing himself or opening any
doors to chill the plants in winter, or running the draughty gauntlet,
which he usually has to run where houses are arranged in the
ordinary scattered way. Moreover, as in many cases one long
70 Le Jardin Fleuriste de la Ville de Paris.
house is devoted to a particular species or variety in much request,
the visitor may see the state of the stock by simply trayersing
the passage, and looking through the glass dividing it from the
houses.
But though the ordinary dwarf bedding plants are preserved in
vast quantities both in the frames and these houses, it is not the
cheapest way in which they do things here, as we shall presently
see. You have heard of the grand and graceful use made of the
Cannas in Parisian gardening. These are preserved in a most
efficient way in caves under the garden. When the stone is taken
out of the ground for building purposes, an odd rough propping
column is left here and there, and thus wide and spacious cellars of
equable temperature are thus left underground. They are in this
case about seven feet high, and are used as a great store for plants
that may be well preserved without light in the winter. You
descend by a sloping tan-covered passage, and ten to one but you
imagine yourself in a large potato store immediately you get down,
even if you are acquainted with horticulture. I did, and was it any
wonder, when heaps of different kinds of Canna, and those by no
means common kinds with us, were spread upon the floor a yard or
more deep, and twenty feet long? The "tubers" of some of the
large varieties were from five to ten inches long, and the men were
turning them over just as they would the contents of a series of
potato-pits. Here too in wide masses against the wall are arrayed
quantities of Aralia papyrifera, the handsome and much grown
species so useful for "subtropical gardening." It seems in perfectly
firm and safe condition, growing in this dark, or rather gas-lighted
climate, and sends out long blanched leaves of a delicate lemon
colour, which will of course soon acquire a healthy green when
the plants are placed in the open air. Thus they preserve Aralia
papyrifera in all sizes, and this fine thing is turned out for garden
embellishment almost as cheap as wallflowers. Of course ana-
logous protection could be given to such things in many English
gardens where space may be limited, and much expense out of the
question. In these caves were also preserved Brugmansias,
Le Jar din Fleuriste de la Ville de Paris. 71
American and other Agaves, Dahlias, Fuchsias, &c., ad lib., and it
seemed to me about the best possible place for storing such plants.
It is astonishing the quantities in which you see rare things and
new bedding plants here. Houses, eighty and one hundred feet
long, are filled with one variety -, houses equally long, devoted to
the raising of seedling palms, &c., in quantity. If a plant be con-
sidered worthy of attention at all it is propagated by the thousand ;
30,000 being the opening quantity for a new thing of any promise.
During the past autumn ^ 0,000 cuttings of one kind of Fuchsia were
inserted here in one week. Dracaenas are grown here more abun-
dantly than variegated Pelargoniums in many a good English bedding
garden, and they have, it is believed, the finest collection of them in
existence. In one house a specimen of each kind has been recently
planted out for trial in the central pit, and among them many hand
some and noticeable kinds worthy of extensive use with us. The
main entrance is in the Avenue d'Eylau, and near it there are some
interesting hardy plants, including a collection of bamboos put out
to test their hardiness; and that out of door matters are not forgotten
will be apparent when it is stated there is a framework as big as a
large conservatory, over a collection of tulips. It is a favourite plan
here to devote a house to a special subject. Thus there is a large
and fine span-roofed stove for Ficuses -} a house for the collection of
bedding Musas, with a line of thirty healthy plants of Musa Ensete,
forming its backbone, so to speak $ a very large and high curvilinear
stove for the great collection of Solanums; special houses for
Arums, Caladiums, &c., and a winter garden about 120 feet long
by 40 wide, well stored with a healthy stock of usual conservatory
plants, with here and there fine-leaved things like Phormium
tenax, a very effective plant when well grown in pots and tubs, and
of which they have here thousands of plants of various sizes.
Of course all this vast collection cannot be and is not used for
summer decoration. It is employed for the decoration of the
Hotel de Ville, where 10,000 plants are sometimes required upon a
single occasion. Each van that conveys the plants to the Hotel de
Ville is fortified with a neat little stove at one end, flat hot-water
72 Le Jar din Fleuriste de la Ville de Paris.
pipes passing round the interior, and thus, while space is not
curtailed, the van is efficiently heated, and tender plants can be
conveyed by it in safety in
the depth of winter.
The largest series of houses
grouped together for the
culture of house plants gene-
rally, and the stock inter-
mediate in size between the
dwarf and bedding plants in
the low houses and the tall
palms and like subjects ar-
ranged in great iron con-
servatories, are arranged on
precisely a similar ground-
plan to the low range before
described, but are very fine
and lofty curvilinear houses.
Entering from the Avenue
d'Eylau, one of the first
things you meet with is a
magnificent block of curvi-
linear span-roofed houses —
ten in a mass, divided by
a narrow covered way
which you enter, and
through which only you
communicate with the
houses which it divides —
five on each side, These
contain a vast amount of
interest and a great number
of rare and new plants.
One is the largest and most
perfect propagating-house I
Le Jar din Fleuriste de la Ville de Paris. 73
have ever seen, being more than eighty feet long and twenty-four
wide, or thereabouts. From this house immense quantities of
plants are turned out in the course of a year, and observe that
numbers of these are large-leaved Ficuses and plants difficult to
strike, as well as Begonias, bedding plants, and free-rooting stuff.
It contains three central and two side beds, the central pits well
elevated, every space in active work, and the whole presenting a
most imposing array of large bell-glasses.
The propagating seemed most successful. They do not do it as
we do. No pans were used in this house, but very minute pots, a
shade larger than a thimble, and into each a cutting is placed, the
little pots placed in the tan, and covered
with large circular bell-glasses, as shown
by fig. 23. The greater part of the
house is occupied with these, all of a
size, but there are some special arrange-
ments for propagating the more difficult
subjects, and among these may be noticed
what appeared to be an improvement — FIG. 23.
bell-glasses, somewhat of the ordinary
type, with an aperture in the top about two inches in diameter, into
which a moisture-absorbing bit of sponge was squeezed. Nothing
could be more business-like than the arrangements for propagating
in this house. During winter quantities of Hibiscuses are kept in cool
houses here, treated somewhat like Fuchsias— they exist without
leaves or any trouble in winter. They are now being started gently
in warm-houses, and prepared for planting out. The bedding-out
in and around Paris is something enormous. It is not confined
to grand avenues or parks, or great centres, as with us, but is
dotted about wherever there is an open space ; every small square
has its garden, each distinct in design ; and almost every round open
place has its flower beds filled in the early part of the year with
spring flowers, and in summer with bedding and subtropical plants ;
so they require abundant space at head-quarters. In one high house
devoted to tall palms and other effective-leaved plants may be noticed
74 Le Jardin Fleuriste de la Ville de Paris.
a good specimen of Musa superba j they cultivate sixteen or seven-
teen species of this genus. In fact, the place offers more facilities
for ascertaining the most valuable members of some important
genera than any in existence. The boilers of some of the
smaller propagating and other houses are heated by gas, and in this
way a very equable temperature is preserved. It may give some
approximate idea of the collection, when it is stated that there are
in cultivation here between thirty and forty kinds of Aralia, thirteen
of Oreopanax, thirty-six of Anthurium, fifteen of Pothos, thirty of
Philodendron, nearly one hundred and twenty of Canna, eighteen
of Zamia, and more than one hundred and ten of Ficus ! And
probably since that time the stock has much increased, for, as before
remarked, the establishment is in a state of rapid growth.
CHAPTER IV.
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
[ARIS, if not already the brightest and most beautiful of
all cities, is in a fair way to become such ; and the greatest
part of her beauty she owes to her gardens and trees. A
city of gardens and palaces indeed; but which is the most magnifi-
cent— the view up that splendid main avenue and garden stretching
from the heart of the city to the Arc de Triomphe, or that of the
Tuileries or any other architectural feature of Paris ? What would
the magnificent new boulevards of white stone be without the
softening and refreshing aid of those noble lines of well cared-for
trees that everywhere rise up around the buildings, helping them
somewhat as the grass does the buttercups ? The makers of Paris —
who deserve the thanks of the inhabitants of all the filthy cities of
the world for setting such an example — answer this question for us
by making parks and gardens in every direction, and by planting
such quantities of trees as no British planter would believe with-
out having walked some dozen miles in and around Paris ; and by
relieving in every possible direction man's work in stone with the
changeful and therefore ever-pleasing beauty of vegetable life.
A great point is gained when the public gardening of a city is
not quite out of the way of its more busily occupied inhabitants ;
when, instead of having to go a mile or two to see a public park or
garden, one can scarcely go out of doors without encountering
something green and pleasant to the eye; and it is so to a great
extent in Paris, and will be much more so if improvements there
76 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
progress for a few years at their present rate. In Paris the public
gardens and all that relates to them are as a rule admirably managed
and kept -, faults they have, to be sure, to an English eye, but on
the whole they are magnificent. And as the example shown in this
way should be followed, so far as means will permit, in every town
or city, it may be useful to walk through them with the reader,
pointing out, as far as possible in a hurried way, their most instructive
features. Any passing visitor to Paris may see the public gardening,
however difficult it may be to see the market and fruit gardens,
and therefore a description which may help him may be useful
here. To begin, we had better consider for a moment that the
gardens of Paris are under different boards of management, if we
may so speak. Thus the gardens of the Luxembourg, the Tuileries,
and other palaces, with the Jardin des Plantes, have each their own
superintendents, and have nothing to do with what we may call the
Municipality of Paris, nor are they supplied from its great nursery,
La Muette. On the other hand, the Pare Monceau, the Bois de
Boulogne, the great belt of gardens on each side of the Champs
Elysees, and all the squares, &c., belong to La Ville de Paris, and
are managed by it. In endeavouring to give the reader a concise
idea of Paris gardens, and which may act as a guide to him, I will
commence in the Place du Carrousel, the great square between the
Louvre and Tuileries, and afterwards walk into the outer gardens of
THE LOUVRE.
The eastern part of this square is narrower, in consequence
of the projection into it of the splendid buildings of the new
Louvre, thus projected in consequence of a difference in the line of
standing of the two palaces j and in this part of the square, called
the Place Napoleon III., there are two pretty little gardens sur-
rounded by railings with gilt spears, and they will give the visitor
an idea how the gardens of Paris are kept. They simply display
trees and evergreens, grass as green as could be desired, ivy edgings,
and they look like oases in the centre of the great palace-surrounded
square. A word or two about the grass in Paris gardens. It is
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 77
kept perfectly neat and fresh at all times, in the very heart of the
cityj and even through the winter it looks as green as an emerald.
They give it a top-dressing of fine and welt decomposed manure
with leaf-mould in April, and it is thoroughly and frequently
watered with the hose in summer. Doubtless they would have
a garden in the centre of the Place du Carrousel also, were it not
that the traffic across it from the Rue de Rivoli to the quai and the
bridges on the river side, and which enters in through arches on
each side, is so great. Then by passing through the great court of
the Louvre and out on the eastern side the visitor may see the
garden of the Louvre, which is simply a rail-surrounded space, laid
out with the usual very green and well-kept grass, round-headed
bushes of lilac, ivy edgings, evergreen shrubs here and there,
flowers, both spring and summer, and the best, cheapest, prettiest,
and most lasting edgings in use in any garden, made of cast-iron in
imitation of bent sticks. Much of this garden was once covered
with old buildings and streets — even the great square just spoken of
was once packed with alleys, but the recent improvements of Paris
have swept all those things away, and on every side the buildings
stand as free as could be desired, unlike our London ones, some
of which can hardly be discovered, and which when they have
an enclosed space around them, it is merely a receptacle for dead
cats, &c. Numerous seats are placed against the walls of the
palace, and the gardens, though not large, offer a very agreeable
retreat to invalids, children, and others during all but the coldei
months.
The main feature of the flower gardening is a modification of the
mixed border system, pretty, and also capable of infinite change.
This is the plan of the Louvre borders. It is a combination of circle^
and mixture, and ribbon, quite unpractised with us. Along the
middle of the borders we have a line of permanent and rather
large-growing things — roses, dahlias, neat bushes of Althaea frutex,
and small Persian lilacs. The lilacs might be thought to grow too
gross for such a position, but by cutting them in to the heart as soon
as they have done flowering the bedding plants start with them on
78 The Public Gardens and Parks of Pans.
equal terms, and the lilacs do not hurt them by pushing out again,
and making neat round heads for taking a lead in the display of
spring flowers. Thus they have along the centre of each border
a line of green and pointed things, which always save it from over-
colouring, and then underneath they lay on the tones as thick as
need be. Around each bush or tallish plant in these borders are
placed rings of bedding plants — Fuchsia, Veronica, Heliotrope,
Chrysanthemum grandiflorum, fceniculaceum, &c., the outer spaces
between the rings being filled with plants of other sorts. Then
follows a straight line of Pelargoniums — scarlet, white, and rose
mixed plant for plant, and forming a very pretty line. Outside of that
a band of Irish ivy, pegged close to the earth, and pinched two or
three times a year j and finally, on the walk side, an edging of the
rustic irons elsewhere described. As soon as they get beyond the
very primitive idea, that because one border is of a certain pattern
the others ought to follow it, this will be found a really good plan,
and it is worth attention with usj by its means we may enjoy great
variety in a border without any of the raggedness of the old mixed
border system. Around most of the rose trees they place a ring of
the Gladiolus — a good plan where the plant grows well. Any
person with a knowledge of bedding plants may vary this plan ad
infinitum, and produce a most happy result with it wherever borders
have to be dealt with. In the Tuileries we find much the same
kind of garden, with a fine bloom of roses in summer, and more
hollyhocks and Althaeas in autumn. So also in the Palais Royal we
meet with the same style going around the squares, but it is only
the Louvre strips that have the wide margin of dark green Irish
ivy — a refreshing and neat finish. It is not far to step into the
garden of the Palais Royal, but there is little to be seen there which
we shall not meet elsewhere. There are great crowds sitting out
of doors in the evenings ; a smaller crowd at noon waiting to set their
watches by the little bomb which is fired by sunlight every day at
that hour, but in the plant way I only remember it for a few
specimens of the round-headed Acacia inermis in tubs, furnishing
as good an effect as many things more difficult to grow and obtain.
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 79
THE TUILERIES.
Let us next go to the west end of the palaces to see the gardens
of the Tuileries, which stretch from the western face of the
palace to the Place de la Concorde, bounded on one side by that
fine straight street the Rue de Rivoli, on the other by the river.
Being nearly in the centre of Paris these gardens are the most fre-
quented of all perhaps. The garden is very large, and laid out in
the plain geometrical style by Le Notre, wide straight walks,
borders round grass plots dotted with little lilac bushes, and flowers
below them. About one-fourth of it near the palace is cut off for
the Emperor's private use, but this part is merely divided from the
public one by a sunk fence and low railing, so that the view of the
private garden is enjoyed by all. In it they simply plant good
evergreens and plenty of deciduous flowering shrubs, while the grass
plots are belted by borders, and one runs right along under the
palace windows with the usual round bushes of lilac, but these
borders are kept pretty gay all the year round. The private garden
of the Emperor is quite open to the public when he is not living at
the Tuileries. It is well worth visiting should an opportunity occur,
if only to see the way the ivy edgings are used. There are no beds,
only borders — these touching the gravel walk, and being edged with
box. Then on the bright gravel itself, or apparently so, they lay
down a beautiful dark green band of the Irish ivy, of course allow-
ing in the laying down of the walk for the space thus occupied.
The effect of the rich green band adds much to the beauty of the
borders. The flowers are kept a good deal subdued, and some
trouble is taken to develope the shrubs and stronger vegetation dis-
tinctly and well. The effect is very good from the windows and
the interior. Here again we see the ivy edging, twenty inches
wide, well used ; and Cannas afford a very charming effect in mixed
borders. A very wide walk crosses the garden just outside the private
division j at about its centre are a large basin and fountain, from
which another wide walk goes straight towards the Place de la
Concorde, and by looking in that direction you see the whole length
8o The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
of the magnificent Avenue des Champs Elysees, terminated on the
crest of the hill by the Arc de Triomphe. This walk cuts the garden
into two portions chiefly planted by chestnuts and other tall trees,
which have not been sufficiently thinned, but are allowed to run up
very tall, and thus afford a high arched shade in summer, the ground
being gravelled underneath so that it is comfortable to walk or play
upon. There is a slight narrow terrace on both sides, an orangery,
the contents of which are placed out in summer, an alley arched
over with lime trees by the side of the Rue de Rivoli, and at the
western end there are terraces which afford a capital view of the
bright and busy scene around and the magnificent avenue towards
the west. The sculpture is good, and there is a great deal of it,
both copies of celebrated works and original ones, but as for fresh
horticultural interest there is little or none to be seen ; and a passing
glance is all the visitor need bestow on the public part of the garden
of the Tuileries, though it is only fair to add that its general effect
is very good, and that it in all respects answers its purpose as a play
and promenading ground, and a "lung" to the city.
But let us wait a moment to look at these people feeding the birds
so much to their own amusement, and also that of the lookers-on.
It is a pretty sight, and seems to afford much pleasure to many
people, and doubtless much more to the successful feeders. It is
quite a little scene in the gardens every day, and on fine days
it attracts numbers of people, though it is an every-day occur-
rence there. The Jardin des Tuileries is inhabited by a great number
of the common " ring dove," or " quest" — those wild pigeons which
in Britain and elsewhere, when in a wild state, flash away from
man like an arrow from the bow. In these and other gardens in
Paris they seem perfectly at home, and perch at ease in the trees
over the heads of the multitudes of children who play, and of
people who walk on fine days. Their intimacy does not extend
further except with their friends who come to feed them now and
then. Here is an instance. A man, evidently a respectable me-
chanic, comes to a certain spot, near the private garden of the
Emperor. Presently some of the pigeons fly to their friend. He
The PuUlc Gardens and Parks of Paris. 81
is an old acquaintance, and a bird alighting on his arm gets a morsel
of bread to begin with j others follow. He has previously put a few
crumbs of bread into his mouth, of which the birds are well aware,
and, arching their exquisitely graceful necks, put their bills between
his lips and take out a bit "turn about." Perhaps one alights on
his head, and he may accommodate two or three on his right arm.
There are others perched on the railings near at hand, and they
come in for their turn by-and-by. A dense ring of people stand a
few yards off, looking on, especially if it be a fine day, but they
must not frighten the birds, and this persistent feeder looks daggers
at a small boy who allows an audible yell of delight to escape.
Presently the sparrows gather round the feeder's feet, and pick up
any crumbs that may fall while he is transferring the bread from
his pocket to his mouth. The sparrows, sagacious creatures, do not
as a rule light upon the arm, and never even think of putting their
heads in the mouth of the man, but flutter gently so as to poise
themselves in one spot about fifteen inches or so from the hand of
the feeder. He throws up bits among them, and they invariably
catch them with slight deviation from their fluttering position, or at
most with a little curl. It is very pretty to see them thus fed, and
to see the exquisitely graceful heads and necks of the wood pigeons
as they move them to extract the crumb is charming. In one
instance we saw a sparrow or two alight on a man's hand, and
pluckily root out crumbs that he held rather firmly between his
finger and thumb. He was an ancient and persevering personage,
evidently of the Jewish persuasion -, and however much I may
regret to admit it, as a faithful chronicler I must state that not one
sparrow approached within ten inches of the hand of a Gentile.
Similar instances of this interesting bird-feeding would be a pleasant
pastime in other places than the Tuileries gardens.
THE CHAMPS ELYSEES, &c.
The Place de la Concorde is not a garden but a noble open
square — a worthy centre to the magnificent roads and streets that
o
82 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
are near and radiate from it, and with a terrible history. Fountains
and statues embellish it ; there is no sign of its fearful associations
to be seen 5 it is a place to make one ashamed of Trafalgar-square,
which has been ridiculously called the finest site in Europe. By
looking to the east the Palace of the Tuileries may be seen through
the division made in the wood of chestnuts by the central walk,
and to the west the Avenue des Champs Elysees. If the reader
who has not visited Paris will suppose the lower part of Regent-
street to be flanked with a large and wide pleasure ground, with a
grand tree-bordered avenue passing through its centre straight away
to the highest point of the broad walk in the Regent's Park, and
there crested by an immense triumphal arch — the largest in the
world, 161 feet high and 145 wide — he will be able to form some
idea of what the scene here is. It was only in 1860 that the garden
part was laid out as such, and yet it looks an ancient affair, has
many respectable specimens of conifers, Magnolias, &c., numerous
large and well made banks and beds of Rhododendrons, Azaleas,
hollies, and the best shrubs generally, with abundant room for
planting summer flowers, chiefly however as margins to the clumps
of fine shrubs. It is a large space, large enough for the allied
armies to encamp here in 1813, and perhaps the most remarkably
diversified scene of the kind in the world. In the centre is the
avenue itself, usually covered in fine weather with carriages 5 then
wide asphalte footways and gravel walks, with about five rows of
trees on each side, and then the ground begins to assume the gar-
denesque aspect, and to become in short a first-rate pleasure garden.
Here and there among the trees may be seen neat and showy-
looking buildings surrounded by a close planting of rhododendrons
or other shrubs, and with a rather large gravelled space surrounding
each ; these are cafes, where singing, music, &c., are to be heard in
the summer — the summer residences of the music halls, in fact.
Other "places of amusement," from Punch and Judy shows to re-
volving circuses, abound. On Sundays and fine days the wide tree-
shaded walks are crowded with pedestrians 5 all the little games are
in full swing, and though it may seem a queer jumble to some
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 83
readers, the whole thing is about as orderly as a crowd at a flower-
show. A little above this is the Rond Pont, a circular open space,
where a lot of avenues radiate, and in which there are large beds
for flowers, fountains, &c., disfigured, however, by the undulations
which some poor little bits of grass are made to assume. Object-
less and unnatural diversification of the ground and the lumping
together of too many things in one mass, are the weak points in the
gardening of Paris. Surely a better use could be made of the
beautiful variegated Acer negundo than putting many score plants
of it in one great pudding-like bed ! They do the same thing
to some extent with the subtropical plants, but it is a fault which
must be cured some day in the natural order of things. The
best way to go to the Bois de Boulogne from the Arc de Triomphe
is along the grand Avenue de 1'Impera trice, which is bordered by
grass, trees, conifers, fine villas, gardens, &c., and is in itself worth
seeing. It leads straight to the Bois, the most fashionable of Parisian
parks. This should be seen by everybody j and as La Muette at
Passy, the great propagating establishment spoken of elsewhere, lies
on its east side, there is no lack of horticultural interest in the
vicinity.
The great arch is surrounded by an immense circular space,
from which straight boulevards and avenues radiate in all directions.
The guide-books advise the visitor to Paris to see the lamps lit
at night in the Champs Elysees, but if he should want to see the
finest effect of that kind, he must go to this arch of a dark night,
and standing in the centre look at their effect in the great avenues,
which fall from where he stands, and afterwards walk round th&
arch to see them better still. The whole scene around here is
magnificent, and highly suggestive of how a great city should be
laid out. If Paris had nothing worth seeing but what may be seen
from hence, it would well repay a visit to all persons interested in
the improvements of towns and cities. One of the avenues that
radiate from this great circle is the Avenue de la Reine Hortense,
and at its end may be seen large and handsome gilt gates ; they are
at the entrance to the
G 2
84 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
PARC MONCEAU.
This is a place which should be seen by every horticultural visitor
to Paris. It is not large, bur. exceedingly well stored, and usually
displays a vast wealth of subtropical plants during summer. In
spring it is radiant with the sweet bloom of early-flowering shrubs
and trees, and every bed and bank covered with pansies, Alyssum,
Aubrietia, and all the best known of the spring flowers, while
thrushes and blackbirds are whistling away as if miles in the
country, though it is only a few minutes' walk from the Rue du
Faubourg St. Honore. It contains abundant plantations of good
shrubs, large trees, with shady walks through them, and masses of
one kind of shrub here and there. More than i^o plants of the
fine Acer negundo variegata may be counted in one clump, and
around nearly all the clumps are detached circular little beds, filled
with sandy peat, just big enough for one plant. A lot of specimens
of Thuja aurea outside one clump of trees and shrubs is a handy
illustration of the way they dot about the subtropical plants in
summer j and, by the way, if we made good use of such plants we
should have little want for costly " subtropicals." In one large bed
Aralia papyrifera was left out all the winter, the bed snugly
thatched over ; but though the plant may be kept in that way, it
does not seem a desirable course to pursue. This park was laid out
so long ago as 1778 for Philip Egalite as an " English garden," and
passed through various changes, till it at last fell into the hands of
the Municipality of Paris, a very astute corporation, who have con-
verted it into a charming garden, and are not likely to part with it
in a hurry. It contains a small and not pretty lake, half encircled
with round fluted columns.
Dr. Moore, of Glasnevin, once told me that he considered this in
its full dress the most successful example of flower-gardening he had
ever seen, and therefore it may be well if we look at it in that state.
The system of planting adopted here as well as in the other gar-
dens of the city is often striking, often beautiful, and not unfrequently
bad. It is striking when you see a number of that fine silvery tree,
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 85
Acer negundo variegata, arranged in one great oval mass, gay and
bright -, it is beautiful when you see some spots with single speci-
mens and chaste beds, every one differing from its neighbour -, and it
is bad indeed when you meet with about a thousand plants of one
variety stretched around a collection of shrubs, or flopped down in
one wide mass in some of those beautiful little green pieces that
spread out among the trees on the islands in the Bois de Boulogne.
In the Champs Elysees there is a deal of this gardening, and much
of it consists of masses of monstrous ugliness, in consequence of
what we may call overlumping, to produce sensational effect 5 but
it is less observable and more artistically managed in the Pare
Monceau. An odd single specimen of Musa Ensete looks very fine
here and there, and occasionally you may see a really tasteful
thing — for instance, a mass of brightly and freely flowering Portu-
lacas surfacing beds with tall foliaged plants, &c. The Hibiscuses
begin in August to compensate for months of ugly stickiness by
showing an odd blazing bloom, beautiful here and there, while
Begonias and not a few other things look miserable indeed. " This
subtropical system will never do for England!" say some practical men.
The truth is, that it requires to be done very carefully in Paris, and
there is a great mistake made by putting out a host of tender plants
merely because — well, I can't say why, unless it is to contrast healthy
beauty with ragged ugliness. Their weakness is, that like most people
in this world, they do not know where to stop. You have in the
Pare Monceau a group of Musa Ensete worth making a journey to
see, and groups of Wigandia, Canna, and such Solanums as Warce-
wiczii, that are worthy of association with it -, but you also see
there beds of Begonias without a good leaf, let alone a particle of
beauty : nasty scraggy stove plants, with long crooked legs, and a
few tattered leaves at the top, and poor standard plants of the sweet
Verbena at the same time. If it were an experimental ground one
would not mind, of course j but this, in gardens where its omission
would leave almost nothing to be desired, is almost too bad. In
some respects this park is really unequalled, and therefore one
regrets the more to see these blemishes. However, it is only fair
86 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
to say that last season was exceptionally bad, and that many of the
plants and much of the skill of the chief gardeners of the town had
to be devoted to the grounds of the Exposition. Musa rosacea and
M. sinensis flap their poor leaves about in the wind without being
"kilt entirely," but among all the Musas, M. Ensete is the best for
the open air or the cool conservatory. I have seen it withstand
hailstorms without suffering in the least.
Such plants as Crambe cordifolia and the Pampas-grass look fine
isolated on the grass near the margin of a clump of trees. The
Pampas is worth growing for this purpose alone, even if it never
flowered. Erythrinas flower well, but should not be used in
large masses. Beds and borders of Hydrangeas are very fine
indeed, and worth more attention than they get in England.
Some plants bearing blue flowers amongst the normally coloured
ones, of course add much to the effect. An immense mass of
Canna nigricans, with edge of variegated Ageratum, was very
imposing. Clematis montana trained up the trees has a charming
effect. What a nice thing it must be in flower in this position !
though it would be better allowed to run over some old stumps
or low common trees over which it might train itself. Beds of
ferns in shady places are nice, and lines of white Fuchsias are pretty.
Ferdinanda is good. A little way off, single plants of Erythrina
look very striking. Some tall slender Solanums, &c., are quite a
disfigurement. Colocasia odorata is very fine, and free and noble,
especially when the plants are old and furnished with tall stems.
Isolated plants of Bambusas are beautiful and striking, as are also
those of Acanthus. Delphinium pegged down amongst Phloxes
is very good indeed j Arundo Donax versicolor is used, but it is
very poor, in consequence of not having been left in the ground
over the winter. Hibiscuses are too naked to be anything but ugly,
and, no matter what result they may produce in the end, no such
hideousness as they present for a long time should be tolerated in
any tasteful garden.
Beds of the better kinds of Solanums are very fine; but I need
not enumerate the plants that furnish the best effect, inasmuch as
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 87
these are fully treated of in the portion of this book devoted to
subtropical gardening. The source of the superior beauty of this
garden is the variety which it presents in all its parts, even the
great masses of Canna and the variegated Negundo are not presented
in duplicate.
THE Bois DE BOULOGNE.
This park illustrates how we improve by friction, so to speak.
Till 1852 the Bois was a forest, a dwarf tangled one too, for when
the English and Prussians encamped in it in 1815, they cut down
everything for fuel. But Napoleon III., in his admiration for
English parks, determined to add their charms to Paris, or rather to
improve upon them, and the Bois is one result. In concert with
the municipality, the Emperor dug out the lakes, made the water-
falls, &c. As a combination of wild wood and noble pleasure
garden, it is magnificent. The deer are placed in a closed-off
space. The Bois is splendid too as regards size — much larger than
the Phoenix Park at Dublin; in fact, nearly 2^00 acres. Though
with large expectations in other directions, the reader will hardly be
prepared for the statement that the French beat us in parks.
When first entered it may not be much liked, the numerous Scotch
pines around one part of the water giving it a sort of pine-barren look,
but a few miles walk through it soon dispels that idea. It has more
than the beauty and finish of any London park in some spots, but on
the other hand, vast spreads of it are covered with a thick, small,
and somewhat scrub-like wood, in which wild flowers grow abun-
dantly, unlike the prim London parks. There were plenty of wild
cowslips dotted over even the best kept parts of it last spring, and
groups of those splendid deciduous Magnolias could be seen for long
distances through the then leafless oaks. To see what the Bois de
Boulogne really is, the visitor should keep to the left when he enters
from Passy or the Arc de Triomphe, and go right to the end of the
two pieces of ornamental water. Then, standing with his back to
the water, he will notice an elevated spot with a cedar growing on
it, and by going to that spot he will get the finest view he has pro-
88 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
bably ever seen in a park — the water in one direction looking like
an interminable inlet, beautifully fringed with green and trees, and
in the other several charming views are opened up, showing the
hilly suburban country towards Boulogne, St. Cloud, and that
neighbourhood. Then, by turning to the right and coming again
to Paris by the other side of the water, he will have a good idea of
what a noble promenade, drive, and garden this is. It is in all re-
spects worthy of its grand approaches, of the width and boldness of
which people connected with English parks and gardens, and who
have not seen those of Paris, can have no conception. There is some
bold rockwork attempted and well done about the artificial water j
and very creditable pains are taken to make the vegetation along
it diversified in character, so that at one place you meet conifers, at
another rock shrubs, in another magnolias, and so on -, and not the
eternal repetition of common things which one too often sees at
home. If you have time, go across the Bois as far as Longchamps,
not for the sake of seeing the race-course, which attracts half
Paris to this part of the wood on fine Sundays, but a large and
beautiful cascade which faces it. Above the "spring" or shoot
of the large cascade is an arch of rustic rocks, over which fall ivy
and rock shrubs, the whole being backed with a healthy rising
plantation. The fault of the most gardenesque part of the Bois de
Boulogne is that the banks which fall to the water are in some
parts a little too suggestive of a railway embankment, and display
but little of that indefiniteness of gradation and outline which we
find in the true examples of the real "English style" of laying
out grounds. But you do not notice this from the position above
described, from whence indeed the scene is charming. The fault
just hinted at is common to almost every example of this style
to be seen about Paris ; and in most of their walks, mounds,
and the turnings of their streams, you can detect a family like-
ness and a style of curvature which is certainly never exhibited by
nature, so far as we are acquainted with her in these latitudes. But
it is only justice to say that, taking the parks on the whole, they are
far before our London ones in point of design. We have nothing
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 89
that approaches the Bois de Boulogne — nothing that surpasses some
parts of the Bois de Vincennes.
Of the Pre Catelan, and certain minor features of the Bois
de Boulogne, space forbids me to speak -} and I must omit all notice
of the Bois de Vincennes, which is well worthy of a visit, and
exhibits some capital arrangement of artificial water.
THE GARDEN OF THE ACCLIMATIZATION SOCIETY IN THE
Bois DE BOULOGNE.
This is a pretty garden and a most interesting place. In it you
may study many things, from the culture of the oyster to the nume-
rous breeds of domestic fowls, from the various silkworms to the
different plants used for bee feeding. I took a deep interest in the
hybrid ass — a neat cross between the domestic and wild varieties,
albeit he proved useless for the carriage, and kicked it and the
harness into "smithereens" when yoked, in consequence of the
virus, or what an Irishman would call the " divilmint" of the
exotic parent predominating j I was not insensible to the claims of a
Russian dog with a coat like a superannuated door-mat ; I laughed
at a duck which had a velvet-looking head remarkably like a
hunting-cap, and nearly as big, but with a body no larger than a
debilitated blackbird ; and was amazed to see a chien with no hair
except on the top of his head. But we must let all these things
pass, and confine ourselves exclusively to vegetable life — always of
great importance, since man first regaled himself upon fruits and
green-meat. Doubtless one of the first things the sagacious creature
pitched upon was the grape — at least the best varieties of grapes
and the best varieties of men are supposed to have originated in
much the same place. To-day it is more important than ever, and
the gardeners here were employed in planting the last of a mag-
nificent collection of 2000 varieties of vines ! What a grand
collection ! It is the famous one formed in the gardens of the
Luxembourg, and fortunately saved from destruction by M. Drouyn
de Lhuys, acting upon the urgent request of a friend of horticulture.
90 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
They were actually about to be thrown away when the recent muti-
lation of the Luxembourg garden took place. So by authority they
were ordered to the gardens in the Bois de Boulogne, where, let us
hope, they will be well looked after, as it would be a great pity if a
collection embracing, as far as could be gathered, nearly all the
varieties cultivated in the world, should be lost to horticulture and
to science. By the way, I observed where they were digging deep
for sand in this garden that it is placed on a bed of capital garden
gravel almost as thick as the bed of dense clay under the Zoological
Gardens in the Regent's Park, and such a basis is of course excel-
lent for a thing of the sort. I saw a man carrying manure on his
back to the vines, and sat down and contemplated him going
through the interesting task, the basket being placed on a slightly
elevated board supported by three sticks, from which he could
readily hook on to it when filled. I looked at him with respect,
and some sympathy, just as we should at a living specimen of the
Dodo or any other animal supposed to be extinct. It occurred to
me at the time that the acclimatization of a handy useful species of
wheelbarrow would not be unworthy of the Society. However, it
is only fair to add that this kind of basket or panier would prove
useful in town gardening, as soil has often to be carried through the
house and also for carrying vegetables, &c.
The Lycopodium is used with charming effect to form a turf in
the conservatory, and nothing can look better than the New Zealand
flax, and several palms and tree ferns, planted near the margin of a
winding bit of water in that structure. Musa Ensete too looked
nobly in the same position, planted out in a coolish house. Although
the glasshouses in the garden afford but little interest, rockwork and
the planting out of fine foliage plants tend to make the conservatory
very chaste and refreshing. Those who visit it during the winter,
cannot fail to be much struck with the effect produced by beds cut in
the rich green of Lycopodium denticulatum, and filled with Primulas,
Cinerarias, and spring flowers generally. The whole floor of the
house, walks excepted, was effectually covered by the Lycopodium.
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 91
THE LUXEMBOURG GARDEN.
This beautiful old garden, the favourite resort for many years of
the Parisians of the left bank, has lately been sadly pulled about,
much to the indignation of the Parisian public and journalists 3 but
it is still a pretty garden. Geometrical gardens are rarely capable
of affording any prolonged interest or refreshing beauty ; very rarely
so much so as that of the Luxembourg. Before the recent altera-
tions there was a good botanic garden — an irregular sort of English
garden, which the French call the "never to be forgotten nursery"
— and much miscellaneous interest now past away. At present
matters are much more concentrated, and we shall find far less to
speak of than of old, but yet enough to make the place worth a
short notice.
The graceful way in which the French use the common ivy is
pretty well exemplified in these gardens near the fountain built by
Catherine de Medicis. Stretching from this fountain there is a long
water-basin, a walk on each side of that bordered with plane trees,
which meeting overhead make a long leafy arch, so that the effect
of the fountain group at the end, representing Polyphemus discover-
ing Acis and Galatea, is very fine. Its effect is of course height-
ened by the leafy canopy of planes, but very much more so by the
way in which the ivy and Virginian creeper are made to form
graceful wreaths from tree to tree. Between each tree the Irish
ivy is planted, and then trained up in rich graceful wreaths, so as
to join the tree at about eight feet from the ground. At about a
foot or so above the ivy another and almost straight wreath of Vir-
ginian creeper is placed, and the effect of these two wreaths from
tree to tree is quite charming. The wreaths seem to fall from the
pillar-like stems of the plane-trees rather than to grow from the
space beneath them, the bottom of the lower wreath resting on the
earth. An adoption of this plan would add verdure and grace to
many a formal grove, bare and naked-looking about the base.
Another thing right well done here during the past year was the
arrangement of vases. Instead of lumping them with flat round-
92 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
headed subjects, as many do with us, they placed in the centre of
each a medium-sized plant of the New Zealand flax, with its long
and boldly graceful leaves, and then set geraniums, &c., around,
finishing off with the ivy-leaded geranium, and the Tropaeolum for
drooping over the margin.
In these gardens the Oleander is grown into large bushes like the
Orange-trees, and put out with them during the summer months
They become perfect beds of flowers. I have seen plants or rather
trees of those oleanders in flower here, quite ten feet through, and
with the flowers as thick upon them as on a bed of geraniums.
They are simply treated like the orange trees, the culture of which
is fully described elsewhere in this book. We do not know if the
plan would succeed in England, but it is worth a trial. The
Oleander is not often flowered well with us, though quite worth the
trouble of cultivation.
On the ^th day of July they were busily employed moving large
chestnut and plane trees in full fresh leaf in these gardens. They
take them up with immense balls and powerful machinery, and very
successfully, but it is not a system that should be pursued more than
is barely necessary in private gardens. It may be very desirable for
La Ville de Paris to move ordinary trees of goodly size to complete
and rearrange its straight avenues here and there, but it is a thing
that should be attempted as little as possible. Such trees are not
worth the expense in any other case. The roses used to be very
good about the Luxembourg, and they are so still, though the fine
old rosary is done away with. The grass banks that surround the
geometrical garden — such slopes as may be seen in most places of
the kind — are not left naked, but planted with two rows of nice
dwarf rose bushes, and the effect of these is very charming. There
seems no particular reason why like spots should be left naked with
us. Let us pass by the fine collection of orchids, camellias, &c., and
some other interesting features, and come at once to the style of
decoration in summer, which is distinct, good, and well worthy our
attention. Continuous borders, not beds, run round the squares of
grass, &c., and from the dawn of spring to the end of autumn, these
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 93
are never without occupants, never ragged, never flowerless. It is
not the old mixed border system, observe — far from it j nor is it the
bedding one. It is a system of bedding and herbaceous plants
mixed, but all changed every year. They steal out a spring flower
this week, and put in a fine herbaceous or bedding plant, or strong
growing florists' flower in its stead, and with the very best success.
Stocks of good bedding and herbaceous plants are always kept on
hand to carry out this, and the placing of the herbaceous plants
into fresh ground every year causes them to flower as freely as
the bedders. But those borders also contain permanent things —
lilac bushes, roses, &c., which give a line of verdure throughout the
centre of the border, and prevent it from being quite overdone
with flowers. Among those woody plants there were others
very beautiful and very sweet for many weeks through the better
part of the season, and those were low standard bushes of the
common honeysuckle ! English gardeners would perhaps scarcely
ever think of that for such a position j but alternating between a
rose and a lilac, or other bush, and throwing down a head of free-
growing and flowering shoots, very few subjects look more
pleasing in the flower garden. Few arrangements can be more
satisfactory than the mixture of Phloxes, Gladioli, CEnothera
speciosa, Fuchsias, Pelargoniums, large yellow Achillea, &c., in
these beds at present and for months past. They also have the
subtropical system at the Luxembourg, and rather more taste-
fully than elsewhere. Thus in one part may be seen a graceful
mixture of a variety of fine-leaved plants with an edging of Fuchsias,
instead of the ponderous mass of 500 plants of one variety of
Canna, which you sometimes meet with in other places about Paris.
M. Riviere is fond of having mixed beds of ferns in the open air,
and isolated specimens of tree ferns, Woodwardias elevated on
moss-covered stands, &c., and their effect is very good.
Numerous amateurs and others go to the Luxembourg to hear
M. Riviere deliver his free lectures, which are thoroughly practical,
and illustrated by the aid of living specimens and all the necessary
material. The lecturer goes through the theory and practice of the
94 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
matter before an attentive class, consisting of several hundred
persons, and elucidates the subject in a way which cannot fail
to highly benefit the numerous amateurs who attend the
classes. It is a very interesting sight to see such a number of
people here at nine o'clock in the morning, taking a deep interest
in the matter, and speaks much for the excellence of the professor.
There are many lectures delivered in England on like subjects,
but none so directly useful to the horticulturist as these.
PARC DBS BUTTES CHAUMONT.
This is the boldest attempt at what is called the picturesque
style that has been attempted either in Paris or London. For
my own part I have an opinion — it may be a weakness — that at-
tempting expensive and extraordinary works in places of this sort
is not wise, at least till all the densely populous places are provided
with healthy well-planted parks. Thus I think that in London it
is a mistake to devote great expense to a few parks, and leave so
many square miles of population without a green spot. But in
this instance an unusual attempt was to some extent invited by
the existence of a great quarry in one part of the ground. The
whole park may be described as a sort of diversified Primrose Hill.
Imagine that, with two or three "peaks and valleys," and with an
immense pile of rock seen here and there, and you have a good idea
of this park. At its hollo w or lower end there was a quarry, and
this has been taken advantage of to produce a grand feature.
They have cut all round three sides of this quarry, smoothed it down,
leaving intact the great side of stone, and adding to it here and
there masses of artificial rock. This forms a very wide and imposing
mass of rock, 164 feet high, or thereabouts, in its highest parts,
and from these you may gradually descend to its base by a winding
rough stair, exceedingly well constructed, and winding in and out
of the huge rocky face. At the base of the cliff, and widely spread-
ing round it, there is a lake. Then this ponderous cliff- — and it
is best described by that name — has several wings, so to speak,
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 95
and in one bay is made a most effective stalactite cave — enor-
mous is the right word, for from its floor to the ceiling is about
sixty feet high, while it is wide and imposing in proportion. In
its back part above this high roof the light is let in through a
wide opening, showing a gorge reminding one of some of those
in the very tops of the Cumberland mountains, and down this
gorge trickles the water into the cave, ivy and suitable shrubs
being planted along its course above the roof of the cavej and
the effect is remarkably striking, though it is hardly the kind of
thing to be recommended for a public park. By all means let us
leave the luxuries of gardening out of the question, till we have
provided the necessaries for the population of great towns, and
these are green lawns, trees, and wide open streets and ways, with
their necessary consequence, pure air. In one of the buttes, or
great mounds here, they have planted 500 or 600 Deodars — made
it a hill of deodars in fact. This is a mistake, for though Paris is
not as foggy as Spitalfields, nor its air as destructive to trees as that
of the West-end of London, it is a great city, as may be seen from
this park, and with many a vomiting chimney too, so that the
better plan would be to pay double attention to deciduous trees,
using only such evergreens as are certain to grow. In one wide
nook, perfectly sheltered on the three coldest sides, M. Andre has
planted a collection of subjects mostly tender in the neighbourhood
of Paris. From this park, the surroundings of which are by no
means nice-looking, you can look over nearly all Paris. The ap-
proach to it from the central parts is shabby for a Paris approach,
and on your way you may catch some idea of what Paris was
before the splendid improvements of the past ten years — a very
dirty city; but this approach, like most other things in Paris, is
simply tolerated till more important things are finished. Of the
quick way in which they turn them out of hand there, the
reader can scarcely have a notion. I have seen acres of land
removed bodily without any fuss being made about itj miles
of trees planted in the course of a single week; old suburbs
blown up by hundreds of mines a day, and levelled into com-
96 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
manding terraces fit for princely mansions. One June day,
bright, dry, and very warm, they were planting trees in this
park, and large ones too — trees that required great machines
to lift them — while they were marking the ground for fresh
plantings. Do you plant after this date ? I asked. Yes,
every day in the year ! There is an imitation of a small Roman
temple erecting on the summit of the great cliff, while the house
of the guard of the park, the entrance lodge, the bureau, and the
refreshment rooms, are in neat cottage style, and so placed as to add
much to the appearance of the park, which in the more finished
spots looks like a well-cared-for bit of green England. They are
making many beds of peat for rhododendrons, and their peat is of
an admirable silvery kind, much admired by all the English who
have seen it with me. Their late planting, however, is not to
be recommended, and, as its consequence, many of the young trees
look as the accomplished Kay of the casual ward described one
of the performers at the "Victoria" — "wery dicky." This park
has some very unusual features indeed, and should be seen by every
visitor to Paris, being more remarkable than others better known.
THE JARDIN DBS PLANTES.
We have nothing in the British Isles like the Jardin des Plantes.
It is halt zoological, half botanical, and nearly surrounded by
museums, containing vast zoological, botanical, and mineralogical
collections. The portion entirely devoted to botany is laid out in
the straight, regular style, while the part in which are the numerous
buildings for the wild animals, has winding walks, and some trifling
diversity here and there. The place is really an important school
of science, and as such it is great and useful. In addition to able
lecturers on botany, culture, and allied matters, there are, I believe,
a dozen lecturers, on various other scientific subjects, some of these
gentlemen being among the ablest and most famous naturalists in
Europe. Here Buffon, Cuvier, Jussieu, and many other leading
men have worked ; and here at the present day, even in minor
departments, are many men of well-known ability.
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 97
Although the Jarclin cles Plantes is quite inferior in point of
beauty to any of our large British botanic gardens, it contains
some features which might be introduced to them with the greatest
advantage. Its chief merits are that its plants are better named
than in any British garden j it possesses several arrangements which
enable the student to see conveniently, and most correctly, all ob-
tainable useful plants infinitely better than in any British botanic
garden j and it displays very fully the vegetation of temperate and
northern climes, and, consequently, that in which we are the most
interested, and which is the most important for us. Its chief faults
are that it has a bad position in an out-of-the-way part of the town j
the greater part of its surface is covered with plants scientifically
disposed j the houses are poor and badly arranged compared to
those in our own good botanic gardens ; and there is no green turf
to be seen in its open and important parts. It has, in addition, a
very bad " climate" for pines and evergreens, and there is a ridiculous
kind of maze on the top of an otherwise not objectionable mound.
Half way up this elevation stands a tolerably good Cedar of Lebanon,
the first ever planted in France. It was planted by Jussieu, to whom
it was given by the English botanist Collinson. Beyond this there
is not much tree-beauty or tree-interest in the Jardin des Plantes.
The houses are in some cases very well cared for, but are inferior
to those in English gardens. There are fine collections of Palms
and other subjects of much importance for a botanic garden, and
the house collections are on the whole good, but the plants in a
great many cases are very diminutive and poorly developed, there-
fore we will pass them by.
There is one admirable feature which must not be forgotten, and
that is the magnificent collection of Pear trees. M. Cappe has had
charge of this section for about thirty-five years, and is now a very
old man, but still he attends to his trees, and has them in fine con-
dition, though contending with much difficulty, because the space
upon which the trees stand is really not enough for one half the
number, and thus he is obliged to keep lines of little trees between
and under big ones, and so on. There are few things in the
98 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
horticultural way about Paris better worth notice than this collection
of pears.
Remarking that they have a graceful way of commemorating
great naturalists by naming the streets in the immediate neighbour-
hood of the garden after them, I will pass on to the more important
feature of the garden -, that is, its very extensive and well-named
collection of hardy plants.
The only species of Pelargonium that ventures into Europe (P.
Endlicherianum) is grown here, and it is quite hardy. Space pre-
vents me from naming the many interesting hardy plants seen here
and elsewhere about Paris, but I do not intend to forget them, and
have already introduced some of the most important.
The first of the principal arrangements of these plants is a curious
and distinct one. It is simply two large and wide spaces planted
with masses of first and second-rate species ; and looks pretty well,
though far from being arranged in a way to develope fully the beauty
of its contents. Edgings composed of the several varieties of Iris
pumila, looked very well in early spring, and many plants are used
for edging which we are not accustomed to see so employed in
England. Thus the good double variety of Lychnis Viscaria has
been very pretty as an edging, and so has the neat, bright, and pure
white Silene alpestris, an alpine plant not half so popular as it ought
to be, though I observe that some seedsmen, while not offering it,
vend a pretty free proportion of the weeds that belong to the
genus.
Then there is a large space devoted to plants used for the deco-
ration of the parterre, all or chiefly tender plants or annuals. This
is not so successful or useful as some of the other arrangements.
Let us pass on to a large division devoted to the culture of plants
used as food, and in commerce. It is at once successful, useful,
and complete. The chief varieties of all garden crops, from
Radishes to Kidney Beans, are to be seen 5 the various species of
Rhubarb, all important varieties of Lettuce — in a word, everything
that the learner could desire to see in this way. It is not merely
the plan of the thing that is sensible and good, but its carrying out.
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 99
Here the annuals are regularly raised and put out ; the ground is
kept perfectly free from filth, and it is, in fact, the best place I have
ever seen to become acquainted with useful plants. Such arrange-
ments well done, and hidden off by judicious planting from the
general verdant and chief area of any of our great public gardens,
would be of the greatest service. The ground is thrown into beds
about six feet wide, and each kind is allotted six feet run of the bed.
The sweet potato is grown here, as indeed are all interesting plants
that may be grown in the open air. Such readers as care about
this root, which by the way is of agreeable flavour when well
cooked, may grow it most readily and effectively by placing it in
a frame or pit after the spring crop has been taken out -, or, indeed,
on a ridge like the ridge cucumber • but the pit or frame is the safest
way generally — the lights being taken off. As pits and frames are
frequently empty from about the ist of June till autumn, room
might be readily spared for it without loss, and a useful vegetable
added to our stock, which is yet in want of variety, fine as it is.
The roots may be bought in Covent Garden. The red variety is
the best. The way to treat them is to pot them about the end of
April ; start them in a gentle heat, and have them fresh and stubby
for planting out in the pit or frame about the ist of June. They
would be the better for the lights for a few days. In this way they
will be found to do better than when grown in a stove, and pro-
bably prove a more grateful vegetable than the Chinese yam in its
best state. Below this arrangement, and near the river end of the
garden, is another very interesting division. It is chiefly devoted to
medicinal and useful plants of all kinds, arranged in a distinct way.
First we have the Sorghums, Millets, Wheats, and Cereals generally
— all plants cultivated for their grains or seeds. Then come plants
cultivated for their stems, from Polymnia edulis to Ullucus tuberosus.
Next we have the chief species and varieties of Onion, such plants
as Urtica utilis, the Dalmatian Pyrethrum rigidum, and in a word
almost everything likely to interest in this way, from Lactuca
perennis to the esculent Hibiscus. Here again the plants are well
named and kept clear and distinct, each having full room to develope,
H 2
ioo The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
the general space devoted to the subject being sufficiently large.
All these divisions we have just passed through cover an oblong
expanse of ground, the effect of which is of course anything but
beautiful from an ornamental point of view, but yet, in consequence
of the ground being well kept, each subject grown well and
vigorously, and all the squares bordered with roses and summer
flowering plants, the effect is better than might be expected. This
great oblong space is bordered on each side by double rows of lime
trees planted by Buffon. Between these are wide walks, agreeably
shady on hot days.
The second great oblong space to the north is entirely devoted to
the school of botany, and this is simply a large portion of ground
planted on the natural system, remarkable for the correctness of its
nomenclature, and the richness of its collection. Here again
everything is well taken care of and kept distinct j the aquatics are
furnished with cemented troughs, in which they do quite luxu-
riantly ; and the whole is most satisfactory, with one exception —
that they place out the greenhouse and stove plants in summer to
complete the natural orders. These poor plants are stored pell-mell
in winter in a great orangery, from which they are taken out in
early summer literally more dead than alive. They make a few
leaves during the summer, and are again put into their den to sicken
or die. The medicinal and other plants for special uses are indi-
cated by variously coloured labels.
For the information of curators of botanic gardens I may state
that Cuscuta major is luxuriantly grown here upon the nettle,
C. Epithymum upon Calliopsis tinctoria, C. Engelmanii upon a
Solidago, and Orobanche grows upon Hemp. I have grown
O. minor upon perennial Clovers, and O. Hederae may be readily
grown upon the Ivy at the bottom of a wall (I once saw it growing
freely on the top of a wall near Lucan, in Ireland), so that there
ought not to be the difficulty in showing these curious plants to the
pi bl'.c which our botanic gardeners find. Orobanche ramosa is also
giown here upon Calliopsis tinctoria. The safest way with the
Orobanches is to scrape away the soil till you come near the root of
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 101
the plant on which you intend it to be parasitical, and then sow the
seed. Juncus glaucus may be seen here and in numerous
French gardens planted near the water : it is very extensively
used in nearly all French gardens for tying plants. They plant a
ring of it round the water cistern, or any convenient spot, and
cut a handful whenever it is required. It seems a useful practice.
Fruit growers like the rush for tying down the young shoots, while
it is also useful for tying up annual and herbaceous plants.
Should any visitor to the Jardin des Plantes wonder at the poor
external aspect of its houses and some other features as compared
with those at Kew, he would do well to bear in mind that money
has a good deal to do with such things ; and that the grant for
museums, lecturers (the lectures are free), the expensive collection
of animals, and everything else in the Jardin des Plantes, is mise-
rably small. On the other hand, the gardens and plants of La
Ville de Paris are luxuriously provided with the " needful j" the
municipality of Paris often spending prodigious sums for the pur-
chase of plants, and even for the plant decoration of a single ball.
One ball at the Hotel de Ville during the festivities of the past year
cost considerably over s^ 0,000, while the poor Jardin des Plantes
gets from the State — I am not quite sure how much, but probably
not one-third of that sum, to exist upon for a whole year.
TREES, ROADS, WALKS, AND CEMETERIES.
Perhaps the noblest feature of Parisian gardening or Parisian im-
provements is the great abundance of healthy young trees that are
introduced into the very heart of the city, and planted wherever a
new road or boulevard is constructed. It is indeed very surprising
to see how well this is done, and to what an enormous extent, as
well in the centre of Paris, on the boulevards, along the river, &c.,
as on the scores of miles of suburban boulevards, radiating avenues
and roads, the sides of which one would think capable of supplying
Paris with building ground for a dozen generations to come. All
the planting in all the London parks is as nothing compared to
JO2 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
the avenue and boulevard planting in and around Paris. The trees
are nearly all young, but very vigorous and promising. Every
tree is trained and pruned so as to form a symmetrical straight-
ascending head, with a clean stem. Every tree is protected by a
slight cast-iron or stick basket, neat wads and ties preventing this
from rubbing against the tree injuriously ; it is staked when young,
and when old if necessary. Most important of all, nearly every tree
is fortified with a cast-iron grating six feet wide or so, which effec-
tually prevents the ground from becoming hard about the trees in
the most frequented thoroughfares, permits of any attention they
may require when young, and of abundance of water being
quickly absorbed in summer. The expense for these strong and
wide gratings must be something immense, but assuredly the result
that will be presented by the trees a few years hence will more than
repay for all expense, by the grateful shade and beauty they will
afford the town in all its parts. It is almost too much to hope for
such improvement in London, though it is capable of being beauti-
fied to an even greater extent by judicious planting, and the trees
used in Paris would do equally well in it ; but we may reasonably
hope that trees will be planted along the Thames Embankment ;
there will be plenty of space and a fine opportunity, and they
would highly embellish what will be the greatest improvement
London has yet seen.
As soon as a new road or boulevard is made in Paris, in go the
trees — and every one of the millions is as carefully trained and pro-
tected as a pet tree in an English nobleman's park. The kinds most
in use for avenues are the Plane, Chestnut, the large-leaved Elm, the
Robinia, and the Ailanthus. Paulownia imperialis is also used here
and there -, and I noticed that it was in some respects the best tree
of all, lasting in the most healthful greenness of leaf long after the
common deciduous trees had begun to suffer. It also presents, from
its low stature and spreading habit, a great advantage for some
places where low trees are indispensable, and shade equally so.
Thus, if they planted it in the garden of the Palais Royal, they
would have a more agreeable shade than that afforded by Elms, &c.,
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 103
while the annual clipping and consequent ugliness of these would
be done away with.
As for the making of the roads and streets it is admirable, as
many readers may have learnt for themselves. When they have
finished repairing or making a street here, the surface is level and
crisp as the broad walk in the Regent's Park, so that the horses
are spared much pain, and carriage movement greatly facilitated.
Stones of much the same size as we spread on the roads are thrown
down, and then comes the heavy steam or horse-drawn roller,
making but a slight impression at first, as might be expected, and
indeed it has to be passed over many times ere the work is com-
pleted. But they persevere and roll away day and night, and soon
the street looks as described. All the time, or nearly all the
time that this rolling is going on, a man stands at the side of the
footway in charge of a hose on little wheels, and keeps swishing
the stones with water, while others shake a little gravel on them
between the rollings, and so they wash and roll and grind day and
night, the result being that the Parisian roads are as comfortable for
locomotion as could possibly be desired. Doubtless such manage-
ment as this, the immense improvement effected in Paris gar-
dens of late years, and their perfect keeping, will act beneficially
on the horticulture of the country generally j and unless some
happy change should start us on the same road to improvement, we
shall soon have good reason to be ashamed of the state of our towns
and cities. Asphalte is coming into very extensive use in Parisian
improvements. Nearly all the fine wide pathways in the boule-
vards are made with it, and now in many parts noiseless smooth
roads are taking the place of those of paving-stones. But, in the
case of all the great boulevard and main roads, an improved
system of macadamizing is the rule — a considerable breadth on
each side being well paved for heavy waggon transit. The asphalte
is used in two forms — as a powder and as a liquid. It is used in a
liquid state for the making of those fine wide footways, often wider
than our roads, that occur so frequently in Paris.
To depose the asphalte properly, the area must be well levelled
104 'the Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
and very hard ; put on the top about one or two inches of t-eton
(mortar composed of quicklime, sand, and gravel mixed together),
and cover the whole half an inch thick with mortar. If the surface
be not a solid one, the thickness of the It ton should be three or
four inches. The surface must be very dry, or the success of the
operation may not be perfect.
During the last few years the preparation of the asphalte has
been much improved. Some years ago, when a pavement was
to be made with asphalte, a great nuisance was experienced by
the public during the operation. The matter was liquefied on the
spot, and produced a nasty smell and smoke, disagreeable and in-
jurious j but now some of these inconveniences have been done
away with by a new system, and asphalte is now laid down in the
most expeditious manner. It is prepared first in out-of-the-way
places devoted to the purpose, and the matter, ready for use and
liquefied, may be transported from these places to any parts of
the town without the least inconvenience in a semi-cylindrical
boiler, closed by iron doors, and moved about on iron wheels as
freely as a common cart. Under the boiler is a fireplace, and the
blaze, after having heated the two sides of the boiler, passes out by
a chimney placed at the back of the machine. Means to keep the
matter in motion, and prevent its burning by adhering to the sides
of the boiler, are secured by a simple mechanism easily worked with
the hand. These carriage boilers, full of liquid asphalte, are driven
from place to place with the greatest facility. The boiler is emptied
by the means of a pipe fixed to its bottom, and the matter is col-
lected in a pail, and spread on the surface to the thickness of three-
quarters of an inch. If the surface is not perfectly dry, the drying
must be accelerated with hot ashes, which are to be taken away
afterwards, or with a little spreading of quicklime in powder. These
operations are indispensable, as if the asphalte were laid on before
the surface is dry, the heat of the asphalte would dispel in steam
the water underneath, and that steam would produce blisters in the
asphalte, which would crack under the pressure of the feet, and
endanger the success of the operation. The operators place on the
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 105
platform two iron bars of the same thickness as the asphalte is to
be, equally distanced from each other, and the asphalte is brought in
a very warm state, but thick enough to require some slight exer-
tion of the operator to make it level. This operation dons, a small
quantity of fine gravel must be spread upon the asphalte when hot,
and slightly beaten down to penetrate in it. This gives a greater
resistance and solidity to the footway, and insures its lasting for a
very long time.
The roads before spoken of are made of the powdered asphalte.
The surface of the roadway must be beaten down very hard, and
covered at a thickness of about three inches with leton, well beaten
down and dry. If the dryness is very necessary in the making of
a pavement, this condition is of a greater importance for the road,
as, if the powder were spread on a wet surface, the steam caused by
the heat would produce a great quantity of little fissures, the elasti-
city would be destroyed, and the road would be useless after a few
months use. The luton well dried, the powder (hot) must b^
spread about three inches thick ; and then proceed with the bsat-
ing. The sides must be done first, and pressed down with a rec-
tangular iron pestle eight or nine inches in length and two or two
and a half inches in width. When the sides are done, proceed
with the middle. The pestles used in beating are made of cast-
iron, and circular, with about eight inches diameter. The pestles
of either form are heated and used quite hot, so as to compress tha
asphalte into a hard smooth mass. When the crust of asphalte is
brought to the thickness required, and is sufficiently smoothed and
beaten hard, they spread with a sieve a little quantity of very fine
powder to fill all the unevenness, and again smooth the whole with
a flat piece of hot iron. The compression is completed by the roll-
ing of two cast-iron rollers, one of 4000 Ib. weight and the other of
3000 Ib. Sometimes three of these rollers are employed, and the
intermediate one is about from 1500 to 1600 Ib. weight. This
rolling is not always necessary, and in many cases the beating
down with pestles is sufficient. The roads thus made, completely
noiseless and lasting a long time, have been adopted with the
io5 The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
greatest success by the city of Paris, and will probably succeed the
paving stones, macadamizing, and all the rest of it. Some beautiful
smooth roads through the Luxembourg gardens are made of this
powdered asphalte, and without the rolling with heavy rollers, the
hot " smoothing irons " being used.
Our English cemeteries are often beautiful gardens, quite green,
and abounding with trees, weeping and otherwise ; while in the
country churchyard —
" There scattered oft, the earliest of the year,
By hands unseen are showers of violets found."
And
" Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,"
there is a quiet verdure which makes the spot sweet to look upon j
but with the cemeteries of Paris it is very different. There human
love is lavish in its testimony, but the result is ghastly to behold.
The quantity of the flowers of the sand Gnaphalium that is there
woven into wreaths, or immortelles, for placing on and about
the tombs in the cemeteries, is something astounding. Next to
seeing the contents of a hundred Morgues displayed, the great
spread of decaying everlastings is the most ghastly sight. They
hang them on the poor little wooden crosses, they pile them inside
on the covered tombs, they hang them on the few green bushes,
tjiey sling them under little spans of glass placed purposely over
many tombs to protect the immortelles from the weather, and in
every other way, till in ever}- part, and particularly the part where
the second and third class departed are buried, there is scarcely any-
thing to be seen but everlastings in every stage of decay, the coup
cVoeil being most depressing to anybody used to green English or
Irish churchyards. A considerable portion of each large Parisian
cemetery seems made to be inhabited by ghouls. In addition to
decomposing composite, there is no end of small crockeryware art,
and countless little objects made in beadwork, and brought here
by the survivors of the dead to hang on the little black crosses or
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 107
tombs. It is somewhat different in the portions devoted to the
graves of those who could command money when they moved
about on the surface, and such as passed on their way to the grave
through the paths of fame or glory. In their case, a little chapel,
a ponderous tomb, or something of the kind, usually protects for
a little time the dust of particular individuals from mingling with
the common clay of their poorer relatives, and affords shelter to the
crosses of silver and little objects of art, and a little more perma-
nence to the wreaths. But what a very wide difference between
this portion and that in which the ground is not paid for in per-
petuity ! Here the dust is allowed to lie undisturbed (at all events,
till they want to make a railway through it, or the gardening taste
of a future age directs the surface to be levelled and planted with
horrid taste as a garden, as has been recently done in several cases
in London), and the earth is not merely a deodorizing medium, as it
would appear to be in other divisions. In the select parts, in addi-
tion to small statuary, &c., you frequently see choice forced flowers
placed on the tombs, and one cold February day I saw a dame,
evidently a nurse or respectable servant, sitting weeping by the costly
tomb of a young woman buried that day twelvemonth, which tomb
she had almost covered with large bunches of white forced Lilac,
and beautiful buds of roses. But remove to the wide spaces, where
the poorer people bury their dead out of their sight, and you will
see a most business-like mode of sepulture. A. very wide trench,
or fosse, is cut, wide enough to hold two rows of coffins placed
across it, and 100 yards long or so. Here they are rapidly stowed in
one after another, just as nursery labourers lay in stock "by the
heels," only much closer, because there is no earth between the
coffins, and wherever the coffins (they are very like soap-boxes,
only somewhat less substantial) happen to be short, so that a
little space is left between the two rows, those of children are
placed in lengthwise between them to economize space ; the whole
being done exactly as a natty man would pack together turves or
Mushroom spawn bricks. This is the fosse commwie, or grave of
the humbler class of people, who cannot afford to pay for the
loS The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris.
ground. I am not certain what becomes of the remains of these
poor people after the lapse of a short time, but by some means
or other the ground is soon prepared for another crop. On this
principle, ff the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep " but a very
short time in their last bed, and there is a very wide difference
indeed between " sickle and crown " in Pere la Chaise.
One day, when in the Cemetery of Mont Parnasse, I saw them
making a new road, the bottom being made with broken headstones,
many of them bearing the date of 1860 and thereabouts. These had
been placed on ground that had not been paid for in perpetuity,
and were consequently grubbed up when, as before described, they
want to fill the trenches a second time. I have read and admired
Lyell's illustration, that " all flesh is grass" — the passage in which
he tells us about a graveyard being undermined by the sea on the
eastern coast, and a stone inscribed to "perpetuate" the memory of
somebody being knocked and ground about by the waves on the
beach — but never fully knew what a poor, transient, weedy kind of
grass is the flesh of the lords of creation till 1 became acquainted with
Parisian cemeteries. A cutting thirteen or fourteen feet wide, with
the earth thrown up in high banks at each side, a priest standing
at one part near a slope formed by the slight covering thrown over
the buried of that day, and, frequently, a little crowd of mourners
and friends, bearing a coffin. They hand it to the man in the
bottom of the trench, who packs it beside the others without
placing a particle of earth between j the priest says a few words,
and sprinkles a few drops of water on the coffin and clay j some of
the mourners weep, but are soon moved out of the way by
another little aowJ, with its dead, and so on till the long and wide
trench is full. They do not even take the trouble to throw a little
earth against the last coffins put in, but simply put a rough board
against them for the night. Those places not paid for in perpetuity
are completely cleared off, dug up, and .used again after a few
years. The wooden crosses, little headstones, and countless orna-
ments are cleared off, thrown in great heaps, the crosses and con-
sumable parts being, I believe, sent to the hospitals as fuel. The
The Public Gardens and Parks of Paris. 109
headstones from such a clearing (when not claimed in good time
by their owners) go to making the drainage of a drive, or some like
purpose. And yet these people, who cannot afford to pay for the
ground in perpetuity, go on erecting inscribed headstones, and
bringing often their little tokens of love, knowing well that a few
years will sweep away these, and that afterwards they cannot even tell
where is the dust of those that have been taken from them. What
an instance of human love and man's fugacity ! Let us hope that
whatever else maybe "taken from the French," we may never
imitate them in their cemetery management.
CHAPTER V.
Floral Decoration of Apartments in Paris.
|OU can grow good plants in England without doubt —
nobody denies that merit to English growers ; but now-
a-days, when the taste for having plants indoors is be-
coming so prevalent, it is not enough to have good specimens — we
should know also how to arrange them tastefully. That in England
conservatories are occasionally well arranged is as much as we can
say j for the absence of the plants that are indispensable to good
arrangement, is too prevalent to permit of that being at all general.
And as for indoor decorations in London or elsewhere in Britain —
well, of course some nurserymen who " furnish" extensively, can
and do arrange plants nicely for balls, &c. j but it is rare to see
anything really well done in that line — while the way plants are
arranged at the Linnean and Royal Societies and other important
places, on special occasions, is almost sufficient to prevent people
tolerating plants indoors at all. As compared to the plant decora-
tions of one of the balls at the Hotel de Ville, anything seen in the
British Isles is poor indeed ; and yet the plants are not better
than may be seen in England in good gardens. The difference
is caused by exceedingly tasteful and frequently peculiar arrange-
ment. What the Parisians do as regards arrangement may perhaps
be best gleaned if I describe the decorations for one of the balls
of the past season at the Hotel de Ville.
Entering the Salle St. Jean, the eye was immediately attracted
Floral Decoration of Jifartments in Paris. 1 1 1
by a charming display of vegetation at one end; while on the right
and immediately in front of and around a large mirrored recess
was a very tasteful and telling display made as follows : — In front
of the large and high mirror stretched forth a bank of moss, com-
mon moss underneath, and the surface nicely formed of fresh green
Lycopodium denticulatum, the whole being dotted over with the
variously-tinted Chinese Primulas — a bank of these plants, in fact,
high enough in its back parts to be reflected in the mirror with the
taller plants which surrounded it, gradually falling to the floor,
and gradually merging into the groups ' of larger plants on either
side of the bank, the whole being enclosed by a low gilt wooden
trellis-work margin. Then the groups at each side contrasted
most beautifully with this. Green predominated, but there was
a sufficiency of flower, \vhile beauty of form was fully developed.
In the centre and back parts of these groups were tall specimens
of the common Sugar-cane (Saccharum officinarum) which
held their long and boldly arching leaves well over the group,
and these were supported by Palms, which threw their graceful lines
over the specimen Camellias, these being in their turn graced here
and there by the presence of a Dracaena or Dwarf Palm, and so down
to the front edge, where Cinerarias, forced bulbs, Primulas, and
Ferns finished off the groups, all very closely placed, so that neither
the lower part of the stems, nor a particle of any of the pots, could
be seen, any interstices that happened to remain between the bases
of the plants being compactly filled with fresh green moss, which
was also pressed against the little gilt trellis-work which enclosed
the whole, so that from the uppermost point of the Cane leaves to
the floor nothing was seen but fresh green leaves and graceful
forms, enshrouding the ordinary flowers of our greenhouses, which
are infinitely more attractive when thus set in the verdure of which
Nature is so profuse, and which is always so abundant where her
vegetable beauties are at their highest.
A scene such as this explains the prevalence of these graceful
and noble-leaved plants in Paris gardens and in Parisian flower-
shops and windows, for you may frequently see graceful little
ii2 Floral Decoration of Apartments in Paris.
Dracaenas ornamenting windows there, and as they look as well at
Christmas as at midsummer, I need hardly suggest how highly
suited they are for purposes of this kind. The number of Dracaenas
cultivated in and around Paris is something enormous, and among
the newer species of these — not alluding to the coloured-leaved
kinds — are some that combine grace with dignity, as no other
plants combine them. They are useful for the centres of noble
groups of plants in their larger forms, and the smaller species
n:ay be advantageously associated with the Maiden-hair Fern and
the Cinerarias of the conservatory bench. They are of the greatest
utility in these decorations, and are largely used in all parts. So
are most kinds of fine-leaved plants, from Phormium to Ficus. So
too are young Palms cultivated to an enormous extent about
Paris, and every green and gracefully-leaved plant from the Cycads
to the common trailing Ivy — used a good deal to make living
screens of. With such plants they have but little trouble to find
materials for this kind of embellishment. The wide staircase ascend-
ing from this salle had also a charming array of plants so placed
that the visitors seemed to pass through a sort of floral grove — fine-
leaved plants arching over but not rising very high, and having a
profusion of flowering things among and beneath them. As the
bank of Primulas and the groups of tall plants were placed opposite
this staircase, and reflected in the great mirror behind, the effect
when descending the staircase was fascinating indeed. A still
more noble effect was produced in a salle near the great dancing
saloon, and through which the invites passed to the magnificent
ball-room. Against each pillar in this saloon was placed a tall
palm with high and arching leaves as in Seaforthia elegans, and
others with longer leaves and pendulous leaflets. These meeting,
or almost meeting across, produced a very graceful and im-
posing effect, while around them were arranged other plants dis-
tinguished either by beauty of leaf or flower, and the groups at
each pillar connected by single rows of dwarf plants, closely placed,
however, and well mossed in, as in the case of the more important
groups. The very close placing of the plants is the peculiar part of
Floral Decoration of Apartments in Paris. 113
the arrangement — you cannot notice any dividing marks or gaps,
yet there was no awkward crowding. The fact is that with an
abundance of plants distinguished by beauty of form, it is almost
impossible to make a mistake in arrangement.
Trellises covered with artificial Ivy, and dotted here and there
with artificial flowers, were a useful aid in these decorations ; placed
behind the groups of plants and on the walls near them, their effect
was very good, and of course these Ivy-covered trellises were carried
far above the plants — to the top of the walls in fact. So you see
they do not spare a little artificial aid, although so well fortified
with a supply of fine plants. I saw other evidences of this at
La Muette — another name for the establishment before described.
A lot of respectable-looking evergreens of pyramidal outline were
thrown aside. On closer examination they proved to be composed
of boughs cut in a healthy plantation of evergreens, and then taste-
fully disposed and tied firmly on a strong stake or small pole, which
was plunged in a pot filled with a sort of rough and ready mortar,
which soon hardened round the stake and kept it perfectly firm.
These were employed during the coldest weather, and doubtless it
was thought better to act thus, than to expose valuable shrubs to
risk of loss from gas and other evil influences. The fine-foliaged
things generally, Palms, Ficuses, and the like, are as remarkable
for bearing a great deal of removal, and for not suffering much
from the drying atmosphere of rooms, as for their grace and ver-
dure. The Camellias were more fully embellished with flowers
by the aid of a little management. Of course there were plants in
plenty in full bloom at Passy which were not required at the Hotel
de Ville, and from these numbers of flowers were taken off without
any stem, thus saving the buds immediately below the bloom. The
flowers were then brought into Paris in shallow boxes, a slender wire
was slipped through the base of each, turned down a little on the
other side, and then pulled back, the flower being next seated upon
a couple of leaves on or near the apex of a shoot on one of the plants
already in position, and fixed by a twist of the wire. In this way
i
ii4 Floral Decoration of Apartments in Paris.
a great number of blooms were added for the night without touch-
ing a wood- bud of the specimens upon which they grew.
These arrangements are infinitely varied at the great balls, both
public and private j rocks, water grottoes, &c., are occasionally intro-
duced, and very extensive arrangements sometimes made in the open
air, in the gardens behind the great houses, &c. The Tuileries
Gardens at the time of the great fetes were largely decorated
in this way, each of the numerous lamp-posts having a bed of
flowers around it, and the whole scene being turned into a flower
garden. in a few days. The quantity of flowers required to do this
was something enormous, and when it is considered that at the
same time great quantities of plants were arranged, both indoors
and out, in other great public and private buildings, some faint idea
may be formed of the enormous extent to which the plant deco-
ration is carried out in Paris. To go more fully into details would
be useless — very few words serve to explain the difference between
their and our system of decorating with plants. It simply consists
in the use of a far greater number of fine-leaved subjects on their
part. This, of course, has a great effect in popularizing the use of
plants in houses, for how can you make beautiful arrangements in
this way if you ignore the higher beauties of plant form ? The
fashion as carried out in such instances as the above carries its in-
fluences through every grade of society. Thus you see people
with a graceful Yucca or young Palm, or New Zealand Flax, in
their windows and rooms, who, if in England, would not, in all
probability, have had a distinct idea of the existence of such
things. The extent to which this taste for floral decorations in the
Hotel de Ville is carried, may be judged from the enormous number
of plants grown at Passy for that purpose — the New Zealand Flax
which is so very useful for indoor or outdoor decoration being
grown to the extent of upwards of 10,000 plants, and Palms
and all plants with fine leaves in great quantity. The demand
for use in private houses gives rise to a large and special branch
of trade in many of the nurseries — one Versailles cultivator
annually selling 5000 or 6000 plants of Dracaena terminalis alone.
Floral Decoration of Apartments in Paris. 115
Some nurserymen cultivate young Palms and fine-foliaged plants
generally to an enormous extent, while the trade in forced Roses,
white Lilac, and cut flowers generally, is quite a speciality. The
only feature of this forcing that we do not practise or do not under-
stand, is the production of the white Lilac seen so abundantly in
Paris during the winter and spring j indeed I have seen it in the
best condition in early autumn, and in quantity too. To meet with
a mass of it in October, quite white and deliciously sweet, is a pleasant
surprise to the English visitor. You may see large bunches of it in
every little flower-shop as early as the month of January, and it is
always associated with the early Violet and the forced Rose. This
Lilac is the common kind, and yet it is perfectly white. French
florists have tried the white variety, but they do not like it — it
pushes weakly and then does not look of so pure a colour as the
ordinary lilac one. They force the common form in great quanti-
ties in pots, and to a greater extent planted out, as close as they can
stand, in pits for cutting. The plants that are intended for forcing
are cut around with a spade in September, to induce them to form
flower-buds freely, and they commence to force early in the autumn.
They at first judiciously introduce them to a cool house, but after a
little while give them plenty of heat when once fairly started, in
fact, from 25° to nearly 40° C. = 77° to 104° F. At the same time
abundant humidity is supplied, both at the root and by means of
the syringe, but the chief point is, that from the day they take the
plants under glass they are not allowed to receive a gleam of light,
the glass being completely covered with the paillassons, or neat
straw mats, which are much used for covering frames, pits,
and all sorts of garden structures in winter. Thus they get the
Lilac to push freely, and gather its white blooms before the leaves
have had time to show themselves. The great degree of heat — a
degree which we never think of giving to anything of the kind in
England, and the total shade to which they are subjected, effect the
bleaching. The French commence to cut the white Lilac at the
end of October, and continue the operation till it comes in flower
I 2
n6 Floral Decoration of Apartments in Paris.
in the open ground. In the same establishments enormous quan-
tities of Roses are forced, small and pretty Roses being in great
demand in Paris through the winter and early spring.
A well-known Parisian cultivator has obliged me with the fol-
lowing article on —
PLANTS USED FOR ROOM AND WINDOW
DECORATION IN PARIS.
BY M. A. CHANTIN.
The following are a few notes on the principal plants which serve
for window decoration in Paris. Among these, the Palms, with-
out doubt, occupy the most important position. I give below a
list of those which are most generally used, not only because of
their hardy character, but also on account of the very moderate
price at which they can be obtained.
Chamaerops humilis and excelsa. Corypha australis, although
now but little known as a house plant, is destined in a short time to
occupy a foremost place in the decoration of apartments. It makes
itself conspicuous by its peculiar beauty, and the number of its
leaves, and is, I believe, the most hardy and enduring of all the
Palms for indoor culture. Cocos coronata and flexuosa are very
elegant, and produce a charming effect. Latania borbonica is
certainly one of the most recherche plants of this family, and is
valued as much for the beautiful green of its leaves as for its
hardiness and elegant appearance. Phoenix dactylifera, leonensis,
and reclinata are also very much sought after, and are highly
esteemed. Areca alba, lutescens, and rubra. The following Palms
could also be used with great advantage in the decoration of apart-
ments ; but their high price and great rarity cause them to be not
much known, although they accommodate themselves to the at-
mosphere of rooms as well as any of those previously mentioned.
Areca sapida, most of the species of the genus Caryota, Chamaedorea
amazonica and elatior, Chamaerops palmetto, Elais Guineensis, Eu-
Floral Decoration of Apartments in Paris. 1 1 7
terpe edulis, with its finely-serrated and very graceful foliage j
Oreodoxa regia, young plants of which are very frequently used ;
Phoenix pumila, P. leonensis, and P. reclinata, Rhapis flabelliformis,
and Thrinax argentea and elegans.
Next in importance to the Palms we must place the Dracaenas.
Those which are the most frequently noticed are Dracaena australis,
cannaefolia, congesta, indivisa, indivisa lineata, rubra, stricta, termi-
nalis, and umbraculifera. Those most easily managed, and there-
fore the most popular for window ornaments, are Dracaena congesta,
rubra, and terminalis. Pandanus utilis, Vandermeerschi, and Java-
nicus variegatus ; Cycas revoluta, and the different varieties of
Aspidistra, occupy also a very important place in the decoration of
apartments.
The plants composing the following list, although suitable and
elegant in appearance, are less sought after and cultivated than the
preceding ones, because they are more difficult to manage as window
plants, and require some care and attention. They are more suit-
able for glazed frames and cases, and may frequently be met with
cultivated in that manner. Several species of Aralia, more especially
Aralia Sieboldi; Bambusa japonica variegata and B. Fortunei varie-
gata j the different varieties of Begonia ; most of the Bromeliads j
Caladium odorum, for winter decoration, and the species with
the beautifully-spotted and mottled leaves, for the summer j Carlu-
dovica palmata and plicata; Croton pictum, pictum variegatum, and
discolor j Curculigo recurvata, and some species of the genus Dieffen-
bachia. The Ficus elastica is a very elegant plant for a window
ornament, and some years ago was very much employed for that
purpose j but since it has become somewhat common Ficus Chau-
vieri has been substituted for it in many places. There are many
other Ficuses which are suitable for this purpose, and will be found
most useful when they become plentiful enough. Isolepis gracilis ;
Maranta zebrina — this is the only species of Maranta suitable for
cultivation in apartments, as all the others speedily succumb to the
hot and dry atmosphere inseparable from a living room. Several
species of Musa are favourites, but principally M. discolor and M.
j j 8 Floral Decoration of Apartments in Pans.
rosea ; Musa ensete is particularly suitable for window culture, but
it is still so scarce, and of such a high price, that it is but seldom
met with. Pandanus amaryllifolius. Philodendron pertusum was
much sought after during the past winter, and has in most places
thriven so well that it has given general satisfaction. Several
varieties of Beaucarnea are suitable for rooms, and produce a
very beautiful and graceful effect when grown in suspended vases
or baskets. Rhopala corcovadense ; this plant exhales a some-
what disagreeable odour, but is nevertheless very much sought
after, on account of its very elegant and graceful appearance
during the development of its young leaves. Hecktia pitcairni-
folia is capital for suspending in baskets, and some of the Bro
melias stand well in rooms, and are very useful. Tradescantia
discolor, Phormium tenax, Rhododendron, Camellia, Grevillea ro
busta, Euonymus, Aucuba, Bonapartea, Agaves, &c., are also fre
quent. As flowering plants the varieties of Epiphyllum truncatum
are most extensively used.
The family of Ferns, although classed among plants with delicate
tissues, and having a great dislike to dry hot atmospheres, never-
theless furnishes numerous examples which, with careful manage-
ment, add very much to the beauty of apartments. Thus I have
very frequently remarked several species of Adiantum, which,
wherever they can be preserved in good health, produce without
doubt a most ravishing effect. Pteris argyrea, P. cretica albo lineata,
and P. serrulata variegata also produce a very fine effect, with their
prettily marked foliage. Alsophila australis and Dicksonia ant-
arctica are also sometimes employed for decorative purposes in
rooms of large dimensions, where their magnificent appearance
never fails to produce a very imposing effect. Nephrolepis ex-
altata is universally useful, and stands the air of rooms without the
slightest injury.
All kinds of plants bearing flowers have paid their tribute to
the ornamentation of windows, from the humble mignonette,
upon which the patient sempstress loves to turn her weary
eyes, to the magnificent orchid that, with its brilliant colours and
Floral Decoration of Apartments in Paris. 119
fantastic forms, fills with grace and beauty the apartments of the
affluent.
Until recently, I had little belief in the utility of orchids for this
purpose, but experience has shown me that they may be intro-
duced into a drawing-room with perfect success, the plants not
having suffered in the least by the change of atmosphere. The
most suitable orchids are the various species of Cattleya, Vanda,
Aerides, and Cypripedium. Doubtless the time is not far distant
when we may venture to try many more kinds than we can now
afford to do ; but even from what we have already done in that way,
I entertain no doubt that the orchid family will eventually furnish
the most valuable of all plants for room decoration. True they
may not live throughout the year in rooms, as Ficuses and such
plants do, but that is not desirable — their appearance, as a rule, not
being prepossessing when out of flower. The quality that they do
possess, and that makes them so valuable, is, the thick, succulent
texture of the flowers generally enables them to continue a long
time in bloom in a room. A like kind of texture enables the
leaves to stand during the blooming time without injury.
CHAPTER VI.
The Ivy, and its Uses in Parisian Gardens.
[HE Irish Ivy is a very old friend of curs : one \ve have seen
beautifying many positions, and one, as we may have
thought, sufficiently appreciated and employed. Gaiety
and grace I was led to expect in Parisian gardens, but that they should
take up our Hibernian friend, so partial to showers and our mossy old
walls, and bring him out to such advantage in the neighbourhood
of new boulevards and sumptuous architecture, was a very pleasing
surprise. That " a rare old plant is the ivy green when it creepeth
o'er ruins old," we Britons all know, but that it is no less admirable
when mantling with its dark polished green objectionable surfaces
in winter, would not appear to have yet sufficiently dawned upon
us. Apart from the fact that the Ivy is the best of all evergreen
climbers, it is the best, of all plants for beautifying the aspect of
town and suburban gardens in winter, not to say all gardens. The
Parisian gardeners know this fully, and they, taking the Ivy out of
the catalogue of things that receive chance culture, or no culture at
all, bring it from obscurity and make of it a thing of beauty. To
rob the monotonous garden railings of their nakedness and openness,
they use it most extensively, and there are parts about Passy where
the Ivy, densely covering the railings, makes a beautiful wall of
polished green along the fine wide asphalte footways, so that even
in the dead of winter it is refreshing to walk along them. And if
it does so much for the street, how much more for the garden ?
Instead of the inmates of the house gazing from the windows into
The Ivy, and Its Uses in Parisian Gardens. 121
the street swarming with dust, or splashing with mud, a wall of
verdure encloses the garden ; privacy is effectively secured ; the
effect of any flowers the garden may contain is much heightened j
and lastly, the heavier rushes of dust are kept out in summer, for
so effectively do they cover the railings by planting the Ivy rather
thickly, and giving it some rich light soil to grow in, that a perfectly
dense screen is formed. Railings that spring from a wall of some
height around the larger residences are covered as well as those that
almost start from the ground. Frequently the tops of the rails are
exposed, and often these are gilt, so that a capital effect is secured.
One day, in passing near the Hotel de Ville, and looking at its
traceries, my eye was caught by something more attractive than
these : a gilt-topped railing densely covered with Ivy, and between
the mass of dark green and the bared spikes at the top a seam of
light green foliage, here and there besprinkled with long beautiful
racemes of pale purplish flowers. That was the Wistaria, one of
the most beautiful of China's daughters, here gracefully throwing
her arms round our Hibernian friend, and forming a living picture
more pleasing to the eyes of a lover of nature than any carving in
stone. If there are tall naked walls near a Parisian house, they are
quickly covered with a close carpet of Ivy. Does the margin of
the grass around some clump of shrubs or flower beds look a little
angular or blotchy ? If so, the Parisian town gardener will get a
quantity of nice young plants of Ivy, and make a wide margin
with them, which margin he will manage to make look well at all
times of the year — in the middle of winter when of a dark hue,
or in early summer when shining with the young green leaves.
When the Irish Ivy is planted pretty thickly and kept neatly to a
breadth of, say, from one foot to twenty inches, it forms a dense
mass of the freshest verdure, especially in early summer, and of
course all through the winter, in a darker state. The best examples
of this edging that I know of anywhere are around the gardens of
the Louvre, and in the private garden of the Emperor at the
Tuileries. In the private garden of the Emperor the Ivy bands
are placed on the gravel walks, or seem to be so $ for a belt of
123 The Ivy, and its Uses in Parisian Gardens.
gravel a foot or so in width separates the Ivy from the border proper.
The effect of these outside of the masses of gay flowers is excellent.
They are the freshest things to look upon in that city, all through
the months of May, June, and July. They form a capital setting,
so to speak, for the flower borders — the best, indeed, that could be
obtained 5 while in themselves they possess beauty sufficient to make
it worth one's while to grow them for their own sakes. In some
geometrical gardens we have panels edged with white stone — an
artificial stone very often. These Ivy edgings associate beautifully
with such, while they may be used with advantage in any style of
garden. A garden pleases in direct proportion to the variety and
the life that are in it, and all bands and circles of stone, all un-
changeable geometrical patterns, are as much improved by being
fringed here and there with Ivy and the like, as are the rocks of a
river's bank. It should be observed that an Ivy edging of the breadth
of an ordinary edging is not at all so desirable as when its sheet of
green is allowed to spread out to a breadth of from twelve to eighteen
inches. Then its rich verdure may be seen to fall advantage. It
must of course be kept within straight lines if the garden be sym-
metrical : if it be a natural kind of garden, you may let it have its
own wild way to some extent. To fringe a clump of shrubs with
it in the English garden, for instance, would ans\ver quite as well.
An Ivy border is very easily made. It is better to get a quantity of
young plants from a nurseryman, and then plant them rather
thickly where the edging is desired. If a wide belt of Ivy is
desired, the plants may be put in in two or three rows, as the
French do when making such excellent Ivy edgings as are here
described. In any case, after the plants are inserted the shoots
must be neatly pegged down all in one direction. The reason why
Ivy edgings when seen in England look so poorly compared to those
in Paris is, that we allow them to grow as they like, and get over-
grown, wild, and entangled, whereas the French keep them the
desired size by pinching or cutting the little shoots well in, two or
even three times every summer, after the edging has once attained
size and health.
The Ivy, and its Uses in Parisian Gardens. 123
In nearly every courtyard in Paris the Ivy is tastefully used. I
do not think I ever saw the scarlet geranium to greater advantage
than in deep long boxes placed against a wall densely covered with
Ivy, and that planted also along their front edges, so as to hang down
and cover the face of the boxes. Placed thus between two sheets of
deepest green, our old friend the scarlet geranium looked particularly
happy, and this is only one trifling instance of the capital effect of
the Ivy in improving the effect of summer flowers. One of the
best known of the floating baths on the Seine has a sort of open
air waiting-room immediately outside its entrance — a space made
by planks, and communicating with the quay by a gangway. On
this space there are seats placed around, on which in summer people
may sit and wait for their turn if so disposed, while the whole is
elegantly overbowered with Ivy, looking as much at home as if the
river was not gurgling rapidly beneath. This was secured by placing
deep boxes filled with very rich light soil here and there on the
bare space j then planting the Ivy at the ends of each box, devoting
the remainder of the space in each box to flowers, keeping the soil
well watered, and training the shoots of the Ivy to a neat light
trellis overhead. In the garden of the Exposition a pretty circular
bower was shown perfectly covered with Ivy, the whole springing
from a tub. Imagine an immense green umbrella with the handle
inserted in a tub of good soil, boards placed over this tub, so as to
make a circular seat of it, and you will understand it in a moment.
That and the like could of course be readily made on a roof, wide
balcony, or any such position. One sunny early summer day, when
the Ivy was in its youthful green, I met with a shallow bower
made of it that pleased me very much. It was simply a great
erect shell of Ivy not more than five or six feet deep, so
that the sun could freshen the inside into as deep a verdure as
the outer surface. It may be used with the best taste in the dry
air of a room. I once saw it growing inside the window of a wine-
shop in an obscure part of Paris, and on going in found it was
planted in a rough box against the wall, had crept up it, and was
going about apparently as carelessly as if in a wood. If you
124 The I'vy> and its Uses in Parisian Gardens.
happen to be in the great court at Versailles, and, requiring guidance,
charce to ask a question at a little porter's lodge seen to the left as
you go to the gardens, you will be much interested to see what a
deep interest the pleasant fat porter and his wife take in Cactuses
and such plants, and what a nice collection of them they have
gathered together, but more so at the sumptuous sheet of Ivy
which hangs over from high above the mantelpiece. It is planted
in a box in a deep recess, and tumbles out its abundant tresses almost
as richly as if depending from a Kerry rock.
The Ivy is also used to a great extent to make living screens for
drawing-rooms and saloons, and often with a very tasteful result.
This is usually done by planting it in narrow boxes and training it
up wirework trellises, so that with a few of such a living screen
may be formed in any desired part of a room in a few minutes.
Sometimes it is permanently planted j and in one instance I saw it
beautifully thus used to embellish crystal partitions between large
apartments.
CHAPTER VII.
Gladiolus Culture. — Rose-showing.
IE famous old chateau and forest of Fontainebleau are
interesting to the ordinary visitor, but to the lover of the
Gladiolus Fontainebleau presents an even greater charm
than the most beautiful of those glorious wilds in the forest do to
the landscape artist. And here I may incidentally state that, of
the things to be seen at Fontainebleau, those bes: worth remember-
ing are far away from the chateau and even from the garden, which
is to some extent disfigured by those monotonous and ugly lines of
clipped Lime trees so common in France. It is tedious work getting
away from those interminable long straight roads that lead from the
chateau in every direction ; but once in the midst of one of those
wilds where huge rocks and indigenous trees are scattered in about
equal profusion, the visitor will hardly ask himself why Rosa
Bonheur resides in the neighbourhood. However, our theme is
the Gladiolus, and so farewell to the forest.
M. Souchet is the Emperor's gardener, and has been so for
many years j he is also the famous Gladiolus grower, and his own
grounds are quite apart from those of the chateau. He has been
cultivating the Gladiolus for more than thirty years j and it was
cultivated also here by his father. The Gladiolus is the most noble
of our autumnal flower garden ornaments, and one comparatively
neglected by us. There is no flowering plant so well calculated to
improve the aspect of the autumnal garden, of no matter what style,
126 Gladiolus Culture.
as this 5 and M. Souchet is the best grower of it in the world,
and has the largest collection. He grows it in gardens, or rather
fields, surrounded by white stone walls. In fact, his ground was
for the most part formerly occupied by market garden cultivators,
&c., and these usually surround their gardens by such walls. He
altogether occupies from eight to nine hectares of land with the
culture of his favourite, or say about twenty acres English.
The first thing noticeable in this ground is that about half of the
land is unoccupied for the current year. That bare portion is
ploughed, and manured, and cultivated throughout the summer as
well as in winter, and thus he has fresh land in beautiful condition
for his bulbs every year. Besides, the fact that the ground is bare
for a year helps to counteract to some extent the particularly vicious
enemies with which he has to contend, as, having no food on the
ground for the summer, they are not attracted 5 and when the
ground is rolled between the ploughing and manuring the tracks of
the mole cricket are easily seen, and it may be readily destroyed.
This idle ground is thoroughly tilled, ploughed, or in some way
disturbed six or seven times during the season, and they would like
to do it a dozen times if time or labour would permit. The ground
planted this year will of course be empty next, and so on. Now,
over the whole of the extensive piece of ground planted with
Gladioli you could not notice a decayed leaf, and all the plants were
in the rudest health, some of the varieties growing as much as six
feet high. It was a fine sight at any time of the year to see the
magnificent stretch of varied bloom ; but the days about the time
of my last visit were very hot, and we were obliged to get up
very early in the morning to see it at its best. Although very
showy at noon, yet the hot sun had caused the most open flowers
to flag a little. But in the early morning, when the dew hung
upon the bloom, and every petal was braced with its freshness, they
were fine indeed. But if fine here, when seen in great quantity
unrelieved by a particle of verdure except that of their own pointed
leaves, how much better would plants of the same quality be,
judiciously associated with other things of beauty, in a graceful
Gladiolus Cull lire. 137
pleasure ground or garden, and pushing up their bold spikes amidst
and near refreshing verdure !
The insect enemies of M. Souchet would prove enough to deter
and defeat most men. He makes ceaseless war against them,
and if they do succeed in destroying a bulb now and then, it
generally forms the guide to their detection and destruction.
Some of us know the mole cricket, but his ravages in England
do not go very far. If allowed his own way for a fortnight in these
grounds, I fear some of the great bulb houses would suffer from
their want of Gladioli in autumn. When this strong and well
armed little brute gets into a bed of choice Gladioli, you cannot well
dig him out as you could if he happened to be in a kitchen garden.
The way he is killed here is so interesting and effective that I must
relate it. M. Souchet explained it to me, but so many "cures"
and dodges for exterminating vermin are not worth the trouble of
trying the second time, that probably I should not have noticed it
had he not called a workman and given me an illustration on the
spot. When the mole cricket goes about, he leaves a little loose
ridge, like the animal after which he is named : and when his
presence is detected in a closely planted bed of Gladiolus at Fon-
tainebleau, they generally press the ground quite smooth with the
foot, so that his track and halting-place may be the more distinctly
seen the next time he moves about. This had been done in the
present instance in the case of a young bed of seedlings. I saw his
track, and a workman who brought with him a rough jar of water
and one of common oil, opened a little hole with his finger above
the spot where the enemy lay. Then he filled it with water twice,
and on the top of the water poured a little oil. The water gra-
dually descended, and with it the oil, which, closing up the breathing
pores of the mischievous thing, caused it to perish of asphyxia, and
in about twenty seconds we had the pleasure of seeing it put forth
its horns from the water, go back a little when it saw us, but again
come forth, to die on the surface, hindered for ever from destroying
valuable bulbs. Being of large size, and very strong and well
armed, even one of these can do a deal of damage in a bed of
12$ Gladiolus Culture.
Gladiolus, and therefore the moment the workmen of M. Souchet
see a trace of the pest they take means to catch it as described, jars
of water and oil being always kept at hand. That is only one
enemy — vcrs llancs are worse. Of what a vile opponent this is
some idea may be formed, when I relate what precautions M.
Souchet is obliged to take against it, even for the sake of enjoying
a few Rhododendrons. He has built a nice private house near his
Gladiolus grounds, and wishing to have a couple of beds of these
shrubs within view of the windows near the garden, he has had to
build strong cemented walls deep into the earth around each bed,
and fill in the bottom with a deep bed of fine sand, so as to guard
against the entrance of this dreaded worm into the bed. But it is
among his bulbs that most is to be feared. It is simply the larva
of the cockchafer, dangerous here in its perfect state also. He
employs a great number of people to gather them at the egg-
depositing season, has the larvae picked up after the plough, and one
way or another avoids their ravages, though at great cost of time
and money.
The soil is a very sandy, not a fluffy one, observe, but one with
some holding power, and yet when you get a dry bit of a clod of it,
and crumble it fine on a silk glove, you find that most of it sinks
through to the palm of your hand, in the form of nearly impalpable
sand. Somewhat the same kind of soil occurs in many parts of
England, and is always remarkably favourable to the growth of
bulbs, alpine, and rare herbaceous plants, &c. Here it is well-
manured, and pretty rich and deep, from having been long used as
kitchen-garden ground. They prefer horse manure, and that as
well rotted as possible. The time of planting is, perhaps, one of
the most important things to be acquainted with, and they do it
here from April till the early part of June. This late time is not
often resorted to, however, though the bulbs may then be planted
with safety. They prefer the beginning of May Tor the general
and the safest planting. The medium-sized bulbs give the best
flowers as a rule, the biggest bulbs often breaking into several heads.
To plant at various times of course will lead to a succession of
Gladiolus Culture.
bloom, another great point in favour of this fine ornament of our
gardens. The seedlings flower in their third year. The time of
taking up is October, and from the great quantity to be stored this
process sometimes goes on to the beginning of November. The
plants are mostly in beds, about four feet wide, placed in rows
across the bed, from fifteen to eighteen inches apart. The beds are
all mulched, and a little alley runs between every two. In very
hot weather they are well watered. Each kind is numbered, the
scraps of lead on which the numbers are stamped being wrapped
round bits of Vine primings, stuck in the earth. The beds are also
carefully examined during the blooming season, so as to destroy all
"rogues." Such are the chief points upon which information is
wanted — next for a selection of the varieties.
There are altogether between 250 and 300 varieties in cultiva-
tion here. The best of the new varieties of the past year, or rather
the new varieties ready to send out this year — for one which only
flowered for the first time last year will not be ready to sell for years —
are Princess Alice, with very large, fully opened flowers, good shape,
and charming lilac colour, faintly striped with rose and white —
this is of the finest quality j Semiramis, another very large flower,
of fine form, rosy carmine in colour, with carmine stripes and
a fine white throat ; Uranie, a large flower, with a pure white
ground, and decidedly striped with bright rose — a distinct and
brilliant variety j Bernard de Jussieu, a dark purplish-toned variety,
quite new-in colour; Stella, a flower with white base and rosy red
margins j and E. Scribe, a large flower, of a delicate rose, flamed
with carmine red. But a selection of all the other kinds he culti-
vates is of greater importance, and I give the following, selected by
M. Souchet and myself from the several hundred varieties grown
by him. We in the first case selected the undermentioned
varieties, and then went over them again, marking the very best of
all. This second or choicest selection is indicated by an asterisk to
all those so chosen : —
130
Gladiolus Culture.
Achilla.
Ana'is.
Belle Gabrielle.
Charles Dickens.
Cherubini.
*Dr. Lindley.
*Duc de MalakofF.
El Dorado.
Fulton.
Galilee.
*Imperatrice Eugenie.
•*James Veitch.
*John Waterer.
Lady Franklin.
Laquintinie.
*Le Poussin.
*Le Titiens.
Linne.
*Lord Byron.
*Madame Furtado.
Madame Leseble.
Madame de Sevigne.
*Madame Vilmorin.
Marechal Vaillant.
*Marie Dumortier.
Mazeppa.
Meteore.
*Meyerbeer.
*Milton.
*M. Ad. Brongniart.
*Napoleon III.
Newton.
Ophir.
Oracle.
*Pe'ne'lope.
Prince of Wales.
Princess of Wales.
*Princesse Clothilde.
*Princesse Marie de Cambridge.
*Reine Victoria.
Reverend Berkeley.
Roi Leopold.
Rubens.
*Shakspeare.
Sir William Hooker.
Stephenson.
Stuart Low.
Thomas Moore.
*Sir Joseph Paxton.
Vesta.
*Walter Scott.
It is evident there is an ample field from which to select,, and a
sufficient variety to please the most fastidious. M. Souchet grows
almost exclusively for wholesale houses, and a large proportion of
the bulbs of these attractive autumnal flowers, which are met with
in the stores of the Paris and London nurserymen or seedsmen, are
derived from the grounds of this most successful of cultivators.
I cannot close this without acknowledging the great kindness of
M. and Madame Souchet, both being as amiable and excellent in
private life as M. Souchet is distinguished in horticulture 5 and some
of the pleasantest of the many agreeable visits I have made to great
gardens were those paid to M. and Madame Souchet and the forest
and gardens of Fontainebleau. On one occasion I was accompanied
by my friend Mr. C. Moore, Director of the Botanic Gardens of
Gladiolus Culture. 131
Sydney, Australia. He was equally pleased, and remarked that
many of the ravines through which M. Souchet conducted us, in
the remoter parts of the forest, were remarkably like those inhabited
by tree-ferns near the coast, in Australia.
In France the Gladiolus is cultivated much more abundantly than
with us — a state of things which I trust may not long continue, as
nothing can be more worthy of general cultivation, or more calcu-
lated to improve the general aspect of our ornamental gardens. To
those intending to employ it, a few remarks on its capabilities may
be useful.
Perhaps one of the best recommendations of this fine bulb is
that its flowers continue to open long after the spike is cut, and
bloom in a vase of water as freely as in the open garden. I have
never seen anything more beautiful or effective than large Sevres
vases filled with the spikes of the finer kinds in M. Souchet's
house. Many of his varieties grow five feet or more high j
when cutting them a yard or more of the spike is preserved, and no
arrangement is needed except to insert their bases in the mouth of
the vase, and allow their heads to spread widely forth, placing
a few branches of evergreens, or any verdure at hand, among
the stems, just to give them a little relief. There is no one kind of
flower that could make such a noble combination, and the effect
within the cool, thick- walled French house, on hot days, was of the
highest character. Then we may safely say that the Gladiolus is
the finest of all our flowers for indoor decoration in autumn, its tall
and noble spike entirely preventing it from being used to produce
the dumpling-like effects given by Dahlias and other popular flowers.
But its uses in the open air are even greater j nothing in the way
of a flowering plant will prove so good for varying and giving a
more graceful and bold character to the flower garden. One
reason probably why it is not oftener well employed with us, is
that it rises above the dwarf materials of which we are so fond. Of
course it may be combined with these with the best taste j but
there are also many other ways in which it may be used grace-
fully.
K 2
132 Gladiolus Culture.
It should be premised, however, that in all cases either a natu-
rally sandy, rich, and deep light soil should be given to it, or one
made so artificially. There are many stiff and sticky soils on which
it would be much better to avoid its culture, and turn one's atten-
tion to things more tolerant of the soil. But the question of soil
once settled, let us take the case of a bed of choice Roses in some
position near the house. Most probably this bed will present a
somewhat disappointing aspect after the Roses are past their best;
and even if they continue to flower well, the peeping forth of some
splendid spikes of Gladioli here and there will surely not detract
from their beauty. Now, to secure this most desirable end, all we
have to do is to insert some bulbs of the various kinds of Gladioli in
the spaces between the Roses in the early part of May, or there-
abouts. Plant them singly here and there, and at about three or
four inches deep. Take up the roots in the month of October.
Is it necessary to suggest a score of other analogous uses ? Need it
be said how tastefully they may be introduced just wifhin the edge
of the low choice shrubbery, or beds of valuable shrubs on the lawn ?
Groups of them in the centre of flower-beds would be splendid ; and
planted thinly here and there among beds of low-growing stuff —
say Saponaria, Mignonette, &c. — they would rise above these, and
their effect above the surfacing flower would prove very fine indeed.
They may be placed in groups or rings around Standard Roses ; they
will make the most valuable groups in the garden mixed border ;
and finally, we may make grand beds of them by themselves, or
associated with Lilies or Irises. Where they are grown in some
quantity it is, of course, best to give them a position on a border in
the kitchen or nursery garden, as the formal aspect of anything
grown in quantity is not nice for a lawn -} but a single bed or two
of them might be brought in with fine effect, either in lawn,
pleasure ground, or flower garden. It would be well to edge such
a bed with some good and bold subject, so as to hide a little the
effect of their somewhat lank and naked stems. The Gladiolus has,
indeed, many good qualities and uses for our ornamental gardening j
but if it merely possessed the qualities described as a plant for in-
Rose-showing. 133
door decoration, it would prove worth growing for that purpose
alone.
SHOWING ROSES IN FRANCE. — A Rose-growing friend has sug-
gested to me that it might be well to mention any novelties in
arrangement adopted by the French in showing Roses, but I know
of little worthy of recommendation. The great exhibition of Roses
at Brie Comte Robert — surprising accounts of which appeared in
the daily papers at the time — was, in some respects, a very different
affair to what might have been expected from the accounts of it
spread abroad. Brie Comte Robert is situated in a very pleasant
country, twenty miles or so from Paris — a country without hedges
or ditches, yet picturesque and pretty from the number of fruit
trees dotted over the land, and with (at the time of my visit) the
ears of ripening wheat bending into the straight well-made roads —
a country with rich sandy loam and gentle hills, like parts of Kent,
but for the main part covered with wide level spreads of wheat and
vines. Brie Comte Robert is an ordinary and rather straggling
little French town, with an interesting old church traced with the
beautiful art of the olden time, and grey with the lichens of a
thousand years ; and finally, Brie Comte Robert has a fete and
Rose show, as all the world has been informed. The Rose-
show, although pretty and remarkable of its kind, is not quite a
marvel, but simply an adjunct of the village fair. Now, the fete of
a small place like this is not at first sight, or when examined in
detail, a thing to be enraptured with. Imagine a grassy yard or
small field, in the centre of which are a few tables and the little
hut of a person who divines the future ; and here, and all around,
a lot of small, meagre, clout-covered tents occupied with various
things, from temporary restaurants and gingerbread stalls down to
diminutive billiards and little games in which the yokels of the dis-
trict invest a sou a time, and now and then win a trifling work of art
worth about a centime. Imagine, in short, the mildest and smallest
corner of Donnybrook fair with every drop of " divilmint" squeezed
out of it, and you have a pretty good idea of the sight that greeted
134 Rose-showing.
my eyes as I entered the show-yard of Brie Comte Robert. Bat
at one end there was a very large oblong tent, and on entering that
a very different sight presented itself. There all was fragrance and
beautiful colour. All the Roses were placed on the ground — no
stages of any kind being used. First of all, there ran right round
the great oblong tent a sloping bed of sandy earth, about five feet
wide, covered with young Barley, the seed of which had been sown
eight or ten days before. On this were thickly placed the Roses —
eight rows deep, or thereabouts. They were for the greater part
placed in small earthenware bottles, about five inches high, with
long narrow necks and wide globose bases j and, placed amongst
the Barley-grass, these looked very well indeed. Generally three or
more Roses were placed in each bottle, which was made of ordinary
garden-pot stuff, and of the same colour ; and they looked so much
better than those of glass used by some exhibitors, that their use
should be made compulsory. Thus the most conspicuous thing in
the tent was a dense bed of Roses around its sides. In the central
parts of the tent there were beds of various shapes in which the Roses
were plunged in moss, and mostly arranged in masses 5 for example,
a bed of 700 blooms of General Jacqueminot, edged with a line of
Atmee Vibert j a bed of Madame Boll, edged with white and red
Roses, all tlie flowers plunged singly in dark green moss, and so on.
The competitors vied rather in quantity than in quality, and one
exhibitor showed as many as six hundred varieties, or supposed
varieties — certainly he had that number of bottles. Others showed
large numbers also, but in most cases the Roses were inferior to
those seen at an English show. As for the varieties, they were
chiefly such as abound in England. There were quantities of that
fine Rose, Marechal Niel, to be seen, one bed of it being ten feet in
diameter, the blooms plunged singly in moss. The largest exhibi-
tor grouped his flowers very prettily by arranging wavy lines of
yellow and white varieties through the long mass of rose and dark-
coloured ones.
NOTE ON ROSE CULTURE IN POTS. —Visitors to the Paris
Rose-showing. 135
flower markets and shops must have frequently remarked the
profuse way in which Aimee Vibert and other Roses are flowered in
pots j while even many good cultivators in England, who attempt
the culture of the same kind, frequently find it running all to stem
and leaf, and flowering but very sparsely. The way the French
cultivators secure such a profuse bloom, is simply by selecting the
buds from stubby flowering shoots. Thus buds taken from com-
paratively weak, free flowering, and dwarf shoots produce quantities
of bloom — those taken from long " water-shoots" produce little be-
sides flowerless and useless wood.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Cordon System of Training Frtut Trees.
GIVE this precedence not on account of its importance,
but because it has been so much spoken of both in the
leading journal and in all the gardening papers ; Mr. Punch
even informing the world that the writer of the articles advocating
cordon training in the Times was to be made a " Grand Cordon of the
Legion of Honour !" At first I merely mentioned the system inciden-
tally, but many letters and articles were written about it, and eventu-
ally it appeared to assume an importance which it scarcely deserves.
To state what it really is in the hands of the best French cultivators,
and what it is worth, is my object in this chapter. The first thing
we have to settle is, What is a cordon ? There has been some little
discussion upon this point — discussion that was utterly needless, and
even mischievous, as tending to prevent the public knowing exactly
what the term is used for. In France (and in this country since the
subject has been so much talked of) it simply means a tree confined
to one single stem : that stem being furnished with spurs, or some-
times with little fruiting branches nailed in, as in the case of the
peach when trained as a cordon. Some contended that it meant any
form of branch closely spurred in j but this is quite erroneous. The
term is never applied to any form of trees but the very small and
simple stemmed ones. The French have no more need of the word
to express a tree trained on the spur system than we have, and they
have trained trees on that system for ages without ever so calling them.
The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 137
Before this name was applied to the forms herein illustrated, or
rather before they came into use, it was chiefly applied to a mode of
training vines horizontally — each plant resembling the double cordon,
except that the stem was longer for those vines that covered the upper
portion of wall j the vines en cordon being trained one over another.
However, to settle the use of the term, I wrote to Professor Du
Breuil, the leading professor of fruit culture in France. His reply
was thus alluded to in the Gardener s Chronicle : — " What a vast
proportion of controversy and dispute might be saved, would people
only agree as to the meaning to be attached to words. Just now,
as it appears to us, a great deal of unnecessary discussion is raised as
to the word 'cordon.' A wrangle about words is about as satis-
factory as an argument to prove a negative. It may serve, perhaps,
to stop this futile wordy debate to give the opinion of M. Du Breuil
himself on the matter. This renowned horticulturist, in a recently
written letter, which has been submitted for our inspection, says
that he applied the word ' cordon ' to trees consisting of a single
branch, bearing fruit-spurs only, and thus resembling a rope or cord.
When there are two such branches, M. Du Breuil applies the ex-
pression ' double cordon.' In order to be quite accurate, we subjoin
M. Du Breuil's letter verbatim et literatim : —
" Le mot 'cordon derive en francais de cord: fai employe cette
expression pour designer les formes d'arbres dont la charpente se com-
pose seulement dune seule Iranche qui ne porte que des rameaux a
fruit. La charpente de ces arlres rassemble alors a une corde ou
cordon. Lorsque La charpente de Varlre se compose de deux branches,
je donne a cette forme le nom de 'cordon double.' "
I should not thus define at length the meaning of the word were
it not that any other acceptation of it would not only be contrary
to the generally received laws of nomenclature, but mischievous as
preventing the proper understanding of the system, or any benefit
being derived from it. Professor Du Breuil states distinctly in his
book that, struck with the long period it took to cover a wall by
means of the larger forms of trees, he invented those quick-rising
simple-stemmed kinds to cover the walls rapidly and give an early
138 The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees.
return. Now it is clear that if we call a fan, or horizontally trained
tree, a "cordon," we not only misapply the term, but prevent the
inventor's very clear idea from being understood. To show how
erroneous is the impression that the term applies to any kind of tree
with the branches closely pinched in, I have merely to state that
the cordon peach trees in French gardens are never pinched in in
this way, but have the wood regularly "nailed in," as shown
by Fig. 33. However, the following figures will give a correct idea
of what the cordon system is.
THE APPLE AS A CORDON.
Fig. 24 shows the ordinary simple cordon of the French gardens,
and the mode of fixing its support. A simple galvanized wire is
attached to a strong oak post or bit of iron, so firmly fixed that the
strain of the wire may not disturb it. The wire is supported at a
FIG. 24.— The Simple Cordon.
distance of one foot from the ground, and tightened by one of the
handy little implements described elsewhere in this volume. This
raidisseur will tighten several hundred feet of the wire, which need
not be thicker than strong twine, and of the same sort as that recom-
mended for walls and espaliers. At intervals a slender support is
placed under the wire in the form of a bit of slender iron with an
eye in it.
The form shown above is used to a great extent in France,
and as I hear from M. A. Leroy of Angers, it is extending with
"extraordinary rapidity." This and the next are the kinds best
suited for making edgings around the squares in kitchen gardens,
&c. Cordons are trained against walls, espaliers, and in many ways,
The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 139
but the most popular form of all, and certainly one of the best and
most useful, is the little cordon apple trained to act as an edging to
the quarters in the kitchen and fruit garden. Fig. 25 represents the
Bilateral Cordon, useful for the same purposes as the simple one,
and especially adapted to the bottoms of walls, bare spaces between
the fruit trees, the fronts of pits, or any low naked wall with a
warm exposure. As in many cases the lower parts of walls in British
gardens are quite naked, this form of cordon offers an opportunity
for covering them with what will yield a certain and valuable return.
It is by this method that the finest-coloured and best apples, sold
in Covent-garden and in the Paris fruit shops at such high prices,
are grown. Why should we have to buy these from the French at
such a high rate ? Considering the enormous number of walled
gardens there are in this country, there can be no doubt whatever
FIG. 25.— The Bilateral Cordon.
that by merely covering, by means of this plan, the lower parts of
walls now entirely naked and useless, we could supply half a dozen
markets like Covent-garden with the very choice fruit referred to,
and be entirely independent of the French. Doubtless many think
that these very fine fruit require a warmer climate than we have
for them. The French think so too, and therefore place them
against the bottoms of their walls. By doing the same we may pro-
duce as good or a better result, and may, in addition, grow tender
but fine apples, like the Calville Blanche, that do little good when
grown as standards. The climate in most parts of England will be
found to suit them quite as well as that of Paris, if not better,
because the sun in France is in some parts a little too strong for
the perfect development of the flesh and flavour of the apple. There
is no part of the country in which the low cordon will not be found
140 The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees.
a most useful addition to the garden — that is, wherever first-rate
and handsome dessert fruit is a want. But in very cold and northern
parts, where many apples ripen with difficulty, it will prove a great
boon. There, of course, it would be desirable to give the trees as
warm and sunny a position as possible, while the form recommended
for walls should be used extensively. In no case should the
system be tried except as a garden one — an improved method of
orcharding being what we want for kitchen fruit, and that for the
supply of the markets at a cheap rate. The Calville Blanche apple,
the kind that is above all others the one I would recommend for
growing on the sunny walls of little pits and the naked places above
alluded to, sells in Covent-garden at half a crown for each fruit, and
sometimes three shillings.
FIG. 26. — Calville Blanche Apple trained as a Cordon.
This is a fair sketch of a specimen of this fine apple I saw
growing with others against the bottoms of walls. The grower
told me he hoped to send them to the London market. So high is
the price for the finest specimens of this variety that sometimes the
little trees more than twice pay for themselves even during the first
year after being planted. Few but those who know the actual
state of the case, would suppose that in this fine apple-growing
country we should pay so much for French grown fruit of a variety
which we may grow to equally great perfection in the southern
parts of England and Ireland. Yet such is the fact. I am, how-
ever, confident that it will not long be the case. Of course many
other fine apples may be grown in this way, and the increase in
The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 141
their value, even if tested by the best of all tests, the market one,
will soon more than compensate the cultivator for the expense in-
curred by the introduction of this mode of culture. Our own first-
class and hardy kinds may be grown as the edgings frequently
recommended; the fine but in some cases tender French and
American kinds, will be better against low walls, &c., while the
fruit borders, with which we have hitherto been in doubt what
to do (some contending that they ought not to be cropped at
all), will form an excellent position for growing to the greatest
perfection our own first-class kinds of apple, any pears that will
FIG. 27. — Border of Cordons at Versailles.
conform agreeably to the system, and any other fruits that may in
time to come be found to do well en cordon. Should we find that
other kinds of fruit may be grown with advantage in this way, so
much the better ; but even if we should not, covering the fruit borders
of our gardens with the kind that we already know to do well
trained thus, will prove one of the neatest and most useful im-
provements that our fruit gardens have witnessed for many years.
By planting our borders thus we do away with the necessity for
disturbing the border after planting, the roots of the wall trees are
perfectly safe, a slight extension of the protection usually devoted
42 The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees.
to the wall will also protect the border, the quantity of noble apples
that may be gathered will make it well worth while to contrive an
efficient awning for the protection of both border and wall in
spring, not an inch of space need be lost, and the border would,
when neatly covered with cordons on tightly strained galvanized
wires, look well at all seasons. Instead of planting superimposed
cordons, as show by Fig. 27, it would be better to have all single
cordons at a foot high, as then the wall would not be in the least
shaded 5 and there can be no doubt that the single low cordon well
developed is the best form. Incidentally I may here state that the
borders should be mulched with a couple of inches of short stable
manure to allow the roots of all to come near the surface to feed
without danger from surface drought caused by drying winds or the
FIG. 28. — Section of preceding figure.
vicissitudes of cold and heat which the surface is liable to. Good
cultivators in France are very partial to covering the ground with a
couple of inches of short litter, or mulching as we call it. Although
it has been remarked that it is better to depend on one single line
of cordon than adopt the superimposed ones grown in the Imperial
garden, and shown at Fig. 27, yet as some may desire this
method, and some positions suit it, it may not be amiss to remark
that the Doucin stock will generally be found the best where two
or three rows are trained one over another.
If such fabulous prices as those above mentioned were never
realized, the finer apples that require more heat than they get when
fully exposed in our climate would be well worth growing in this
The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 143
manner. Indeed, from an ornamental point of view alone it
would be desirable to cover many naked spaces on walls, &c., with
these cordons, and embellish them with their pretty flowers in
spring and noble fruit in autumn.
Fig. 29 represents quite a young line of Reinettes used as an
edging, and, though as yet weak, very fertile. The way of fastening
is somewhat simpler than the first cordon figured, and the position
of the little raidisseur is shown. When lines of cordons are per-
fectly well furnished the whole line is a thick mass of spurs, just
like the top rod of a well-trained espalier. Some keep them very
closely pinched in to the rod, but the best I have ever seen were
allowed a rather free development of spurs, care being taken that
they were regularly and densely produced along the stem. If
anybody will reflect that as a rule the best vigour of the ordinary
FIG. 29. — Reinette du Canada as a Cordon Edging.
espalier tree flows to its upper line of branches, he will have no
difficulty in seeing at a glance the advantages of the horizontal
cordon, particularly if he bears in mind that the system as gene-
rally applied to the apple is simply a bringing of one good branch
near the earth where it receives more heat, where it causes no in-
jurious shade, and where it may be protected with the greatest
efficiency and the least amount of trouble. It is simply a carrying
further of the best principles of grafting and pruning — a wise
bending of the young tree to the conditions that best suit it in our,
northern climate. The simple fact that by its means we bring all
the fruit and leaves to within ten inches or a foot of the ground,
and thereby expose them to an increase of heat, which compensates
to a great extent for a bad climate, will surely prove a strong argu-
ment in its favour to every intelligent person. I believe it to be
144
Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees.
the best and soundest of all forms of the cordon system (this opinion
is only given after having seen it afford a good result in very many
gardens), and that the day will yet come when this fact will be
patent to every British gardener. A fruit grower of great expe-
rience and repute has objected that it is only fit for small gardens,
and ridiculed it by pleasantly describing how the wire tripped one
over into the cabbages, &c. Well, if the cordon be no better de-
veloped than to be invisible, the less we have to do with it the
better ; but where it is thickly and regularly set with a stubby
spray of fruit buds, and a dense crop of noble fruit, as I have seen
it at Ferrieres, at Chartres, and at many other places, then it be-
comes a thing which catches the eye for its beauty and utility. If
I were making a garden to-morrow as large as Frogmore, I would
run a line of wire round every plot of it at a foot from the ground,
FIG. 30. — The Double Oblique Cordon.
and on that train the best kind of apples, believing this cordon to be
much better, more useful, and more easily managed than either the
bush or pyramid on the same stock ! In numbers of gardens it
may be adopted to an extent sufficient to supply the fruit-room
with splendid apples without devoting a special quarter to them, or,
in fact, losing any space thereby. The wood, leaves, and fruit are
The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 145
more fully exposed to the sun than in the case of either pyramid or
bush, or any other method of growing apples away from walls — an
advantage for all parts of England, but especially so to cold, northern,
and elevated parts.
The form is so definite and so simple, that anybody may attend
to it, and direct the energies of the little trees to a perfect end,
with much less trouble than is requisite to form a presentable pyra-
mid or bush. It does not, like other forms, shade anything — not
even so much so as some vegetables — for beneath the very line of
cordons you may have a slight crop. They are less trouble to support
than either pyramid or bush j always under the eye for thinning,
stopping, &c. -, easy of protection, if that be desired -, and very
cheap in the first instance. Therefore this is the best of all known
modes of obtaining first-class garden apples.
It has been objected that ground frosts would prevent the setting
of the fruit of these cordons, flowering as they do so near the
ground. But the apple flowers late, and usually has a better
chance of escaping than the pear} and it is for the apple that the
system has been chiefly recommended. I have frequently seen fine
crops of fruit from trees that had not been protected. But as-
suming for a moment that ground frosts would annually destroy
the bloom, I may draw attention to the facility with which the
cordons may be protected from frost. The spray of any rough
evergreens will generally suffice; but I need not say that if it be
determined to adopt a more thorough mode of protection, this
method is the one to which it can be most readily applied. Where
the fruit wall borders are covered with cordons an extension of
the protection given to the wall may be made to do thoroughly.
Where the thing is tried on a smaller scale how easy to cover the
lines with the cheap barless ground vineries, and to remove these to
other uses when the fruit is beyond danger !
A few words are necessary as to the best method of planting and
managing the apple trained en cordon, and planted around the
quarters or on borders. In a garden in which particular neatness
is desirable it would be better to plant them within whatever
146 The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees.
edging is employed 5 but in the rough kitchen and fruit garden
they may be used as edgings. The reason why it is desirable to
FIG. 31.— The Double Vertical Cordon for Walls, &c.
keep the wire at one foot from the ground is to prevent the fruit from
The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 147
getting soiled by earthy splashings. By having something planted
underneath which would prevent this, we might bring the cordon
lower down 5 but though I have thought of several things likely to do
this, none of them are very satisfactory. Doubtless, however, we
shall yet find something that may be cultivated with profit imme-
diately under the cordon and prevent the splashings, and then be
able to bring it within six inches of the earth. Plant at six feet
apart or more if the soil be very rich, and such as the apple grows
vigorously in. If the soil be a sand, sandy loam, or of a dry nature,
use what is called the "English Paradise stock," and if it be a wet
or clayey soil use the true French Paradise.
If an opportunity occurs for testing the two stocks side by side,
and worked with the same kinds, take advantage of it by all means,
and thus ascertain exactly what suits your soil and climate. The
French Paradise is invaluable for cold and wet soils, though hitherto
it has been condemned as useless " except on those of a very light
and dry nature " — the very ones which it dislikes. Test it by all
means j it is only by experiments in various soils and situations that
we can ascertain the true value of a plant. So far as I have ob-
served, the " English Paradise," though excellent, never gives such
very large fruit as the " Pommier de Paradis" of the French. Much
care should be exercised as to the selection of kinds. As the system
is chiefly valuable for the production of superb dessert fruit, only
the finest kinds should be selected. The following will be found
very suitable : — Reinette du Canada, Calville Blanche, Cox's
Orange Pippin, Duke of Devonshire, Kerry Pippin, Lodgemore
Nonpareil, White Nonpareil, Newtown Pippin, The Mother, Early
Harvest, Lord Burleigh, and other handsome and well-flavoured eat-
ing apples. Wherever it is desired to grow and show splendid
specimens of select kitchen kinds, the following will be found ex-
cellent : — Beauty of Kent, Bedfordshire Foundling, Lord Suffield,
Cox's Pomona, Dumelow's Seedling, Hawthornden, Tower of
Glammis, and new or winter Hawthornden, Betty Geeson,
and Small's Admirable. There are many other first-rate dessert
and cooking apples worthy of culture in this way, and the selec-
L 2
148 The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees.
tion may be regulated by the cultivator's taste and by his soil and
climate.
With respect to the form to be attained, little need be said j it is
so simple and definite that anybody can manage it. A presentable
line of cordons may be made with greater facility than a plantation
of bush or pyramidal apples, as all varieties of apples do not con-
form to these shapes. It is perhaps best to plant the trees some
months before bending them to the wire, so that they may be
settled down firmly before being attached to the wire. The graft
should never be buried. If planted in autumn, it will be best to
defer the bending down till spring, as at that season the stems are
more elastic from being full of rising sap. When bent down, they
should not be severely cut in, or they may betray a tendency to
shoot too vigorously from the "bend j" and when the point of the
cordon is growing, it may, though tied down occasionally, be per-
mitted to grow upwards a little. By doing so, we encourage the
sap to flow on regularly through the stem, and nourish all the
spurs on its way ; whereas if the growing point be repressed, or too
rigorously tied down, there will be a greater tendency to shoot from
the part near the bend, and therefore more trouble for the summer
pruner; and it is in summer chiefly that the cordons must be
pruned. I have seen "cordons" in British gardens with the
shoots allowed to rise up like willow-wands. Of course success
cannot be attained under such circumstances — such cordons are an
eyesore instead of a benefit j and those who cannot attend to them
better should content themselves by planting ordinary standard
trees. The great point is the summer pinching, to insure a dense
array of fruit spurs, while every other suitable means may be used
to secure an equal distribution of sap : thus, if the plantation be
made on a declivity, all the points should be directed upwards j
again, if bare spaces occur on the stem, the dormant eyes should
be induced to break by making two incisions a little in front of a
dormant eye, and taking out a small piece of bark and young wood.
These cares are chiefly required in the establishment of the planta-
tion— once the spurs are regularly developed along the lines,
The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 149
much less trouble will suffice to keep all right. The shoots should
be pinched in when they are a few inches long, and to from three
to five leaves, according to the strength of the shoot. If very strong,
it is not desirable to pinch it in too closely j and although many
cultivators pinch in more closely than is here advised, I have cer-
tainly seen the best results attained where somewhat freer yet per-
fectly regular development was allowed to each cordon. And as we
confine the trees to one stem, it is the wisest plan not to pinch or
repress that too much. The whole is so well exposed to the sun
and air, that a dense array of spurs eight or nine inches in diameter
will not be too much. Some graft the point of one tree on to the
bend of another, and thus eventually make a continuous shoot of
each line. This is sometimes so neatly and well done, that the
wire may be withdrawn and the trees left to support themselves.
When well grafted, and united one to the other, every second stem,
maybe cut away in the event of the plantation becoming too vigorous.
Two or three general pinchings during the summer will suffice j
but at all- times when a "water shoot," or gourmand, shows itself
above the mass of fruitful little shoots, it should be pinched down.
Finally, in winter, the trees will be the better for being looked over
with a view to a little pruning here and there ; chiefly a thinning
and regulating of the spurs when the plantation is thoroughly estab-
lished, the cutting-in of objectionable stumps, and a firm tying of
the shoots along the wire. These should never be tied tightly, so as
to prevent their free expansion, but they may be tied firmly with-
out incurring any danger of that. One word more about the
pinching. Do not do it when the little shoots are too young ; by doing
so, a ceaseless pushing forth of soft shoots is the result. In cold and
northern parts, where the apple must be grown against walls, the
double oblique cordon (Fig. 30) and the double erect cordon (Fig. 31)
will be found suitable, especially if enough of fruit cannot be had
from the dwarf form which I have recommended for the bottoms
of walls, the fronts of pits, &rc. The double erect cordon would
do very well for running up projecting pillars, or any very narrow
space on a wall. However, I introduce them here more to show
150 The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees.
The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 151
what the system is than for any merit they possess ; they are adapt-
able and useful in certain positions, but do not possess such marked
advantages as the low horizontal cordons.
THE PEAR AS A CORDON. — Having said so much about
the apple as a cordon, we will next turn to the pear and the
peach. It does not, as applied to either of these fruits, or to
other first-rate wall fruits, offer a distinct and economical way
of producing a letter class of fruit, as in the case of the
apple. Its advantages are simply quick growth, early fertility,
and a considerable number of varieties from a limited space. Here
is an example (Fig. 32) of the simple oblique cordon applied
to the pear. The plants at each end, which display a
fuller development, show the means by which the ends of the wall
are covered. As will be seen, the trees are placed very close
together, which makes the plantation costly. They, however, soon
run up to the top of the wall, and yield a quicker return than the
larger forms. Then if one fails it is easily replaced. But are these
advantages sufficient to justify us in adopting this system to any
extent for our wall pears ? I think they certainly are not, and more-
over believe we may secure handsomer trees, less distortion,
longer life, and more fruit, by adopting such simple and easily con-
ducted forms as those shown at page 159. Those forms are hand-
somer than the wall or espalier cordon for the pear, yield a great
number of kinds from a comparatively small space j and moreover,
allow of a somewhat free and natural development. We all know
how comparatively few are the varieties of first-class pears which
succeed to perfection in any one place, and that the necessity of
planting a new kind at every eighteen inches along the wall does
not exist. For the fruiting of seedlings and testing of new kinds,
it is however a good plan. In these cases it enables us to attain
our ends in the shortest space of time, and with the least possible
waste of space. The pear may also be trained as a low edging,
like the apple, and, with better hopes of success, against the bottoms
of walls, the low front walls of houses, &c. As an edging, I have
352 The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees.
several times noticed it in good condition j but generally the pear
pushes a little too vigorously to be trained in that way, while the
pendulous habit of the fruit renders it more liable to be soiled. I
once saw Uvedale's St. Germain pear grown in this way, the great
fruit sitting on the ground, and quite encrusted with earthy splash-
ings. However, some of the best of the free -bearing kinds I have
seen used to better purpose as edgings, and know no reason why first-
rate varieties of compact fertile habit cannot be grown well in this
way, especially on the fruit borders, where they might be protected
so efficiently. Planted on a border devoted to peach trees, the same
protection might easily be extended to them j and thus we might,
by paying a little more attention to securing perfect protection, get
splendid crops of both fruits.
THE PEACH AS A CORDON. — With the peach as an oblique
cordon, a better result is attained than with the pear, the wall
being covered very rapidly, and the neat laying in of a great number
of shoots on each side of the simple stem does away with the
crowded and unnatural appearance which a plantation of cordon
pears assumes when old and the stems are thickened. I have seen
some really good results produced in this way, both in glass-houses
and against walls.
But instead of the wood being pinched in, as people might suppose
in England from reading of the method of one Mr. Grin, it is nailed
or tied in at each side of the branch, aye, more so than if that branch
were part and parcel of one of the older and larger forms of tree. I
once saw an excellent result afforded by this system against the high
back wall of a vinery in the establishment of M. Rose Charmeaux,
at Thomery. By its means he perfectly covered his wall in a short
time, and gathered a great variety of fruit from a small space. Out
of doors I have seen it afford beautiful results, and that not un-
frequently. It is well calculated for high walls, and it may be
adopted for low ones by training the trees at a more acute angle
with the earth. Fig. 33 shows how the ends of a wall thus covered
with cordons are to be furnished. Considering the time usually
The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees. 153
154 The Cordon System of Training Fruit Trees.
required to furnish walls in the ordinary way, there can be little
doubt that this mode of training the peach is a real improvement,
and especially where a considerable number of varieties are required
from a small space. Apart from that, however, the facility with
which walls may be covered by its means, and the readiness with
which a diseased or otherwise objectionable one may be replaced,
will doubtless prove sufficient recommendations for cultivators who
are not restricted as to space.
I must, however, state that some French fruit-growers think that
there is no occasion for resorting to this simple cordon in the case
of the peach, any more than in the case of the pear. My friend
M. F. Jamain, of Bourg La Reine, plants in his own
garden a form of tree with three vertical branches, and
if he wants a great variety of fruit from a small space,
works a different variety on each branch. Fig. 34
shows, on a small scale, the aspect of one of his young
specimens, trained on this principle, at the time of
my visit. The aspect of this may suggest a difference
in the French and English mode of pruning the peach,
and a marked one exists. As a rule they spur- in all
the shoots, but not very closely ; we lay-in the fruiting
wood left after the pruning j and some of our good
growers say that the paucity of buds at the base of the shoots must
prevent us from adopting the French method. I am doubtful of
this, and think that the spurring-in system has never had a fair
trial in this country.
FIG. 34.
CHAPTER IX.
Improved Mode of Growing the Pear as an Espalier.
KNOW of no way whereby we may so highly improve
the garden culture of the pear as by paying more atten-
tion to it as what we call an espalier tree. This is also
the opinion of many of the best fruit-growers in Britain, who agree
that there is no finer fruit than that gathered from well-managed
espalier trees. It is well known that some pears lose quality by
being grown against walls. It is equally certain that a fuller degree
of sun and exposure than the shoots and fruit get on a pyramid
tree is very desirable in many parts of this country, especially for
particular kinds. Many grow beautifully as pyramids j some, to be
had in perfection, must be grown upon walls, but by means of the
improved espalier system, which I shall presently describe, the
majority of the finer kinds may be grown to the highest excellence.
If the French can do nothing else they can certainly teach us a
lesson as to the improvement in aspect, cheapness, and utility of
the espalier mode of growing fruit, and especially pear trees. It
should be borne in mind that the good opinion of espalier trees
given by British cultivators has been won by the method under
the greatest disadvantages, for nothing can be uglier or more in-
efficient than the usual mode of supporting and training espaliers
in our gardens. It is generally costly and disagreeable to the eye,
so much so that it has been done away with for this reason alone in
many gardens. I know some important ones near London, and
156 Improved Mode of Growing
indeed in many parts of Britain, where the espalier support is the
most unworkmanlike and discreditable affair to be seen in the
place. Great rough uprights of wood, which soon rot and wabble
out of position, thick and costly bolt-like wire, cumbrous and
expensive construction, and, in a word, so many disadvantages as
would suffice to prevent the prudent cultivator from attempting
anything of the kind. The form or tree used, too, is such that
the lower branches become impoverished, and often nearly useless.
Now, to form the support for their espalier fruit trees the French
have largely adopted a system which is at once cheap, neat, and
almost everlasting. Instead of employing ugly and perishable
wooden supports they erect uprights of T-iron, and connect
these with slender galvanized wire instead of the bolt-like and
unmanageable things that we use. These they tighten with the
little raidisseurs before alluded to, and then there is an end of all
trouble. They manage to erect this seven feet to nine feet high for
less than a shilling a yard run. I have seen many English arrange-
ments of this kind, supported by beam-like wooden stakes, and
tottering so as to be intolerable in a garden. Then, instead of
adopting the common form of espalier tree, with horizontal
branches, they use more freely trees of which each branch ascends
towards the top of the trellis, and thus secure an equable flow of
sap through each branch.
But perhaps the accompanying engraving will give a better idea
of both trellis and tree than any description. There is no more
important matter connected with our fruit culture than this very
point, and, therefore, I should be much obliged to all readers, both
amateur and professional, who give the subject attention, as I am
sure that by doing so they will be led to largely adopt it, and much
improve their fruit culture. The finest stores of pears I have ever
seen were in gardens with a good length of tree trained in this
manner. The form represented here is that adopted in the Imperial
Kitchen Garden at Versailles, and is not very common in France,
though very good and simple. It is much better than the cordon
or single-stemmed pear tree, because a more free and natural de-
the Pear as an Espalier.
157
velopment is allowed to the tree, and at the same time the trellis is
covered quickly, and a considerable variety of fruit may be obtained
from a small space. It is very extensively adopted by M. Hardy,
the emperor's gardener, and upon walls as well as on the neat and
elegant trellis, of which he has constructed so much. Of course
the Patmette Verrier, the fan, or any other form may be trained on
these trellises, but decidedly the best are such as combine the ad-
FIG. 35.— Trellis for Pear-growing.
vantages of quick covering and early productiveness claimed for
the cordon, and the fuller development and more pleasing appear-
ance of the larger forms. It should be borne in mind that planting
erect cordons close together, as they must be planted, involves a
great expense which is avoided by using the intermediate forms.
It takes a good many years to form the large style of tree generally
158 Improved Mode of Growing
adopted,, and therefore I advise the general planting of these more
contracted forms. Nothing can be neater alongside garden walks
than lines such as these trained on the trellis alluded to. There is
no shaking about of rough irons or wooden beams, no falling down
or loosening of the wires 5 the fruit is firmly attached and safe from
gales, the wood is fully exposed, and the trellis thus well covered
forms an elegant dividing line in a garden. The best way to place
them is at from three to six feet from the edge of the walk, and if
in the space between the espalier and the walk a line of the cordons
elsewhere recommended be established, the effect and result will
prove very good indeed. In some cases where large quantities of
fruit are required, it may be desirable to run them across the squares
at a distance of fifteen or eighteen feet apart. And here again I
mention the Imperial garden at Versailles, not by any means be-
cause it is the Imperial garden — it has many faults, and is inferior
in not a few ways to a first-class English forcing garden — but the
system of trellising there is such as no horticulturist could fail to
admire. There is one large square completely devoted to those
trellises for espaliers as we would call them (the French apply
the term espalier to wall trees) ; and the foreman informed me
that they constructed this excellent trellising for about one franc
a yard run or less. The principle is quite simple. However, as
the system of wiring now beginning to be generally adopted in
French gardens is so excellent and so well calculated to improve
and add to the comfort of our gardens that it deserves to be fully
described, we will devote a little space to the French mode of wiring
walls, making trellises for fruit trees, £c., in the portion of the book
devoted to horticultural implements, appliances, &c.
M. Hardy, the head gardener at Versailles, is the son of the
celebrated writer on fruit trees of that name, and has had much
experience in fruit growing. I here give his written opinion on
the trellises and forms of tree herein illustrated. " These trellises
are the cheapest as well as the most ornamental that we have yet
succeeded in making, and the trees which I plant against them are
of that form which I prefer to all others, for promptly furnishing
the Pear as an Espalier. 159
walls and trellises, and to yield a great number of varieties in a
comparatively restricted space." The mode of employing the up-
rights of pine wood painted green and reaching from the top of
160 Improved Mode of Growing the Pear.
the trellis to within six inches of the ground, is not a common one,
though very desirable where the erect mode of training the shoots
is practised. The reader will readily perceive that this system
combines the advantages of the cordon and the large tree.
Of course many other forms, or any form, may be used with this
system of trellising, with slight modifications to suit different kinds
of trees or different forms. The double trellis, shown by Fig. 36,
is simply a modification of the preceding, and very desirable where
space is limited, and indeed for its economy, for one set of uprights
support the two sets of wires simply by using cross bits of iron
about 1 8 inches long, and at the desired distance apart. However,
the engraving shows this at a glance. This double form is ad-
mirable where it is desired to protect the espaliers. I once saw this
efficiently done by allowing the uprights to rise a little above the
upper cross-bars and then using iron rods so as to form a span at
each upright. The iron rods were projected about a foot beyond
the line of training wires. Through these rods galvanized wires
were strained so as to form a slender framework over the pears, and
on this was spread protecting material in spring.
CHAPTER X.
Palmetto Verrier.
jHEREVER large wall trees are grown, the simple, noble,
and beautiful form known to the French as the Palmette
Verrier is sure to obtain a place among them. It is
indeed the finest of all large forms, and is preferred by many of the
best French cultivators to any other. They use it for other trees
besides the pear; and by far the finest peach tree I have ever
seen was trained after this method near Lyons. The English reader
may think it impossible to attain such perfect shape as is shown in
Fig. 37, and such perfect equalization of sap as it suggests; but I
have seen several trees even more beautifully finished than the one
here represented. This figure also shows the advantages of the kind
of support used in France for espalier trees as compared with our
own ugly method of doing it with rough wooden and iron posts
and strong bolt-like expensive wire. It will be seen that the tree
differs radically from the usual form of pear tree that we are in the
habit of placing against walls, and it is easy to point out its advan-
tages in securing an equal flow of sap to all the branches.
In the common horizontal form the strength and fertility are apt
to desert the lower branches, in consequence of their not possessing a
growing point to draw the sap through, and particularly when con-
stant care is not taken to repress, by summer pinching, the tipper
portions of the tree. The form here figured, in common with all very
large wall and espalier trees, takes a long time to make. Given a
M
The Palmette Verrier.
.-Js^i
The Palme tie Verrier. 163
wall i o ft. or 12 ft. high, and 20 ft. or 24 ft. long, to be covered
with a tree of this shape, it would require fifteen or sixteen years
to form it. By adopting a more contracted form based upon the
same plan, we may cover the wall or trellis more quickly.
The Palmette Verrier is named after the gardener at 1'EcoIe
Regionale de La Saulsaie, with whom it was first observed. To
form the tree, we have in the first instance to plant an ordinary
young plant of a desired kind, and of course that should be of the
primest quality both as to quality and constitution, as so much care
is about to be exercised to make it a handsome and long-lived orna-
ment to the garden and capital aid to the fruit room. It is quite
easy to buy trees a little more advanced to make the same form
more quickly j but they will cost the more money the further they
are advanced beyond what is called the " maiden" stage. Du Breuil,
the leading French professor of fruit culture, says the young trees
should be allowed to remain a year or so in their positions before
being cut, so that they may have rooted well. At the first pruning
the young tree is cut down to within a foot or so of the ground,
and just above three suitable eyes, one at each side to form the two
lowermost branches, the other a little above them and in front to
continue the erect axis. Of course all the eyes, except those that
are to send forth the three first shoots, must be suppressed in spring.
Now, although the tree in the figure looks so very exact and regular
in its lines, and the branches appear as if they had been " bent in
the way they should go" at a very early stage, it is not so; they
are at first allowed to grow almost erect, and afterwards are gra-
dually lowered to the horizontal position. During the first year of the
young tree possessing three shoots, care must be taken (as at all
times) to secure a perfect equilibrium between them. If one grows
stronger than the others, it must be loosened from its position on the
wall and lowered. That will divert the sap to strengthen the other
one or two. Nothing is more easily conducted than the sap when
we pay a little attention to it ; if not, it soon rushes towards the
higher points, and spoils the tree.
After the fall of the leaf the little trees should have somewhat
164
'The Palmette Verrier.
the appearance of Fig. 38. We then, at the second pruning, have
to cut them at B, and also cut off about a third of the length of
the side shoots, as at A A, Fig. 38. If one side branch happens to
be stronger than the other, cut the stronger one somewhat shorter.
In cutting and pruning wall trees, the cut should be made above a
front bud, so that the wound made by the knife may be turned
towards the wall, and away from the eye, from which, of course, it
soon will be effectually hidden by this front bud pushing into a
shoot, and thickening at its base. During the second year no
more branches must be permitted to grow, simply because the
trainer desires to throw all the strength he can into the lower
branches, which are to be the longest. Sometimes, however, the
FIG. 38.
FIG. 39.
FIG. 40.
strength of the lower branches will permit the second stage of
branches to be made during the second year of training. At the
third pruning the trees will present somewhat the appearance of
Fig. 39, the central stem being cut at six inches or so above the
previous incision, which is indicated by a slight ring, and a third
part of the new growth of the side branches cut off, as shown on
the side branches of Fig. 39. Here, again, we cut above and inside
of three promising eyes to obtain a new stage of branches, and each
succeeding year add another stage; the same thing until the tree is
formed. Fig. 40 represents the aspect of the young tree at the
fourth pruning. At the end of the following growing season the
specimen will have grown sufficiently to allow the lower branches
The Palmette Verrler.
to be turned up towards the top of the wall, and begin to look
shapely. Fig. 41 is an exact representation of what it ought to be
at that stage — A, and the cross marks, indicating where the cuttings
are to be made. Above all things is it necessary to keep the growth
and flow of sap equal, not only for the sake of symmetry, but also
to insure perfect health and fertility ; for if one part be allowed to
grow grossly at the expense of another, an awkward state of things
will soon take place. Sometimes, when the vegetation is very
vigorous, time is gained in the making of this form by pinching the
FIG. 41.
central growth at eight inches or so above the highest pair of oppo-
site branches. It then breaks again, and care is taken to secure
two side shoots and one erect one. Thus, with care, and in good
soil, two stages of branches may be secured in the same year, but
this must not be attempted till the proper formation of the two
lower branches is secured. The dotted lines in Fig. 4 1 will show
the positions that have been successively occupied by the branch E,
when in course of formation, and that it is by no means necessary to
train a young branch from the beginning in the exact position it is
required to take. In fact, this form is only to be well and easily per-
1 66 The Palmette Verrier.
fected by allowing the young shoots to first grow and gather strength
in an erect or oblique position. The branch E kept company when
young with the central branch, and was at B ; then it was lowered
to C, next year to D, and finally to its horizontal position. Some
care is required to make the bend of the shoots equal and easily
rounded. If the tree be trained on a wire trellis, as depicted in
Fig. 37> it '1S best to place two bent rods in the exact position
requisite, and before we require the shoot to be bent. They
must be placed at exactly equal distances from the main stem, and
be equal in curvature. Then it is an easy matter to gently attach
the growing shoot to them ; it will soon harden to the desired bend.
Against a wall it will be easy to direct it with shreds and nails 5 if
the wall be wired the bits of bent twig may be applied, as on the
trellis. Like care should be bestowed upon the other bends, as they
require to be made ; but of course the outer and lower one is of
the greatest importance.
The reader will observe that, in the formation of this Palmette
Verrier, the custom is not to attempt training the young shoot in the
position it is finally destined to occupy, but, on the contrary, to
permit it first to grow sometimes in an erect, or at least in an
oblique direction, so that the sap may flow upwards without check.
Nothing is easier than taking down the shoots from time to time,
as they become strong and well developed. Now this is a principle
almost unknown to, and certainly unpractised by, ourselves j being
applicable to many forms of training, I can strongly recommend
it, having frequently witnessed the good effects produced by care-
fully carrying it out. This and the following article are in the
main free translations from the last edition of Professor Du Breuil's
work on fruit trees.
CHAPTER XI.
Pyramidal Training.
[S the amateur reader may wish to know something more
of the details of training, and as the French amateur so
far excels in the cultivation of pyramidal pears as to have
in his garden numerous specimens of which the best English
gardener might be proud, I here give the detailed mode of forming
these beautiful trees, according to the leading French professor, Du
Breuil, in the hope that many British amateurs may be induced to
attempt a culture which, while very profitable in all but the more
unfavourable and northern parts of these islands, is, considered from
the stand-point of beauty alone, as desirable as any with which
amateurs interest themselves. I have seen pyramidal pear trees in
the gardens of even very humble French amateurs, which, if they
never afforded a fruit, were beautiful objects j and I have met with
few " avenues" that afforded me more pleasure than a short one of
pyramid pear-trees leading up through a little town garden within
the walls of Paris.
We will begin, then, with the fully formed pyramid, and in ad-
dition to its symmetry will be observed the straight "clean" growth
of each branch, springing at regular intervals from the main stem,
which is so erect and well furnished.
From the summit to the base, they say, such a tree ought to be
garnished with nothing but branches well set with fruit spurs. The
greatest breadth of the pyramid should equal about one-third of its
FIG. 42.— Pyramidal Pear Tree.
Pyramidal Training.
169
height. Pyramid trees may be purchased in all stages ; but as trees
ready-formed are costly, and as many would prefer con ducting their
own trees, and those who plant on a large scale will find it econo-
mical to begin with trees a year from the graft, we will begin at
the beginning with a " maiden tree," letting it grow one year in
the ground before pruning it.
Fig. 43 represents the first pruning of this young tree, and its ap-
pearance one year after being permanently planted, or two years
"from the graft." B shows the union of stock and scion j and the
terminal bud A just below where the shoot
is cut should be placed on the side opposite
to that on which the scion was inserted, as
shown in the figure, so that the erect stem
of the tree may rest perpendicularly on its
base. It is by attending to such little
points as this that they get that perfectly
equal distribution of sap which is so essen-
tial to the satisfactory management and
prolonged fertility of trained fruit trees.
The summer following the first pruning
the young trees push with great vigour,
and their shoots should be thinned when
a few inches long, removing every shoot
from the base of the stem to a height of
about one foot, and thinning out those
above this point to six, seven, or eight
shoots ; reserving, of course, the best placed
shoots, and taking care to have them arranged as far as possible
at regular intervals. Should they in the course of the year
assume an irregular development, pinching with the finger and
thumb must be resorted to. This is shown by Fig, 44 on the next
page. The shoots, A A, have pushed too much -, and one of
them rivals the leading shoot B. Therefore they must be pinched,
merely taking an inch or so off. In the spring of the follow-
ing year the young trees should offer somewhat the aspect of
FIG. 43.— Pyramid Pear :
First Pruning.
Pyramidal Training.
Fig. 45 ; the cross marks showing how the pruning is to be
performed.
This second pruning has for its object the obtaining of a new
set of lateral branches, and the further development of those already
FIG. 44.
FIG. 45. — Pyramid Pear :
Second Pruning.
obtained. It is evident that to secure
a beautiful tree, the branches must
spring forth regularly from the main
stem, which they are not likely to do
if the tree is left to itself. Fig. 46
shows the way in which the careful
cultivator furnishes his stem, as regu-
larly as could be desired by the most
fastidious of pear fanciers. The eyes which he desires to break
strongly have an incision made above them, as shown in the figure.
This is particularly desirable as regards the lower part of each suc-
cessive growth of the erect stem j the vigour of the rising current
Pyramidal Training.
171
of sap often pushing towards the higher buds, and
causing the lower part to be poorly furnished. These
incisions, A, A, A, must be carefully performed on the
young branch : deep enough to penetrate the sap
wood, and yet not to hurt the slender rising point. But
the top of this shoot, instead of being cut off, has been
barked for some portion of its length above the bud
that has been selected to continue the growth of the
coming summer. To this the young shoot is trained,
and a perfectly vertical growth for what we may term
the pillar of the tree is thereby secured. The bark is
.A.
El
FIG. 46.
FIG. 47.
173
Pyramidal Training.
neatly cut round above the upper eye j the branch is cut off at about
four or five inches above that point, and then the bark is taken
clean off. When the young leading shoot is long enough, it is
fastened to the bare portion of stem, as shown at Fig. 47. The
portion A is cut off at B at the next winter pruning. This process
may be prolonged as long as necessary or convenient. In pruning
in the tree considerable judgment is required, so as to get the base
of the specimen well furnished, and secure fertility in the fruiting
branches. Fig. 50 shows how this is performed, and several of the
FIG. 48.
FIG. 49
following figures well explain the principle. It is to cut them of
the greatest length at the base of the tree, and gradually shorten
them as we reach the top. The nearer they spring to the soil, the
longer they must be left, or to be more precise, only a third must
be cut from the points of the lowest branches ; half the length
may be taken from those situated between summit and base ; and
lastly, three parts may be cut from the most elevated parts. In
cutting-in the lateral branches, the directly' oblique direction which
it is desirable they should take must be borne in mind in the
pruning, and the terminal bud of each left as far as possible, as
Pyramidal Training.
173
at A, in Fig. 48. In case of a very irregular development among
the laterals, incisions are made above a weak branchlet to encourage
it, as at A, Fig. 49, and below a strong one, as at C, to retard it unti 1
the equilibrium of the branches is established. At B this incision is
made before a dormant bud that has failed to become developed
into a lateral. This figure also shows the relative proportion to
establish in pruning such irregularly developed branches springing
from a main stem that we wish to be equally balanced in all its
parts. The weak shoot is not cut, or but very little j the strong,
FIG. 50. — Pyramid Pear : Third Pruning.
cut in to below the level of the one it is desired to encourage.
These incisions should be performed with a little saw, so that
the cuts may not soon heal over. The incisions should penetrate
sufficiently into the layer of young wood to well intercept the
sap vessels. If with all these precautions there are objectionably
bare spaces on the stem, they furnish them by grafting by appr oach
or in other words, turn back a vigorous branch to the main stem,
and graft it on to the bare space ; and if this cannot be done, insert
Pyramidal Training.
a short ordinary graft in the stem. That, however, with good
management will rarely be necessary.
Having secured the branches straight, the next point is to see that
they follow the desired oblique linej and it will be seen by the
cuts that the disposition given them is better than what they
assume under a less careful system. The light enters freely to the
FIG. 51. — Pyramid Pear : Fourth Priming.
stem, and illuminates all j the more important part of the tree is
under command of the eye and hand, and the top is prevented
from running away. This, however, is more owing to the fine
formation of the lower branches than to the position they assume,
though certainly such free ajid straight outlets for the rising sap are
Pyramidal Training.
'75
very effective in preventing a gross development above, and conse-
quently in keeping the tree in the desired condition. During the
summer following the second pruning, the operations for maintain-
ing the lead with the vertical branch, and equality among the lateral
FIG. 52. — Pyramid Pear: Fifth Pruning.
shoots of the new growth, must be carried out as before described.
The third pruning is shown at Fig. 50, and it will be seen that here
again the young lateral branches of the preceding summer are cut
pIG 1-3 — Figure theoretically indicating the Mode of Forming
a Pyramidal Pear Tree.
Pyramidal Training. 177
in much shorter than the lower ones to favour the development
of these.
At the fourth pruning the lower branches are not cut nearly so
long as in the previous pruning, because they have now attained to
almost the desired length and sufficient vigour. The new branches
of the second series are left somewhat longer, and the primer looks
more to the top structure, so to speak. The wisdom of well form-
ing the base at first will be seen at a glance. During the summer
following the fourth pruning, before described, attention should be
given to the young branches at the top of the pyramid, while the
side ones will also require attention. As the lower branches will have
attained to nearly their full length, the terminal shoot of each must
be prevented by pinching from a too vigorous growth.
Fig. 52 shows the aspect of the tree at the fifth pruning, and how
the pruning is performed. As is well seen by glancing from B to A
of Fig. 52, the new growth of the lower branches is cut very short,
while the higher the remaining superior branches are, the longer
they are cut. A careful look at the figure perfectly explains all
this. The succeeding primings differ nothing in principle from the
preceding, future development taking place principally in the middle
and higher parts of the tree ; and care is taken to train in the cor-
rect way by means of twine, and sometimes slender stakes, to guide
in the desired direction any branches that may have deviated from
it. Thus the pruning is carried on till the tree becomes a large
and perfect pyramid, the laterals being well pinched in, and in every
case a free terminal shoot is allowed to proceed from each, so that
the tree may be kept equally balanced and the sap freely conducted
through each branch. They may of course be cut back well every
year : always, however, at a likely bud to furnish a shoot for the
following season.
Fig. 53 theoretically shows first, the central stem A to B,and its sue
cessive cuttings back, i to 125 secondly, the position successively oc-
cupied by the lower branches during the first six years, during which
they were successively lowered and elongated from the point C to T 5
and thirdly, the lines from I to S show the lines of each year's pruning.
CHAPTER XII.
Columnar and Pendtdous Training — Pear Growing on
Railway Embankments — Suggestions towards Improve-
ment—Short Pinching as applied to the Peach — Peach
Culture at Montreuil.
|lG. 54 represents a mode of training to be seen here and
there in France. The woodcut shows a fully-formed tree
before the winter pruning takes place, and, as will be seen
at a glance, it is an erect stem densely furnished with short-fruiting
branches. This form is considered better than the pyramidal one,
where saving of space is a consideration, and where we do not wish
the trees to much shade the crops between them. They are also
well suited for small gardens where a large number of varieties
cannot be afforded space if trained in the usual way. I have thought
it worthy of a figure, but except on the quince in suitable soils it
is not likely to present many advantages j for if on the pear and
confined thus closely to a fastigiate bundle of shoots, it would in all
probability run too high to permit of proper annual pruning or
of the crop being gathered with convenience. Judging by the
strength and thickness displayed by our old horizontal wall trees
grafted on the pear stock, what should we arrive at if we adopted a
contracted form like this, or the single erect or oblique cordon, with
trees worked on the pear ? Why, in a few years, and especially
with the cordons, we should have objects more like rustic gate-
posts than trees.
Fruit-growing on Railway Embankments.
'79
HORIZONTAL PEAR-TREE WITH BENT
BRANCHLETS. — It is not uncommon in Eng-
lish gardens to train the branches of the
pyramid pear in a pendulous fashion ; and it
is a system admired by some, though some-
what more troublesome to form than the
simple pyramid. Fig. 55 represents a mode
of applying a modification of the same prin-
ciple to the ordinary horizontally trained
pear-tree. I do not say that it is as good as
it is graceful in appearance, believing as I do
in simple easily-conducted forms, but as these
smaller arching branches may be established
on kinds that bear on the young wood, and
with the branches rather thinly placed, it may
prove useful, and is worthy of a trial. The «
mode of formation is so simple and easily \>L]
established that no further description is
needed. However, I cannot say too often
that the simple and quickly-formed trees,
described elsewhere, are as excellent for
walls as for trellises, combining as they do
the advantages claimed for the cordons with
a not too contracted, repressed development.
FRUIT-GROWING ON RAILWAY EMBANK-
MENTS.— Notwithstanding the scarcity and
high price of fruit in our towns, it is quite
clear that there are many surfaces now ut-
terly useless that would grow it in profusion
and perfection. Many a spot worthless for
ordinary cropping would yield capital fruit
if judiciously planted. There is wall sur- f.^^— ^
face now naked which would, if properly
covered with fruit-trees, yield as much as FIG. 54.
N 2
Fruit-growing on Railway Embankments. 18 1
would suffice to supply a couple of Covent Gardens j but most
conspicuous of all, perhaps, are the railway embankments. Here
we have a space quite unused, and on which for hundreds of
miles may be planted fruit trees, that will after a few years
yield profit, and continue to do so for a long time with but
little attention. I am not aware that any attempt has been
made to cultivate fruit trees on them in England ; but learning
that one had been instituted in France, I went one day to see the
experiment, which has been made for a distance of eight leagues or
so along the line from Gretz to Colommiers — Chemin de fer de
1'Est. The French see the great advantage of utilizing spots at
present worthless in this way, and are beginning to work at it -, but
to all intents and purposes they are nearly as backward as ourselves.
It is true you now and then hear of somebody becoming a rentier
by planting a barren mountain side with cherries, but on the whole
they have nearly as much to do as we have with regard to fruit
culture in waste and profitless places. However, they have com-
menced, and it is most likely the first trial will be a profitable one,
though by no means so inexpensive as like ones might be made.
A cheap fence of galvanized wire runs on each side of the line, and
on this pear trees are trained so that their branches cross each other,
and they are, though only in their third year, nearly at the top of
the fence. In some parts they are trained in like manner on the
slender but very cheap and slight kind of wooden fence, so com-
mon in France. By training them in a way to cross and support
each other, before the time the fence decays the trees are perfectly
self-supporting, and form a very neat fence themselves. This is a
plan well worth adopting in many gardens where neat dividing
lines are desired. Some good fruit was gathered last year, but of
course the trees are too young to bear anything worth while for
another year. Judging from appearances, they will bear abun-
dantly this year, and for many to come. But this, although some-
thing in the right direction, does not occupy more than a mere
thread of the space on each side of the line, and I cannot but think
that much more might be done on the remaining surface by plant-
FIG. 56.
j82 Fruit-growing on Railway Embankments.
ing small trees. It would be a great point gained if we could have
dwarf productive trees without having to go to expense for fixing
or training them — if we could make them self-supporting, in fact.
A well-known French fruit-grower strongly recommends a self-
supporting mode of training, of which Fig. 56 is an illustration. I
have seen examples of it looking
quite as well as pears trained on
well-made trellises. M. Baltet
says, " It is quite possible and very
advantageous to establish neat
hedges of pear trees, more or less re-
gularly trained. By planting them
rather close together a quick result
is obtained. At first it would be
desirable to train the trees, as
shown in the cut, so as to secure a dwarf spreading tendency and
equal distribution of sap along the line, but after a time they might
be allowed to grow like any common hedge, and even clipped with
a shears. They should be planted at about four feet apart. The
branches should be tied together with loose matting. If correctly
and constantly pruned like espalier trees this arrangement will
prove an ornament to any garden, while in its rougher development
it may be employed on railway banks as a sort of fence or dividing
line. It resists the strongest winds."
The trees that I saw trained after this fashion were not, however,
allowed to get into a rough hedge-like condition, but, on the con-
trary, trained as neatly and perfectly as ever trees were on trellis or
wall. No flaying of the branches resulted from their being slightly
interlaced. A shoot was taken along the top so as to act as a finish
and tend to hold all tighter, and the whole looked much firmer and
neater than the ill-supported and ill-trained espaliers that one too
often sees at home. However, the neat and simply-constructed
trellises elsewhere described will be much better than this plan for
garden use. The rough modification of it might be used for making
the hedges before described ; but, on the whole, it seems to me
Suggestions towards Improvement. 183
that a mere line of trees, however trained, along a railway, will not
effect the improvement we require. Why not plant pyramid or
bush trees in. such positions? Why not the fig in the southern
counties ? By covering nearly all the surface of those sunny banks
— in many cases of excellent soil — there would be enough work to
do to make it necessary and profitable to have men in charge of
comparatively short lengths of the line, and these men would be
able to better protect the fruit. On the French railway in question
the fence of fruit trees is carried along, no matter what the soil or
situation. A more rational system would be to adopt the kind of
tree to the soil, and simply take the more desirable spots at first.
To sum up the pages chiefly devoted to apple and pear culture,
I wish particularly to state that what we must do to improve the
stock of our pears, and especially our winter pears, is to pay far
more attention to walls and espaliers than we have hitherto done.
The cheap walls will prove a great benefit in places where rough
material is abundant in the soil; they can be erected almost as
cheap as park fencing. The new mode of trellising will also tend
much to improve our choice fruit culture, not to speak of amend-
ment in appearances. The adoption of the wide temporary coping
will prove of greater benefit than many would suppose : it is more
efficient than the far more expensive and troublesome netting
coverings. And finally, to devote the fruit borders to fruit culture
will be a great advantage. The low cordons will no more shade the
wall than a crop of small salading, while preventing all necessity
for disturbing the border, and will utilize every inch of its space.
Indeed I can conceive of no greater improvement in our fruit
culture than devoting those excellent sunny borders that usually
lie at the foot of our fruit walls to fruit trees. By doing so we
should, it is true, sacrifice some of the more suitable spots for our
early vegetables, salads, &c., but we should gain much by settling
for ever the somewhat vexed question of the " cropping of fruit
borders."
As before remarked, the form of fruit tree of all others best
adapted for this work is the low horizontal cordon. The use
184 Suggestions towards Improvement.
of such stretched along a border will not interfere with the
efficiency of a wall in the least degree, while it will be a con-
venience to have so much of the fruit work together. When the
wall trees are being attended to, the cordons cannot be forgotten,
and the whole will be under the eye at a glance. The pear may
be grown thus, and the apple to the highest degree of perfection j
so much so that I have no doubt whatever that the splendid
apples which may be grown upon this system would, if put to the
market test, more than pay for the expense of protecting cordons
and wall trees at the same time, by an extension of the plan
shown in another chapter. Other fruits will probably be found to
submit to this mode of culture as well as these ; and if so, what a
prospect for our fruit gardens ! Efficiently protect borders and
walls from the time of flowering till the fruit is beyond all danger,
afterwards expose all to the refreshing summer rains, and then there
would be an end to all but mere routine work till the protecting
season come again. Every one hundred feet length of such well
protected wall and border would be equivalent to the best managed
orchard house ; and how very attractive the borders considered
from an ornamental point of view ! The fact of the borders being
thus covered with fruit trees will make it almost imperative to
protect the wall and border at the same time 5 and without efficient
protection at flowering time, we can hope for but very little success
with the finer hardy fruits in this country. The border thus covered
with fruit trees should be mulched, the apple should in all cases be
on the Paradise stock, and the pear, when tried on the horizontal
cordon system, on the Quince, where the soil admits of it. It is
manifest, however, that with the horizontal cordon we may permit
the point of each tree to elongate as much as it seems capable.
By doing that and securing a regular and dense mass of spurs along
each cordon, I see no reason why the pear on its own stock would
not on dry poor soils conform to the horizontal cordon. Protection
from frost while in flower being more necessary with the pear than
the apple, the opportunity of giving it this on the borders proposed
is an additional reason for thus cultivating it.
The System of M. Grin. 185
THE SHORT PINCHING SYSTEM APPLIED TO THE PEACH. The
system generally known among us as that of M. Grin is confounded
by some writers with the cordon system, from which it is entirely
distinct. This system has been so much written about in England
that many suppose it to be in frequent use in France, or at all
events accepted as an improvement by good cultivators. This is
not the case. It has not in the least influenced the old way of
growing the peach in France, and a commission of first-rate fruit-
growers sent to examine it, reported that the system pursued at
Montreuil is still much the best. It may be shortly described as an
attempt to do away with nailing by a system of close pinching,
and that alone is sufficient to condemn it for our gardens, and also
for those of the French, for the wood to be well ripened must be
nailed in, and the pinching required to keep the shoots from run-
ning away from the wall is something prodigious. As the French
fruit-growers say — the cultivator who pursues this method had
better provide himself with chairs, and place one before each tree
to accommodate the person who has to see that the pinching is
done at the proper time ! The report of the commission sent to
examine this method is as unfavourable to it as anything can be.
I translated it with a view of giving it here, but space prevents my
doing so, and therefore I sum up its statements in a few words.
" This system, which is an attempt to do away with nailing in of the
shoots, presents on the whole no advantages over the one in
common use, but, on the contrary, certain drawbacks." Having
read so much about the doings of M. Grin, I was astonished at the
very ordinary aspect of his trees, and the by no means remarkable
result attained. The individual who pays his penny to see the
" blue horse captured in the Black Sea by Captain Jones of the
ship Adventurer — the most extraordinary monster ever seen,"
&c., in the New Cut, and finds the blue horse to be a puny young
seal, could not have been more disappointed than was I at the
aspect of the trees in this garden. For when one reads of a system
as being about to supplant everything else, it is quite natural to
expect that it must at all events possess some merits over the older
T86
The System of M. Grin.
one j but in this instance such is not the case. Of course I speak of
this mode of pinching as a system.
It has one merit, however, and may be used incidentally with
any system of summer-pruning. It should be remarked that M.
Grin commenced by simply adopting a method of very short
pinching-in of the shoot. He now depends chiefly on pinching the
stipulary leaves, as shown at Fig. 57, A. This is the best feature of
the system, and chiefly as respects the little laterals that push forth on
the current year's wood. By pinching the leaves of these little
buds just when they push, as shown in the figure, the development
FIG. 57.
of the shoot is not interfered with ; but a sufficient check is given
to cause the buds near the base to fill and furnish the shoot as
shown at Fig. 38, A. This not done, the young shoot pushes away,
and is often quite naked of buds at its base. To think of adopting
the system of Grin in its purity would be folly. As to training
peach cordons on this principle, it is simply nonsense ; as well might
we think of repressing the flow of the tide as hope to succeed with
trees confined to a single stem, and pinched in quite close. It is
by no means a success even where large forms are adopted j but
with the cordon there is no outlet. The cordons trained after this
Peach-growing at Montr euiL 187
method in the public garden at Chartres must have exhausted the
patience of the cultivator, for their shoots had started right away
from the wall, and grown as much as eighteen inches long !
"This," said I, "will never do for England." "Nor for
France !" added an eminent Parisian fruit grower. The only
FIG. 58.
chance of success with the peach as a cordon is by laying in the
side shoots regularly. Since the above was written a report on
Grin's method has been presented to the Imperial Horticultural
Society of France, and in this also a very unfavourable report of
the system is given.
PEACH-GROWING AT MONTREUIL. — The limits of this book
prevent me from fully describing the accurate and often beautiful
way in which the French train the peach, but I hope to do so at a
future day. Meantime there are one or two points that must not
be passed over. The finest supplies of peaches for the Paris market
do not come, as perhaps many would suppose, from the sunny south
or the balmy west, but from within a few miles of Paris, where
the peach has to be grown on walls furnished with good copings
and receive in every way careful protection and culture. Ap-
proaching Montreuii the country is seen covered with good crops
of vegetables and fruit to the tops of the pretty low hills in
i88 Peach-growing at Montr euil.
the neighbourhood. All the crops, however, are divided into small
plots, showing how each person has his own little portion, and has
it moreover for ever if he so chooses — land being bought and sold
here as simply as an overcoat in England. But getting nearer still
to the village, a great number of white walls, about seven or eight
feet high are seen, enclosing rather small squares of land, and
almost entirely devoted to the peach. As the walls are netted over
many acres in some parts, the effect is curious when you look over
them from a distance. In the squares are small fruit trees and all
sorts of garden crops.
There are numerous cultivators, M. Lepere and M. Chevalier
being among the most distinguished. M. Lepere's garden is large,
and consists simply of a series of oblong spaces which are sur-
rounded by peach walls, both walls and ground being well covered
and cropped — neat, clean, and in all respects satisfactory. Of
course the peach is the favourite subject, but neat pyramidal and
fruitful pear and cordon apple trees, are also to be seen, and the place
is altogether many degrees above the ordinary type of French fruit
or kitchen gardens. A very old man, dressed in a blouse, is moving
along the walls nailing in the shoots here and there, and with him
a dozen young men, his pupils. That is M. Lepere, who has a
class twice a week. Incidentally I may say that the principle of
giving a full explanation of their system of doing anything well,
animates French gardeners more or less. Did anybody ever hear
of an unusually successful English market gardener or fruit grower
calling a class round him at a low fee, or no fee at all ? The French,
though proud of their success in this way, are careful to give it the
fullest possible ventilation ; and those who attend here cannot fail
to learn the culture of the peach as well as need be, if so disposed,
for the master glides along the wall, and stops and nails in the
shoots, and cuts out the foremost branches here and there that are
not wanted for next year's work; and, in short, does and explains
everything before his pupils. He has been cultivating peaches
here for a couple of generations, and certainly has reason to be
proud of the result. He inquired as to the state of gardening in
Peach-growing at Montreuil.
189
England, and I told him we could beat him in most things, but not
with the peach, a-nd that he was indisputably the Emperor of
Peach -growers. Entering the garden, your eye for a moment rests
upon the perfectly-covered walls, but presently the famous Napo-
leon Peach presents itself. It is now in good health, but looks a
little weak about the central letters. It is, I need scarcely add,
beautifully trained, and a striking evidence of what may be done by
a good fruit grower — a variety of Adam's race much too rare at
present. But looking in another direction a specimen even more
striking than " the Napoleon" presents itself, and it takes the form
FIG. 59.
of the letters of the owner's name — LEPERE. It is against a
high and very white wall, and at a long distance the letters stand
out as clearly as possible, while, upon approaching the tree, the
abundance of fruit and regularity of good wood are equally satisfac-
tory. The letters complete, a shoot is taken from the top of each,
and these are united in a somewhat arching line above, and spread
out again into a great crown above the name, while on each side a
single tree springs up, and, forming a border for the letters, spreads
190 Peach-growing at Montr euiL
out above into a trifid flourish on each side of the crown. It is a
finer object than the Napoleon, and bore a splendid crop.
The sketch gives but a very poor idea of the beauty of the tree,
which I by no means figure here by way of recommending it or
like curious forms, but simply to show the mastery attained over
the trees. Such a fanciful form is interesting in a great peach
garden, where the grower wishes to show his skill, but is useless for
private gardens or for general purposes. It should be added that
the formation of the LEPERE was much easier than that of the
NAPOLEON tree, inasmuch as a plant is devoted to every letter in
the former.
The walls for the greater part run east and west ; the soil is of a
calcareous nature, and generally the long strips enclosed by the
walls are about fourteen yards across. The syringe is rarely or never
used, sulphur being the remedy for spider. The ground was in all
cases mulched near the trees, a wide alley being left j and for pre-
paration of border they simply trench and manure the ground a
couple of feet deep, and about six feet wide. They lay in a good
many more shoots than we do, and are doubtless enabled to do so
in consequence of the greater amount of sun. The trees are pruned
on the spur system, and as for their shapes, they are many, in addi-
tion to the alphabetical ones alluded to above. The Taille en can-
delabre is one of the handsomest and most useful. To form it, two
branches are taken to the right and left along near the bottom of
the wall. From the uppermost single shoots are taken at regular
intervals to the top of the wall — the lower branch simply running
along to the end, and rising to the top of the wall, or in other
words, forming a great oblong frame for the interior. Then there
is the Taille a la Mo7itreu.il, a sort of fan-tail, but with the divisions
somewhat far from the base in most cases, and several modifications
of the common horizontal mode of training, which we employ so
much for the pear, but never for the peach. These seem favourite
varieties, and by their means the walls are perfectly covered — if
indeed one can draw any distinction between the walls here, which
are all as fresh looking as a meadow in May. Generally the tree
Peach-growing at Montr euil. 191
has a simple erect stem, from which straight branches are sent
out, but in an alternate manner, so that the branches of one tree
run between those of another. Occasionally, however, two main
stems are developed — one to each set of branches. The Pecker
en lyre, a very elegant form, is also to be found here, but
not to any extent. A form in the shape of a tall narrow U is
common. It is simple and readily made. There is also a variety
of it which we may call the double U, in which the two branches
are again branched, just as they arise from the horizontal, at say
about two feet from the centre of the tree j and this too seems a
simple and good way of covering a wall with erect branches. The
palmette and the fan systems are the most appreciated for general
work. Much as these trees please when in full health and fruit, to
see them when in flower in spring must be much more beautiful.
The reason why the peach is so successfully cultivated here is, it
appears to me, that the cultivators pay thorough and constant atten-
tion to its wants, with which a life-long experience has made them
familiar. They take great pains to have the sap equally distributed,
and succeed more perfectly than we do in that important point.
The trees are at all times well attended to. I believe that quite as
good and as certain results could be attained with the peach in
many of the southern parts of England and Ireland, particularly if
its culture were made a speciality of as it is in France. When
cultivators devote themselves entirely to a subject, they soon learn
all its wants, and moreover, attend to them at the right moment —
a great point. But it is very different with private gardeners gene-
rally, whose hands are so very full of other matters in spring and
early summer, a time when the peach requires much attention -, and
the result is, that it is too often neglected for a week or two at that
season, and the result is a loss of health to the trees. There does
not seem much help for this in private gardens, and the only hope
is that, by the cropping of the borders as elsewhere suggested,
gardeners generally may find it worth while to devote more atten-
tion to walls than they usually do. I think it a matter for regret
that public attention has been to some extent called away from the
192 Peach-growing at Montr euiL
many uses and advantages of walls in our climate, and that we have
made no progress in protecting or managing wall trees correspond-
ing with our advances in other respects. Some persons have gone
so far as to say that garden walls ought to be abolished altogether.
One cannot believe that such people can ever have seen the excel-
lent results produced by well-managed garden walls — results as
beautiful as profitable. Why, even if we could erect glass-houses
by the economical aid of a magic wand, the good fruit-grower
would still find uses for a large extent of wall surface. As things
are at present, what all should aim at is greater success in the pro-
tection and management of wall trees — a thoroughly practical and
attainable aim. Our chief want of success at present is due to not
preserving the flowers and tender young leaves from the sleet, cold
rains, and frost, during the cold and changeable spring common to
northern France and the British Isles.
CHAPTER XIII.
Preserving Grapes tJirough Winter and Spring — Preserving
the Peach — Fig Culture and Protection.
| HE preservation of grapes over the winter with the least
amount of trouble is one of the most important of all
matters to the British grape grower. Every cultivator,
young or old, knows to his cost what a task it is to keep grapes
hanging all the winter after they are ripe, especially in places
where there are a good many houses devoted to vines. The latest
books on the vine give directions for regulating the houses, so as to
preserve the grapes on the vine after they are ripe, and every
calendar of operations tells how to manage them in that respect,
though I fear the directions are not always intelligible.
Here, for instance, is an extract from a recent issue of a leading
garden paper : —
" Those who wish to keep grapes hanging as fresh and plump as
possible to the longest possible period, must take care not to afford
them too much heat, as an excess of this, no matter how dry the
structure may be, or how favourably treated otherwise, is sure to
cause them to shrivel more or less prematurely. Give only just
such warmth to the pipes or flues as will insure sufficient buoyancy
to any humidity (!) which may arise in the house as to enable it to
make its escape. Independently of the ill effects caused by actual
heat, a too warm atmosphere, even in the driest house, will cause a
correspondingly excessive evaporation and consequent condensation."
194 Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring.
Then of course we must have fire heat and give air when foggy
days occur, " as/' says Mr. Thompson,, of Chiswick —
" The mean temperature of this month (November) is on the
average little above 40°, and the air is generally saturated with
moisture. When this is the case, moisture will be deposited on all
substances exposed to the air, if they are not warmer than it is.
Grapes that are ripe should, therefore, be kept warmer than the air,
otherwise they will be liable to damp. The application of fire heat
would effect this : but if it were applied suddenly, and without air
being given at the same cime, the heated air would deposit moisture
on the berries ; for although these would ultimately acquire the
same temperature as that of the air surrounding them, yet for a
time they would be colder, and so long as this is the case they
would act as condensers of the moisture in the warmer air in con-
tact with them. The more rapidly the air is heated, the greater
for a time will be the difference between the temperature of the
fruit and that of the air, and, of course, the slower the heating the
less at any time will be the difference. Give therefore, in damp
weather, a little fire heat in the morning and admit air. If the
nights are cold, the temperature of the house should not be allowed
to fall lower than 45°."
Here, then, are nice operations and a lot of trouble to bestow on
perhaps half a dozen houses during the winter months ! If the
greenhouses are shaky and badly heated, the task is most difficult
and annoying ; in the best-constructed vineries it is a great, and, as
I hope to show, a needless labour. The trouble of regulating the
atmosphere, the expense for fire heat, and the necessity of keeping
the house almost entirely devoted to the grapes, must render any
improvement very acceptable, and I have a decided one to describe.
Several times during the spring of 1867 I noticed grapes hanging
from branches the ends of which were inserted in vases of water —
grapes which the exhibitors described as having been for a long
time so preserved in a fresh state. From such few specimens I did
not derive sufficient confidence in the method to speak with cer-
tainty of its merits, but having visited a good many gardens during
Preserving Graces through Winter and Sfring. \ 95
the past autumn, just as the grapes were ripe, I found that the method
was accepted as a great boon by some of the best gardeners in France,
and their system of keeping grapes has been altered accordingly.
The best example was in the gardens of Ferrieres, the magnificent
country seat of Baron Rothschild. Here they have constructed, in
addition to very fine and well-filled fruit rooms, a grape room,
which is filled with stands thickly hung from top to bottom with
all kinds of grapes — those for present consumption as well as those
for use six months hence. M. Bergman, the head gardener, was
cutting down all his grapes in harvest fashion, and would in a few
weeks, as soon as the latest houses were ripe, have his many and
FIG. 60.
FIG. 61.
well-managed vineries to do as he pleased with : ripen the wood,
prune and clean the vines, or utilize the cleared space of the houses
for any purpose that might be convenient, not fearing as we do to
spill a drop of water or make any other use of the house. The grapes
are cut with a considerable portion of the 'shoot attached, much as if
one were pruning the vine j the shoot is inserted in a narrow-necked
and small bottle containing water, and these little bottles are fixed
firmly along, so that the bunches hang just clear of each other.
In the first instance are erected two uprights, pretty strong, and
each supported on three legs. Then from one to the other of these,
on both sides, and in an alternate manner, are nailed sets of strong
o 2
196 Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring.
laths, two for each line of bottles. These laths are kept an inch
and a half or so apart by a bit of wood at each end 5 in the inner
one there are incisions made, into which the bottom of each little
bottle fits, and then the outer lath has a concave incision in which
the side of the bottle rests, so that, caught in the inner and leaning
firmly on the outer lath, it holds the stem and stout bunch quite
firmly. I thus particularize it from having seen other ways of doing
the same thing less neat and simple than this. Walking space was
left between each wall of grapes j for six or seven rows were arranged
one above another on both sides of each support. Fig. 60 shows the
insertion of the shoot and fixing of the bottle, and Fig. 61 the
structure of the upright.
Charcoal is mixed with water, allowed to stand for some time, and
then the water is strained off to fill the bottles. But there can be no
doubt that to put a pinch of animal charcoal in each bottlewould prove
a better plan of guarding the water from any impurity from the
slight deposit of organic matter that might be expected ; at least, it
does not seem very clear how charcoal removed from the water be-
fore the vine-stem is put in can have much effect in keeping it pure.
However, that is not an important matter, and itis certain that a
pinch of animal charcoal, which is very chesp, will keep the water
quite sweet. One cultivator who keeps grapes on a large scale by
this method, never uses any charcoal at all, but simply fills his
little bottles almost full with water, and then inserts the branches,
which nearly close the necks of them. He appeared quite as
well satisfied with the plan as those who had taken more pains to
keep the water sweet. That once settled, all there is to do is to
add a little water, in case evaporation should cause that in the
bottles to fall below the bases of the shoots. Of course it will be
understood in a moment that with one-tenth the amount of ex-
pense and trouble that is now necessary in large grape-growing
places, we may in a grape-room like this maintain conditions in-
finitely better calculated for the preservation of the fruit than the
atmosphere of any vinery can possibly be. We may keejp the fruit
dark, preserve the necessary amount of dryness in the atmosphere,
Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring. 197
keep up a temperature constantly equal — all of which are essential
to the well-being of fruits, and none of which can possibly be at-
tained in the house in which the grapes are grown. It would, of
course, be wise, in arranging a room of the sort, to have hollow
walls and other contrivances to attain the conditions under which
fruit is known to keep best. M. Charmeaux, the great grape
grower of Thomery, was, I believe, the first to try it extensively.
Now as we grow by far the best and largest quantity of hothouse
grapes of any country, this method will prove of far more use to us
than to the French. I was told by experienced French gardeners
who have adopted the system, that they keep the fruit as long this
way as upon the vine, with fewer mouldy berries, and almost with-
out trouble $ and it is not likely that a man would cut down half a
dozen houses of fine grapes at the beginning of October unless he
had already proved if to be a good system.
The advantage of having all the stock of grapes safely housed and
away from the attacks of vermin and other interlopers, is another
of many advantages presented by this plan, which I now leave in
the reader's hands for trial, confident that it will prove a great boon
to the grape grower, and tend to make that fruit — everyday grow-
ing in popularity — a great deal more enjoyable and obtainable in
the winter and early spring months. For if it be a process requir-
ing much care in large well-conducted gardens, how much more
difficult must it be for the large class of amateurs and small gar-
deners to preserve their fruit in good condition ? In places where
the stock of grapes is not sufficient to require a special room for
their keeping, part of the fruit room might be adopted, or even a
dry cellar or store room.
The above was written previous to visiting M. Rose Char-
meaux, with whom the system originated. I have since seen his
grapes stored for the winter ; the method was in full working order,
and even more simple and effective than could have been supposed,
He began by having a stove and a couple of chimneys to keep right
the atmosphere of his large grape-room ; but finding that the grapes
keep very much better without this, he now simply devotes to his
198 Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring.
winter stock a large room in his house, fitting it up in all parts to
accommodate handily the little bottles before spoken of, padding
the inside of the windows so as to exclude light, and obviate, as far
as possible, changes of temperature. The grapes are cut in October,
and preserved in good condition until April, when his earliest grapes
are ripe. He has frequently shown them in May, and even later,
and has kept them till August; but of course the quality cannot be
expected to be good after such very long keeping, which is merely
done for the sake of show. The first result of the method to the
village of Thomery, which is almost wholly occupied with Chasselas
culture, was a gain of from 100,000 to 150,000 frarics per annum.
The system enables the cultivators to keep their grapes much later
than of old, and thus to add considerably to their revenue. A small
room in M. Charmeaux's house illustrates to a nicety the fact that
a similar one in most houses may be made to answer the purposes of
keeping grapes. It has no windows, and scarcely any means of
ventilation. The rest of the house is heated by hot air ; but while
there are openings in the floor of the passages and rooms generally
to admit this, there are none in the room devoted to grapes. Thus
it is clear that the ordinary temperature of a well-constructed house
will present suitable conditions for the long preservation of grapes,
in any small room that may be devoted to that purpose. The
system was attractive enough when it was considered necessary to
construct a room specially to carry it out ; it is much more so now
when it has been proven that not only is it not necessary to take
any special means to warm or ventilate the structure, but that the
grapes keep very much better without such being taken.
At a recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, Mr.
Whittaker, of Crewe Hall Gardens, exhibited a bunch of grapes
kept somewhat after this fashion j but as he had not seen the plan in
execution, nor the figure of it given in this book, the experiment
was not carried out so simply as it may be. However, the grapes
had been kept a considerable time, and there was no icason to
suppose that their flavour was inferior in any noticeable degree.
Notwithstanding this, and that the test was not carried out in the
Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring. 199
most efficient way, two directors of the Royal Horticultural Society,
the Rev. M. J. Berkeley and Dr. Hogg, are reported to have rather
emphatically condemned the system. Having, from a very early
age, had considerable experience of the keeping of late grapes,
I had no more doubt from the moment that I saw this mode of
preserving them well put in practice, that it would prove an
aid to the British gardener, and be adopted extensively in this
country, than I had that the hawthorn will bloom in spring. I
therefore took no serious notice of several small attacks upon
it by persons who had had no means of judging of it, and little or
no influence to prevent gardeners from reaping advantage by its use j
but when directors of the Royal Horticultural Society condemn a
method that is certain to prove a real improvement and useful aid
to the grape-grower, then it behoves me to speak. Prejudice or a
hasty judgment is excusable in many cases, but that the leaders of
this learned body should condemn a system without having given
it a fair trial, or causing it to be fairly tried in their gardens, seems
somewhat contrary to what is called the " spirit of the age." The
Rev. M. J. Berkeley is reported to have said that the grapes would
"lose their sugar j" and if I am not misinformed this opinion first
came from Dr. Hogg ; but it is probably not an opinion arrived at
from experiment in this country, being well known to the French,
who are also aware that pears rot after a certain period in the fruit-
room. Yet I presume these gentlemen would not argue against
storing apples and pears in consequence of the virtues these fruit
lose before they become spongy or decayed. The fact is that the
French in carrying out their experiments have kept some of their
grapes as long as they could for curiosity sake, if nothing else, and
have frequently shown them in a nice plump condition long after they
ripen their early grapes — just for the honour of the thing. In these
instances a loss of sugar was, no doubt, perceptible ; but what kind
of flavour would berries possess if left hanging on the vine till the
summer months when the Frenchmen exhibited their grapes ?
The necessity for keeping the grapes till they lose their sugar
does not exist. In most of our large gardens grapes are forced
2co Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring.
early, and would be ripe before the fruit of the previous year had
lost its virtues in the least degree. And in our comparatively small
gardens, containing perhaps a vinery or two, how many bunches
of grapes are left after the consumption of the winter months ?
To be able to clear the vineries of grapes for two months before
the ordinary time would be a decided gain to thousands of gardeners
in this country. Of course the practical grape-grower knows this
well, but as the gentlemen above-named have so decidedly opposed
the method, I make no apology for adducing fuller and more
minute proofs that we are badly in want of a better system of
keeping grapes, and that the method I advocate is thoroughly
sound. " About the i^th of April," says Mr. Thompson, " the sap
began to rise in the vines, and some of the berries that were a little
shrivelled suddenly got plump, while others that had shown no
signs of shrivelling burst their skins, and the sap of the vine that
had forced itself into them began to drip from them !" Surely in
such a case as this it would be a gain to the grape-grower to cut
his grapes a few weeks before any danger of such a case existed,
and thereby keep them a little longer from bursting their skins
and giving forth what cannot be rich in sugar ! The expense and
care required to keep grapes during the dull and cold months of
winter in the ordinary way is very considerable, and the incon-
venience and loss of space great. Here is an extract from " A Prac-
tical Treatise on the Grape Vine" — the latest book on the subject.
After giving directions as to the heating of the house, its ventila-
tion, &c., and how to exclude foggy damp air (no easy matter in a
glass house, by the way), the writer says, " The surface of the
internal border is allowed to get perfectly dry, and to remain so all
the winter, care being taken that as little sweeping or raking take
place as possible, for by this means dust is raised which settles on
the bunches." Practically speaking, houses treated in this way
are nearly useless for anything except keeping the grapes, con-
suming fire heat, and wasting labour. Remove the necessity of
keeping grapes on the vines long after they are thoroughly ripe, and
the houses will be ready to be filled with plants in every nook at a
Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring. 20 1
season when every inch of glass is valuable. The work just named
relates how the author cut a lot of bunches of grapes in February,
and with them a portion of the stem, which he pointed and in-
serted into roots of mangold-wurzel — a sufficient proof, even if none
other existed, that something in this way would be a boon. How-
ever, there is no person who knows what it is to grow grapes but
is aware that some improvement is desirable.
The Rev. Mr. Berkeley is reported to have said with regard to
a system which is certain to avert much of the expense and in-
convenience above alluded to, that it had justly been remarked that
they (the grapes) were certainly not improved in quality, that even
with the addition of charcoal the water might get into a putrid
state, and finally that the method was " universally acknowledged
not to be a success !" With regard to the first statement, nobody
has ever said that the grapes were improved in quality j but that they
are not deteriorated in any appreciable degree by keeping as long
as is necessary, is well known to those who have tasted grapes
kept thus. With regard to the second statement, I can simply
assure the reader that no putrefaction was observable in the water
thus treated, and add my conviction that a pinch of animal charcoal
will keep the water quite safe, and also that it is very likely the
system will be useful without the use of charcoal at all, especially
in cases when we do not require to keep the grapes for a long time.
I have recently had a letter from Mr. Whittaker in which he states
that the water kept perfectly sweet with him, and that he believes
this mode of keeping grapes to be good, and that it will yet be
universally adopted in this country. As to the third statement,
that the method was " universally acknowledged not to be a
success." I should like to ask, by whom ? By those in England
who know nothing about it and have probably never seen it carried
out ? or by some in France who judged of it from specimens
kept a very long time ? M. Rose Charmeaux and other culti-
vators at Thomery — the place of all others to test its merits —
are, though the best calculated to judge of its merits, certainly not
among those who have condemned it j for when I was there last
2C2 Preserving Grapes through Winter and Spring.
autumn the large rooms in their dwelling-houses were specially de-
voted to keeping grapes thus, and hung from floor to ceiling with
well-flavoured fruit. That Baron Rothschild, who has in Seine et
Marne one of the finest gardens and country-seats in existence, with
every means of growing and keeping grapes in the ordinary way,
should have a special apartment constructed in which to carry out
this method, and cut down in autumn all the fruit of his late vineries
to be preserved in this way and used during the winter by crowds
of distinguished guests, does not seem a very convincing proof that
the method was " universally acknowledged not to be a success."*
But these are facts which can be testified to by Mr. James Barnes,
of Bicton, as well as myself ; and if he be not able to judge of its
merits, tw ho is? If I mistake not he saw the October clearance of
the vineries at Ferrieres with some envy as well as satisfaction, re-
membering the long period which has hitherto elapsed before the
gardener can do as he likes with his vines or with the contents of
his vineries.
P.S. (April 24th). — Shortly after writing the above I addressed
a note to the Gardener s Chronicle, asking the Reverend M. J.
Berkeley for fuller reasons for condemning this mode of keeping
grapes than he had given when addressing the Royal Horticultural
Society, and for some proof that the method had been universally
admitted not to be a success. In his reply in that journal, he takes
no notice whatever of the changes that are well known to occur in
grapes kept for months after they are ripe in the atmosphere of a
glass house, so exceedingly liable to vicissitudes ; and, contrary to
his wont, he does not even take any notice of the luxuriant and
interesting fungoid growths which are frequently to be observed
upon grapes kept in the ordinary wayj but he goes "theoreti-
cally" into suppositions of what changes might take place in a
case which, though so easy to be tested, he has not tried. He
admits, what he before doubted, that the charcoal would keep the
water sweet ; and he alludes to the " French method of keeping
grapes in bottles of water hermetically sealed" (!) thus conclusively
showing that he knows nothing whatever about a method which
Preserving the Peach. 203
he has been so ready to condemn. The French do not seal the
bottles at all, nor have they ever done so, but simply do as I have
described.
PRESERVING THE PEACH IN A FRESH STATE AFTER IT is RIPE.
— It is at the latest moment that I add this paragraph, and do it
with some reluctance, not having seen the experiment to which it
refers carried out, nor indeed had any means of inquiring fully into
the matter. At first I thought it better to have the matter care-
fully tested by several people next autumn -before speaking of itj
but here it is, and the reader can take it for what it is worth. The
greater number of trials made with it, the more likely are we to
quickly know its value. Travelling one day by the Lyons rail-
way from Paris, a French gentleman who had been shooting
entered the carriage with his gun and game-bag, and we soon
entered into conversation about the country, especially agriculture
and horticulture, and finally chanced to speak of the method of
preserving grapes above described — a method which he was well
acquainted with and quite approved of. He then told me of a new
method of preserving the peach in a fresh condition a considerable
time after it was ripe, and that it simply consisted of packing the
fruit, gathered while ripe before being quite soft, in bran in rough
boxes, and placing them in cellar, store-room, or any similar place.
He stated that by this means peaches had been preserved in a per-
fectly fresh and well-flavoured condition many weeks after the
latest peaches had been gathered from the trees, and also that some
which had been presented to the Emperor some time about Christ-
mas were mistaken by him for early forced fruit. The train
stopped again, and my informant bade me good day before I had
time to ask him for fuller information as to the extreme time which
the fruit had kept well, and other points. That is all I know about the
matter. Possibly he may have been misinformed or misled, but he
spoke quite confidently of the method, and as if quite familiar with
it. As prolonging the season of the peach would be a great gain,
the mode is worthy of a trial, which should be made with the fruit
2O4 Fig Culture and Protection.
in several slightly different stages of ripeness, and witn several
varieties. If by its means we can succeed in keeping the most
delicious of all our fruits a few weeks longer than at present, I shall
have reason to remember with pleasure my few minutes' chance
conversation with the French sportsman.
FIG CULTURE AND PROTECTION. — Although I have omitted to
speak of some perhaps more important matters, one phase of Parisian
Fig-culture must be alluded to, more as an illustration of patient
and successful guarding against difficulties of climate than anything
else. The trees are trained in long sweeping shoots pretty near the
ground, and in such a form that they may be readily interred in the
ground when the winter and its dangers come. Figs. 62 and 63
represent the aspect of such trees on level ground. I will not enter
into the details of the culture, but simply show how this style of
Fig-tree is protected, and how adapted to sloping ground. The
FIG. 62.
frosts are often of great severity in the neighbourhood of Paris j so
great indeed that the Fig would have little or no chance if left ex-
posed. So in autumn the sagacious cultivators throw the branches
into four bundles, make a little trench for each, and cover as shown
by Fig. 64, with small sloping banks of earth, protecting the crown
of the root by means of a little cone of earth, which merges gra-
dually into the four little ridges that protect the branches. How-
ever, all this is shown in the accompanying figure.
When the plantation is made on deeply inclined ground a some-
what different system is followed. The modification is shown by
Fig Culture and Protection.
205
FIG. 63.
FIG. 64.
2O6
Fig Culture and Protection.
FIG. 65.
Figs. 6j"and 66. A basin is formed below the root, so that the water
which would otherwise run off the slope be retained for the greedy
FIG. 66.
Fig Culture and Protection.
207
roots. As the Fig may be seen in good bearing condition as a
standard tree in Sussex, it has occurred to me that this mode of
culture might be practised with some advantage on our sunny
railway banks in the south, which are now naked and utterly
useless.
FIG. 67.
In interring the sloping plantations a slightly different system
is pursued — the branches are conducted in an upward direction, and
covered in, as shown by Fig. 67.
CHAPTER XIV.
A New and Cheap Method of making Garden Walls.
GARDEN without good walls well covered with fertile
fruit trees is in our climate a very imperfect sort of
garden indeed, if the production of first-class fruit be a
chief object with the owner. It is true that of late years some few
have declaimed against garden walls, and said, Let us do away with
them and build glass houses instead ; but such people are chiefly
those who know nothing of what may be done with walls by a
good cultivator, and those who have completely failed from want of
skill in making anything of their own. The advice may be good
in cold northern districts and places where fruit cannot be ripened
against walls, but to recommend doing away with garden walls
generally in this country is simply folly. Walls make up for a bad
climate when the trees on them are well managed j but if neglect
occurs, and those shoots or branches which should be so spread as
to enjoy all the light and warmth possible are allowed to grow forth
wild, and perhaps receive but an annual rough-pruning, or whatever
else may be the form of the neglect, it is clear that a garden wall
soon becomes an eyesore instead of an object of beauty and utility.
And I question very much if anything connected with rural life
presents such a combination of the two last qualities as a well-
managed garden wall — covered with flowers in spring, and fruit,
equally beautiful in autumn. For some years past garden walls
have been comparatively neglected by the gardening public gene-
New and Cheap Method of making Garden Walls. 209
rally, and very much to its loss. This is perhaps one reason why,
with all our advances, a stock of really good winter pears is a thing
but rarely seen, even in large, expensive gardens ; and there can be
no greater loss to a fruit-garden than that. This want extends even
to our markets. In London, for instance, if you want a really good
pear in January, you can get it, it is true, at a very high price, and
in one spot or so in this enormous city j in Paris you will probably
pay a high price for it too, but you may there obtain it in any part
of the town where there is a good restaurant. It may perhaps be
said that climate makes the difference, but no such thing. The
French, to have in highest perfection such fine pears as St. Germain,
Winter Nelis, Crassane, and Beurre d'Aremberg, grow them on
walls around Paris. We should do the same with these and others,
and could produce an equally good result by doing so.
Let us pass by the important subject of winter pears for the
present, and just glance at the peach question. This fruit attains
the finest possible condition when well grown against walls in this
country. In others they may grow it freely as a standard tree j in
none can they produce better fruit than may be gathered from walls
in England and Ireland. France has very diverse climates, some
in which the peach grows well as a standard j but the best peaches
she grows are gathered from walls in those parts where the climate
is very like our own. There can be no doubt whatever about the
fact, that if we pay as much attention to the peach as the cultiva-
tors of Montreuil do, we can attain quite as good a result. It cannot
be too widely known that no fruit-tree nailed against walls furnishes
a more certain and regular crop than the peach when well treated.
Yet, what is the fact ? Why, that except a small place known as
Central-row, Covent Garden, where you pay from 8d. to j s. for
an eatable peach, and 3^. and ^d. each for worse than are sold in
Paris for one halfpenny each, and fit for nothing but pig-feeding,
London may be said to be without this delicious fruit. And there
are thousands of private places very badly off for it also. Our good
gardeners understand its culture well enough, but of late years
public attention has, by various means which need not be detailed
p
210 New and Cheap Method
here, been called away from the fact that, with walls, we can pro-
duce first-class fruit, and without them do little or nothing with the
choicer kinds. The " power of the climate" about Paris may be
considered very wonderful by some people, but there is one thing
which it cannot do, and that is, produce better peaches than I
have often gathered from walls both in England and Ireland. Over
the greater part of the country, without question, the peach may be
grown to the highest degree of perfection, and yet, though few
Englishmen could manage, as Johnson did, " seven or eight large
peaches of a morning before breakfast began," they may well say
with him that getting " enough" of them was indeed a rarity. It
is stated in a recently published book on fruits that for the majority
of the population to partake plentifully of peaches, " the only hope
that can be held out involves nothing less than an emigration across
the Atlantic !" The present state of matters justifies the writer in
the remark. The quality of the peaches sold at the lowest, but by
no means a low price, is such as to prevent anybody making a
second investment in them, and therefore the fruit is, as the
writer remarks in describing it, " a luxury confined to the wealthy."
Before it is otherwise, good fruit must be sold at a price that will
put it within tasting reach of others than those provided with a
powdered footman to convey it from the fashionable fruiterer's to
the carriage waiting at the end of the " Row."
I assert that we can grow the peach as well and as cheaply as the
French by paying it special attention in the market-gardens, while
it should be planted to a much larger extent in private gardens and
receive increased attention therein. And so of our other better
fruits. But walls are expensive in construction, and therefore
the general adoption of this new kind will be productive of much
good. However, my present object is to point out, not so much
the advantage of walls, as the fact that for the future they may
be made very much cheaper and better than ever by the adoption
of Tail's apparatus for making cheap concrete walls, as one vital
objection to walls has hitherto been their expense. From the
first moment of seeing that very simple and excellent method in
of making Garden Walls. 211
practice, I was convinced of its great merit for the construction of
capital garden walls. In many soils the gravelly subsoil may be
quickly thrown into the form of walls ; on all clays " ballast" will
do equally well, and while we are burning it for the purpose of
making garden walls, we may at the same time do so for the sake
of ameliorating the texture of the soil, and for walk-making, &c.
In many places the very clinkers and like rubbish that people do
not know what to do with may be used for this purpose, and that
by the aid of the roughest labourers, under the superintendence of an
intelligent gardener, who will quickly become acquainted with the
working of the method. Thus in many places, where the expense
may have deterred people from surrounding their fruit and vegetable
gardens with walls, they may be erected without such fear -, and in
the numerous gardens inclosed by walls, but not half sufficiently
furnished with them, cross walls maybe made (as at Frogmore and
other large gardens), to throw them into convenient sections.
They will thus be sheltered efficiently, while enough of wall space
may be had to plant every suitable kind to furnish us with a
splendid crop of the finest fruit, and, more than all, to make it
worth our while to devote skilled labour to the walls at all seasons
when they require attention. This last is a greater advantage than
may appear at first sight. To have well-managed wall trees we
must have a good and intelligent gardener to attend to them. Now,
in numerous gardens, there is not wall space enough to make
it worth oar while to do this, and the result is that trees get
neglected, and consequently nearly useless. The head gardener has
so much to do with houses and many other things, that his time
cannot be given to wall trees ; he cannot afford to spare a man to
attend to the walls at all times, and therefore they become profit-
less. But where there is a good deal of wall surface, and the pro-
prietor or head gardener will make it the duty of one or more in-
telligent men, who have had some instruction in the subject, to
attend to the trees upon it, it will be found very profitable to do
so 5 and there can be no doubt that by paying full attention to walls
p 2
212 New and Cheap Method
our choice fruit supplies might be enormously increased over the
greater part of England and Ireland.
I first became acquainted with Tail's method from hearing of its
advantages in building cheap houses for the working classes of Paris,
and thus wrote of it at the time in the columns of the Field : —
"The providing of decent dwellings for the working classes both
in town and country is a very important question, which the French
are creditably endeavouring to solve, as may be seen by several of
their model houses shown in the park of the Exposition. They are
very pretty and convenient, though not so well planned nor half so
cheap as houses of a nearly like, but better pattern, now building
for the Emperor by contract. I succeeded in discovering these the
other day in an outlandish boulevard near the Bois de Vincennes,
and found them most interesting, particularly as regards the con-
struction of the walls, which are not of brick or of stone, but simply
of what is called ' concrete,' and which is really nothing but rough
stones, say from the size of a bean to that of an egg, mixed with a
little Portland cement and sand. The coarse gravel or stones are
found on the ground, mixed in a rough way by the commonest and
cheapest kind of labourers, and pitched immediately afterwards in
between two boards set to the size of wall required. This rough-
and-ready cement or leton sets into a firm wall in the course of
twenty-four hours, then the framework of boards between which
the material has been placed is elevated and readjusted, the ready-
made material is thrown in again, and so they knock up those really
useful houses in a very short time without the aid of bricklayer,
stonemason, or any of the usual complications of building. Each
family is provided with two rooms, a little kitchen (better and more
roomy than the one in the park), a water-closet on the English
principle, according to the Emperor's wish, and a snug little cellar
below ground. The doors, windows, and all woodwork have been
cheaply made by machinery -, gas and water are laid on, and the
floors are of the same kind of concrete as the walls, laid thinly be-
tween the iron joists, and boarded over, of course. The plan is the
Emperor's own, and is very simple, the only apparent deficiency
of making Garden Walls. 213
being in the ventilation, for which there is no provision except the
chimneys. Workmen are so fond of surrounding themselves with
the fragrance of tobacco and other vapours, that the providing ot
some small aperture for the escape of heated and foul air near the
ceiling is very desirable. The buildings are fireproof, in conse-
quence of the layer of concrete on the floors. The facility and ease
with which these buildings are erected is quite exceptional. The
mode of constructing the walls is that of Mr. Tall, an Englishman,
and deserves the attention of all interested in the matter. Not
only rough, useless gravel may be utilized in the erection, but
common burnt brick-earth or ' ballast' does equally well, and that
is made ready for use by having the very fine sifted out of the rest j
it is mixed with about one portion of Portland cement to eight of
ballast. The great masses of clinkers that are thrown out from the
furnaces in the manufacturing districts as useless are about the very
best thing that could be employed for this purpose, not to mention
other things to be had for nothing, or almost nothing. The rent
is not settled yet, and I forget the anticipated amount, but it is
something surprisingly low, considering the convenience of the
apartments. The windows opening on the staircase, &c., are made
with an iron ornamental grating on the outside, so that the glass
may be removed in early summer without difficulty, and re-
placed in the winter when the cold comes ; and this affords a good
plan of cooling and ventilating the houses in the hot weather.
Though so simple in design, the houses are as pretty as could be
desired for the purpose, the contrast between the grated windows
and the plain offering some variety j and when the little colony is
completed — there are about forty houses constructed and construct-
ing here — it will look quite smart. There has been some doubt
expressed as to the stability of these walls ; but, upon examination,
they seem as hard as stone itself. This kind of structure may be
put up much cheaper than the cheapest brickwork j when plastered
over, it looks as well as any other, and has advantages for resisting
wet or damp not possessed by one of bricks. Its merits are worthy
the attention of all interested in the matter of providing decent
New and Cheap Method
dwellings for the humbler classes — and who are not ? The build-
ings alluded to will be found worth examination, and are situated
in the lower end of the Avenue Daumesnil. If useful for this
purpose, why not equally so for out-offices, garden, and many other
adjuncts of the country house ?"
Every part of these houses was run up with the utmost facility
upon this system j and of course the building of garden walls upon
it is even much more simple and facile — in fact, nothing can be
more so. In the Field of lyth August, 1867, it is stated that " all
kinds of building materials have almost doubled in value within the
last five years, while the wages of workmen have in some instances
gone up as high as 33 per cent." Such is the condition of things
that has brought forth a remedy.
"It is well known that, in all brickwork buildings, the brick-
layer's share comes to a very large sum ; and more especially is this
the case with respect to stabling, cottages, farm buildings, and wall
fencing. Anything, therefore, that will diminish this cost, giving
equal stability and bearing power, will produce a most material
effect in the construction or reconstruction of such buildings as we
have mentioned above, particularly in farm buildings, the cheaper
class of houses, and labourers' cottages. Taking the present price
of bricks at an average of thirty shillings a thousand, and bricklayers
at from five shillings to six shillings a day, some idea may be
arrived at of the price which a landowner is likely to pay for im-
proving the property on an estate. When the plan which we are
about to describe has been fully developed, it must produce a great
deal of good in humbler dwellings.
"As a remedy for this state of things, a Mr. Joseph Tall has
patented an apparatus for the purpose of building strong substantial
walls, without either bricks, building stone, the bricklayer, or the
mason ! In fact, it closely resembles concrete, which has for a long
time been known in connexion with foundations j but, on account
of the very liquid state in which concrete must be used, and its not
standing wet, wall-building with it has been hitherto out of the
of making Garden Walls. 315
question in any first-class way. When used for foundation pur-
poses, it is, as we all know, mixed on the spot and tumbled into the
foundation-cuttings immediately, where it hardens in a very short
time. In the present process the composition is Portland cement,
gravel, and brick-rubbish, or broken stones, sea shingle, quarry
refuse, or any other hard, durable substance. In preparing to
build, the foundations are laid with concrete in the usual way,
and, when that has been done, the framing for the wall is com-
menced. This may be taken to be neither more nor less than a
wall-mould, which is so fastened as to screw together and unscrew
when required."
And if so important for out-offices, &c., how much more so for
garden walls ! The great expense of brickwork at the present day
must effectually prevent most people from getting the wall surface
they require to produce abundance of fruit, and therefore this
system is worthy of our best attention. Mr. Tail's patent apparatus
is certainly by far the best means of moulding the concrete ; and as
no scaffolding would be required for the walls, their construction
would be a matter of slight expense in most places. For further
information I cannot do better than refer the reader who takes an
interest in the matter to the pamphlet published on the subject by
Mr. Tall, Falstaff-yard, Kent-street, Southwark j adding, however,
the following letter from Mr. W. E. Newton, C.E., who has tried
the system for garden walls. He says —
" The first garden wall I built of concrete was about nine feet
high from the footings. It was nine inches thick, with a coping
also in concrete, and stuccoed on both sides. It has stood well
and has no buttresses. I have also built a wall of seven inches
thick, about the same height, and a boundary wall of only six inches
thick. If I were to build walls for any one else, I should recom-
mend only six-inch walls for any walls not exceeding nine feet in
height. I am not sure we might not venture to twelve feet, but
as that would involve scaffolding which is fixed to the wall, it
would perhaps be better to adopt nine-inch work, at any rate for
216 New and Cheap Method of making Garden Walls.
the lower part. A coping might be made of slate slabs (Fig. 68), or
it might be made of concrete. I should prefer it in concrete with
FIG. 69.
flat iron bars running across to strengthen it, as shown in Fig. 69.
I would undertake to build a wall of this kind for four shillings per
yard super, if materials are convenient to be had."
It may be stated, in order to prevent misapprehension, that Mr.
Tall makes no claim of novelty in using concrete for walls. There
are in existence ancient churches made of this material, as well as
buildings of recent date; but the difficulty of construction, with
boards for moulding the walls, has hitherto been the great bar to its
use. The novelty introduced by Mr. Tall is the moulding appa-
ratus, which at the same time serves for the scaffold, and greatly
cheapens the process of erection ; and it is for this that the patent
is taken out. It will be better to insert the irons and eyes for the
support of the galvanised wires while the successive layers of the
wall are being built up or while the material is soft.
CHAPTER XV.
Culture of the Orange (by M. Hippolyte y amain) — Oleander
Culture (by M. Chatifils).
[M. Jamain of Paris is probably the largest and most successful
grower of the Orange Tree in any northern climate ; and I have
much pleasure in offering the following article by his son, convinced
that the system described is the sound one for England. — \V. R.]
HE Orange is propagated by grafting on the stock raised
from seeds of Citrus Medica (the Common Lemon), or
from those raised from seeds of the Common Bitter
Orange. For the trade, plants grafted on the lemon stock are the
most suitable, the lemon growing more vigorously than the wild
orange tree $ but to secure the plant long life, the latter is the most
preferable. The reason of this will be easily understood ; the diffe-
rence between the lemon and orange trees is much the same as
between the quince and wild pear trees : like the quince, the lemon
makes all its roots at the surface of the soil, the wild orange goes
deeper, and consequently the tree is better able to resist the wind
and the vicissitudes of the season j naturally there is more analogy
between the two woods, and the result of experiments is that the
plants live much longer. An orange tree grafted on the lemon may
live about a hundred years ; after that time it decays and perishes j
an orange grafted on its wild congener may live over 300 years —
witness the Grand Bourbon in the Orangery at Versailles, near Paris,
which tree is now more than 400 years old, and is grafted on
2 1 8 Culture of the Orange.
the Wild Orange. Sow the seeds early in the spring in a light but
not too sandy soil, and in pots (twenty-five to thirty per pot) ; put
the pots upon a dung-bed (lukewarm), and keep the soil fresh, but
do not have any. steam in the frame, and to prevent this give a
little air (one-half inch) to the front lights. When the seeds have
come up, encourage them to grow to three or four inches high.
Afterwards put them in a warmer bed, and keep a damp warm
atmosphere in the frame ; shade them against the burning rays of the
sun ; and when they are seven or eight inches high, give them a little
air, increasing it as they get stronger. Let them pass through the
winter in a greenhouse, where the temperature must not descend
lower than 40° Fahrenheit, and in early summer put them on
another hotbed in the open air plunged in leaf mould or cocoa
fibre. Leave them plunged on this hotbed through the summer,
and give them plenty of water, and from time to time a little
liquid manure. About the end of August in the same year graft
them by the same method as that practised for roses in the winter,
and put them on a hotbed, keeping as much damp vapour about
them as possible. Shade them during the sunshine, cover at night
and keep them close as long as the grafts are not well united
together ; they will be safe long before the early frost. Keep
them in the frame during the winter, and the next spring divide
and pot them in rich light soil mixed with a very little silver sand
to prevent the soil becoming hard : put the pots on a hotbed in
a frame, and after they are rooted give them plenty of air. In
the middle of June, make a hotbed in the garden and put them
on it without any covering whatever, giving plenty of water during
the hot weather, and give them three or four times a little liquid
manure to encourage active growth. Before the first frost they
must be housed, and they will do through the winter in a green-
house where the temperature is kept three or four degrees over the
freezing point.
During the spring of the following year pot the plants afresh,
and place them on a hotbed covered with a frame ; keep them
closed until the roots begin to shoot, and give air successively ;
Culture of the Orange. 219
shade the frame against the burning rays of the sun, and when
frosts are no longer to be feared, take the lights off entirely.
When they have done their growth, and the wood is sufficiently
ripened, pot them afresh, and leave them in a greenhouse for a
week or two. In June make a hotbed in the open air, covered
five or six inches with dung-mould or cocoa refuse, and put them
in it. This is the last season during which the oranges need be
grown upon hot dung bed. The greatest obstacle to the well
growing of the oranges in England is the persistence of the gar-
deners and nurserymen in treating it as a greenhouse plant. I do not
mean to say the oranges should be left like our common shrubs, but
it is possible, with very little care, to grow them in England almost
as well as in northern France. Many writers on this subject give
the south exposure as the best for an orangery, and therein is the
mistake. To insure the success of oranges grown in boxes or in
pots, they must not in any cases le allowed to grow in the houses ;
all their growth must be made out of doors ; and it is a matter of
fact, that if the orangery is to the south, no matter what the trouble
you take to prevent their starting, the plants will be beginning to
shoot a long time before the weather is mild enough to permit
of their being placed in the garden. A good orangery should have
a northern exposure, with plenty of windows to admit the light,
and every convenience to give full air when it is not frosty. It will
be very easy to heat the orangery in such a position, as the tem-
perature required is only two or three degrees over the freezing
point. It must be remembered that oranges are grown out of
doors all the year round in parts of France and Spain whers
it freezes every winter. If the plants, after all the care taken to
prevent their growth in the houses, begin to vegetate, and if
the young shoots are more than an inch in length, it would be far
preferable to cut them back than to let them retain a growth
which is sure to be disfigured and spoiled in the open air. The
watering of the oranges must be very carefully done, as too much
water would be more pernicious than too little, and especially for the
large plants, where the soil is in greater quantity j one or two in-
220 Oleander Culture.
judicious waterings are enough to kill the best established plants.
Good drainage in the bottom of the box or pot will prevent many
accidents. In the winter they want very little water. Before
watering them, the grower should feel the leaves of the tree, and if
flabby, as though on the point of flagging, it is then time to give
them water. This applies only for the large plants, the large quan-
tity of soil employed for them keeping its moisture for a long time.
The small plants must be watered more frequently, but still with
great moderation in winter. During the summer water must be
given freely, but not in excess. The best time to do the watering
is in the morning ; and at night the plants will require a little
syringing on the leaves, but only in the hottest time of the year.
Liquid manure given with great moderation will do them good
and quicken their vegetation. The small plants which have passed
beyond the hotbed stage should be potted in a very rich light soil,
and not too sandy, say nine parts of soil divided as follows : —
Three of maiden loam, two and a half of yellow loam, one and
a half of old dung mould, one of peat, and one of sand. In pot-
ting plants of a larger size, the soil should be a little stronger, and
be composed as follows : — Three and a half of maiden loam, three
of yellow loam, one of thoroughly rotten dung, a quarter of peat,
and one part of sand.
OLEANDER CULTURE. — Visitors to the Continent in the summer
months can hardly fail to be struck with the employment of
certain plants for decorative purposes, of which we in this country
make comparatively little use. Here, if a few orange trees or
Portugal laurels, perchance a pomegranate, are grown in tubs and
put on to the terrace in summer time, it seems to be considered that
enough has been done in that way. There is no reason, however,
why many other plants should not be used in like manner. \Ve
well remember the beautiful effect produced on a quay fronting
the lake of Lucerne by a number of standards of this kind, in-
cluding not only the plants mentioned, but Pittosporums, Yellow
Jasmines, Evergreen Oaks, Euonymus, Aucubas, and Figs. At
Oleander Culture. 221
Vienna a similar assortment may be seen in front of some of the
principal cafes, where one may sit in the open street under the
shadow of the pomegranate and the oleander. This latter plant,
too, is an immense favourite with the Parisians. In fact, the
oleander forms, with the myrtle and the pomegranate, one of the
most important articles of Parisian commercial horticulture. The
reasons for this are obvious — the elegant habit, glossy foliage,
profusion of bright rosy or white flowers, endowed, more-
over, with an agreeable almond-like perfume, offer recommen-
dations hardly to be exceeded by those of other plants. The
culture, moreover, is easy. Indifferent . as to the treatment it re-
ceives in winter, it may be kept in cellars or garrets — almost any-
where, in fact j hence its frequency abroad in the windows of the
artisan and at the doors of the merchant's office. The shrub may
be propagated either by layers or by cuttings j but of late years,
in France, the former method has been abandoned, as it is found
that cuttings produce plants of better habit, and in greater num-
bers. It was from cuttings that those beautiful little oleanders
exhibited in the reserve garden of the late Paris Exhibition, in the
first fortnight of June last, by M. Chevet, were obtained.
A well-known French horticulturist, M. Chate fils, who has had
great experience in the cultivation of this plant for the last twenty-five
years, has obligingly communicated to us the details of his method
of cultivating this plant, which are as follows : — " If layers be re-
quired, about the end of April or beginning of May, a period when
in Paris greenhouse plants are placed in the open air, some old
stocks of oleander are planted out in the soil, previously trenched
and well manured. At the end of a month these stocks are rooted
in the soil, and then all the branches are bent down to the ground
and fixed in that position with pegs. They are then covered with
soil about fifteen to twenty centimetres (six to eight inches) deep,
taking care to leave the extremities uncovered. The branches are
copiously watered, especially when the roots begin to be formed.
In the early part of August the branches are cut through, and thus
separated from the parent stool without disturbing the roots. About
222 Oleander Culture.
the beginning of September the young plants are placed in pots
proportioned to their size. Formerly gardeners used to layer at once
into pots, thinking that by adopting the method thus described
they would lose their plants. They also used to cut the branches,
as they would do with pinks, at the places where they wished to
secure the formation of roots. But after a time, it was found that
this practice was unnecessary. It was even seen to prevent the free
development of the plant, which thus became less vigorous than
when layered in the soil. Although layering secures the formation
of strong plants quicker than propagation by cuttings, the plants are
not of such good habit, and are not multiplied so rapidly as by
cuttings. These may be obtained at any season when the two
principal requisites for the formation of roots — heat and moisture —
can be secured j the best cuttings, nevertheless, are those raised in
April, in pots or pans filled with good light soil mixed with a little
peat. The cuttings should be taken with little shoots obtained
from the two-year-old wood, and the whole should be placed on a
brisk hotbed. Under such circumstances the cuttings will root
in from fifty to sixty days. As soon as they are rooted they are
exposed gradually to the airj they are repotted so that they may
be placed during the summer in the open air. As soon as the
plants attain a height of about twenty inches the shoots are stopped
in order to induce the formation of flowering branches. To form
a clean little stem, all the buds formed on the lower eight inches
of its base are suppressed. The shrub especially delights in copious
waterings and should be kept perfectly free from the insect pests
which infest it when under negligent cultivation."
The above is part of a leading article from the Gardener s
Chronicle. In addition I may remark that pretty little free-
blooming oleanders are grown about Paris in small pots, say 48'$,
in sandy soil, and these pots they of course soon fill with roots.
They are plunged all the summer in the open air, and grown at all
other seasons near the glass in those low houses so much in vogue
in Parisian nurseries and gardens. The large plants you see in
some of the public gardens are in great tubs, evidently undisturbed
Oleander Culture. 223
for long periods. They flower profusely, and get about the same
treatment as orange trees, as regards housing in winter. The little
plants of oleander are, however, most likely to be useful with us.
They are allowed to rise with an undivided stem for about four
inches, and then break off into several branches. There should be
no difficulty in growing them wherever there is a sunny shelf in the
greenhouse, by securing a clean, while discouraging a soft or luxu-
riant, growth, giving a rather dryish rest in winter and abundant
water and light in summer. In winter any cool house will do to
store them, or even a shed. The large round-headed plants in the
public gardens are certainly very noble objects, and more worthy of
culture than the orange tree tubs. Judging by the habit of
the oleander, as generally seen with us, it might be supposed that
they would not make ornamental trees for a terrace, but nothing
can be finer than the immense specimens seen in the Luxembourg
Gardens, the heads being as round and dense as a Pelargonium
grown by Mr. Turner, and sometimes so much as ten feet through ;
. and as for the little plants grown in six-inch pots, nothing can be
prettier.
CHAPTER XVI.
Asparagus Culture in France.
[SPARAGUS is grown much more abundantly and to a
much larger size in France than it is in England. The
country is half covered with it in some places near Paris ;
small and large farmers grow it abundantly, cottagers grow it —
everybody grows it, and everybody eats it. Near Paris it is chiefly
grown in the valley of Montmorency and at Argenteuil, and it is
cultivated extensively for market in many other places. About
Argenteuil 3000 persons are employed in the culture of asparagus
— at least so my informant told me, and he is the son of the
cultivator who has taken the best prizes for asparagus at the Ex-
hibition. His father not being at home, I traversed a considerable
portion of what may be termed the region of asparagus with this
youth, who was of the intelligent type, and understood all about
this dainty vegetable. We first saw it growing to a large extent
among the vines. The vine under field culture, I need scarcely
say, is simply cut down to near the old stool every year, and allowed
to make a few growths, which are tied erect to a stick : they do
not overtop the asparagus in any way, but on the other hand the
strong plants of that showed well above the vines. It was not in
distinct close lines among the vines, but widely and irregularly sepa-
rated, say six or seven feet apart in the rows, and as much or more
the other way. They simply put one plant in each open spot, and
give it every chance of forming a capital specimen, and this it
Asparagus Culture in France. 225
generally does. The great "stools" appear to be irregularly scat-
tered about here and there. When they get large and a little top-
heavy in early summer, a string is put round all, so as to hold
them slightly together (the careful cultivator uses a stake), and the
mutual support thus given prevents the "grass" from being cut off
in its prime. We all know how apt it is to be twisted oft' at the
collar by strong winds, especially in wet weather, when the drops
on every tiny leaf make the foliage heavy. The growing of asparagus
among the vines is a very usual mode, and a vast space is thus
covered with it about here. But it is grown in other and more
special ways, though not one like our way of growing it, which
is decidedly much inferior to the French method. Perhaps the
simplest and most worthy of adoption is to grow it in shallow
trenches. I have seen extensive plantings that looked much as a
celery ground does soon after being planted, the young asparagus
plants being in a shallow trench, and the little ridge of soil being
thrown up between each. These trenches are generally about four
feet apart. The soil is rather a stiff sandy loam with calcareous
matter in some parts, but I do not think the soil has all to do with
the peculiar excellence of the vegetable, and am certain that soils
on which it would nourish equally well are far from uncommon
in England. It is the careful attention to the wants of the plant
that is so beneficial. Here, for instance, is a young plantation
planted in March, and from the little ridges of soil between each
shallow trench they have just dug a crop of small early potatoes.
Now, in England, those plants would be left to the free action of
the breeze, but the French cultivators — like the old Scotchwoman
who would not trust the stormy water and God's goodness as long
as there was a bridge in Stirling— never leave a young plant of
asparagus to the wind's mercy as long as they can get hold of a bit
of oak about a yard long. But when staking these young plants
they do not insert the support close at the bottom, as we are too
apt to do in other instances, but at a little distance off, so as to
avoid the possibility of injuring a fibre j and thus each stake leans
over its plant at an angle of 45°, and when the sapling is big enough
226 Asparagus Culture in France.
to touch it or be caught by the wind, they tie it to the stick as a
matter of course. The ground in which this system is pursued
being entirely devoted to asparagus, the stools are placed very
much closer together than they are when grown among the vines,
say at a distance of about a yard apart. The little trenches are
about a foot wide and eight inches below the level of the ground —
looking deeper, however, from the soil being piled up.
They place the young plants in these trenches very nicely and
carefully. A little mound is made with the hand in each spot
where a plant is to be placed, so as to elevate the crown a little and
permit of the spreading out of the roots in a perfectly safe manner.
In fact they seem to be about as particular as regards depositing the
young plants in the first instance, as a good grape-grower is about
his young vines. They plant in March and April — using any kind
of manure that can be had, but chiefly here, so far as I could
see, the refuse of the town — the ashes, old vegetables, rags, and
other matters, that the people throw before their doors, and which
the dust-carts take away in the morning. They are very particular
to destroy the weeds, and they also take good care to destroy all
sorts of insect enemies in the early morning, especially during the
early summer. Between the lines of asparagus they plant small
growing crops on the little ridges during the first years of the
plantation, but are careful not to put the large vegetables there,
which would shade and otherwise injure the plant. When they
plant they spread a handful or so of well-rotted manure over each
root, and, so far as I could make out, they repeat this every year,
removing the soil very carefully in the autumn down to the roots,
putting on them a couple of handfuls of rotten manure, and spreading
the earth over again, so that the rain is continually washing manure
to the roots. When doing this they remark the state of the young
roots, and any spot in which one has perished, or has done little
good, they mark with a stick, to replace it the following March.
Early every spring they pile up a little heap of fine earth over each
crown. When the plantation arrives at its third year they increase
the size of the little mound, or, in other words, a heap of the finest
Asparagus Culture in France. 227
and thoroughly ameliorated earth is placed over the stool, from
which some, but not much, asparagus is cut the same year, taking
care to leave the weak plants and those which have replaced others
"abandoned to themselves" for another year. They would appear
to cut the best of it when it is about an inch and a half out of the
ground — and here is the only objectionable thing about their system.
The top is very good, but as a rule too short ; but such a handle as
they give you to it ! Now, it is very desirable to have something
to take hold of, but to cut it as they do here, and as we often do in
England, is not wise, nor conducive to the thorough enjoyment of
the vegetable ; but then it is simply a matter of the amount of
covering given, or of the depth at which it is cut, and therefore of
the simplest management. The care and culture may be applied
as described, and the asparagus cut at pleasure. To procure it in a
thoroughly blanched condition, the French pile up these little mounds
of fine earth, which enables them of course to get it much longer j
besides, they can pull away the soil conveniently, and get at the
rising stems as low down as they like. It is not, however, the fault
of the cultivator that the asparagus is so much blanched, for I have
been told by the first fruit and vegetable merchant in Paris that his
customers would not buy the finest Asparagus ever grown if brought
in in a green state. This is why you see it with a shaft like ivory
and with the point of the shoot of a red, rose, or violet tinge.
When the plantation reaches its fourth year the little mound of
blanching earth is increased to fifteen inches in height, for then
they expect to cut something worth while, and these mounds are
made in the early part of March ; and even after this, as they grow
stronger, the little mounds are increased j and they always keep a
look-out for the feeble plants, with a view to replace them.
To have asparagus as it ought to be, they say, you must cut
every day, or every two days, according to temperature, so that it
may be obtained at the right moment j indeed, if they do not do
this, the shoots become too high and too green. They place great
importance on obtaining strong and healthy plants j and in the
establishment which I visited they have three kinds, 1' Ordinaire,
a 2
228 Asparagus Culture in France.
La Hollande tardive, improved, and La Hative d'Argenteuil. The
first is described as very fine, the second very strong, and the last as
the earliest, most productive, and best. Of course there are various
modifications of the plan described herein, and in several instances
I saw two rows placed in a rather wide trench in an alternate
manner. As to the size and quality of the asparagus produced by
this method, there can be but one opinion. Mr. Veitch and many
other English horticulturists, who know what gardening is, as well
as it is possible to know it, have been, with myself, surprised at it.
The same difference holds good in the forced asparagus — the
slender pipe-shank productions of the English forcing-house being
miserable compared to it
To sum up : the French mode of cultivating this delicious vege-
table differs from our own diametrically in giving each plant
abundant room to develope into a magnificent stool, in paying
thoughtful attention to the plants at all times, and in planting in a
hollow instead of a raised bed, so that as the roots grow up they
may have annual dressings of enriching manure. Every year they
lay bare the roots, carefully spread good rotten manure over them,
and then add an inch or two of soil over that. And in this way
they beat us with asparagus as thoroughly as Messrs. Meredith,
Henderson, or Miller, beat them with hothouse grapes. A man
who knows how to spend two and a half francs for his dinner in
Paris enjoys asparagus much longer and of much better quality
than many a nobleman in England with a bevy of gardeners. In
the first-class restaurants you usually pay high for asparagus, as you
do for all other vegetables, but it is served very cheaply in many
respectable ones — so much so, indeed, that it is partaken of by all
classes.
As the culture of this vegetable is so important, and the French
manage it so well, I venture to go further into detail by giving the
following, written by a well-known and very successful cultivator of
Argenteuil, and which first appeared in the Gardener s Chronicle.
I have made some little alterations, with a view to rendering the
meaning simpler and clearer to the reader : —
Asparagus Culture in France.
" Preparation of the Ground. — When a
ground has been selected, it is first of all
spreading on its surface a good dress-
ing of horse or sheep dung. The
lowest layer of a dunghill, the dregs
of grapes, and night-soil, are likewise
good manures. The ground is to be
dug up to a depth of sixteen inches
in fine weather at the beginning of
winter, during which season it is to
be left at rest.
"In the month of February fol-
lowing, at least as soon as severe
frost is no longer to be expected, the
ground is to be laid out in furrows
and ridges, in order to shape the
shelving beds, and the excavations
which are to receive the plantations.
For this purpose the following opera-
tions are to be performed :
" First, there are to be drawn the
whole length of the ground, and by
preference from north to south, two
lines, leaving between them a space
of 14 inches, intended for the site of
the first half-shelving bed. Reckon-
ing from the interior base of this half-
shelving bed, a distance of 24 inches
is to be measured for the first 'ground'
or trench. The earth taken from it
will serve to form the shelving bed.
The second shelving bed, which will
be a complete one, is to measure 28
inches in width at its base, and 14
inches in height. Next comes the
convenient piece of
to be mellowed by
230 Asparagus Culture in France.
second trench, then the third entire shelving bed, and so on, until
the whole piece of ground has been occupied. Thus, the first
half-shelving bed will measure in width 14 inches, and in height
8 inches j the first 'ground' or trench in width 24 inches, the
second entire shelving bed in width 28 inches, and in height 14
inches, &c. (See the preceding diagram.)
" The earth of the shelving beds being intended to cover over the
plants from time to time, these beds will gradually diminish in
height, and the whole piece of ground will become nearly level at
the end of five years, when the asparagus plantation will be in full
productiveness."
[In justice to the extensive market grower and successful prize-
taker who thus describes his culture,
we are bound to respect his dia-
gram j but a readier and less pre-
s, cise method is more generally pur-
FlG 7I'/ sued, such as that indicated by Fig. 71,
roughly drawn from memory.]
"First Year. — The first plantation is to take place during the
months of March or April, and should be performed in the follow-
ing manner :
" In each trench, through its entire length, small holes, eight
inches in diameter and about four inches deep, must be formed
about thirty-six inches distant from each other. In the centre of
each of them a small hillock of earth about two inches high is to
be raised, upon which the asparagus plant is to be laid down, care
being taken to divide the roots equally in every direction ; the roots
are then to be covered over with half an inch of earth j and one or
two handfuls of very good manure are to be added, and covered
over with about an inch and a half of earth, at the same time
forming a small hollow of about an inch deep over each plant, to
indicate its position. In order properly to know the position of the
plants, and to shelter them and their shoots from accidents, a small
stake is to be set to each, inclining it at an angle of 45°, in order
not to injure the roots, and placing it a little away from the plant.
Asparagus Culture in France. 231
" Every year towards the months of April and May slugs and
snails are to be carefully looked for, while the morning dew remains,
and destroyed. Beetles are also much to be feared in the asparagus
plantations. Twice every day during a fortnight it will be well to
pursue these insects with rods, so as to hinder them from depositing
their eggs on the stalks of the asparagus j these eggs appear at the
end of three weeks in the shape of black maggots or worms, which
prey upon the asparagus stems and dry them up. Yet these insects
are not the only ones which are to be dreaded. The white worms
(or maggots of tree beetles) are very dangerous, and it will be well
constantly to put in use the most proper means to get rid of them,
for they eat the roots and destroy the asparagus plants. It will be
useful also to set mole traps, for while tracing their underground roads
the moles cut the asparagus roots in order to get through. Fre-
quently during the season the plantations should be thoroughly
cleaned, taking care to never bruise or in any way injure the young
plants, for any accident to these is of course directly prejudicial to
the plant.
"Common vegetables, such as late potatoes, cabbages, &c.,
ought not to be planted on the ridges of beds, which, however,
may be made useful (but only during the first years) by growing
on them early potatoes, lentils, kidney beans, salads, and such
other vegetables as are of little inconvenience from their di-
mensions.
" In the month of October, during fine and dry weather, the
small stalks of the asparagus are to be cut off at six inches above
the ground. The ground is to be lightly cleaned, and the shelving
beds must be dug up to a depth of twelve inches, maintaining their
conical shape.
" The asparagus is to be lightly covered with manure, the plants
being laid bare with a flat hoe, for a diameter of eight inches, and
up to the crowns. Proper care ought to be taken not to injure the
roots with the implement. On each plant lay one or two handfuls
of good manure, free from all noxious substances. While spread-
ing the manure, mark out with a small stick the site of the plants
232 Asparagus Culture in France.
which have failed during the course of the year j these must be re-
newed in the month of March following.
" The manure is at once to be covered over with about three
inches of the best mellow earth at hand, and over the plants is to
be made a small conical hillock about two inches high. This
operation is the last to be performed for the year.
" Second Year. — In March or April begin by replacing the plants
which have failed in the preceding year, selecting vigorous plants a
year old, and setting them in the same manner as recommended for
the first year. Stakes are to be placed near the foot of each plant,
always at an angle of 45°. ,
" In the beginning of April a cleaning is to be made on the
shelving beds and on the grounds j it will be well to perform this
operation the day after a sprinkling of rain, in order the more easily
to break the clods.
"'As poon as the asparagus stems become firm, fasten them to the
Stakes, m order to protect them against the wind, which might
break them. In the month of October the dry stalks are to be cut
off at eight inches above the ground ; the shelving beds are to be
turned up, always lightly hollowing out the trenches. Manure is
to be spread on the shelving beds, which are then to be dug up.
The stakes, having become useless, are to be taken away. Lastly,
the laying bare of the plants is to be done by taking away the earth,
as already directed, up to the surface of the manure. The earth
must be mellowed by the hands, and covered at once over the
plants, to the thickness of a couple of inches, always in the shape
of a small hillock.
" Third Year. — In the middle of the month of March, during fine
weather, small knolls, from six to eight inches high, are to be made
over each plant, taking nevertheless as a basis the comparative
strength of the crowns, more or less large, or of a more or less
determined development j those which may be too feeble, or having
served the preceding year to supply the bad ones, or those which
had failed, are to be covered over with a hillock of only four inches
high, and should then be left to themselves."
Asparagus Culture in France. 233
[It should be borne in mind that the use of these knolls is to
blanch the asparagus ; but as this is well known to be no improve-
ment to the vegetable, the piling up of little knolls need not be
performed except where fashion requires the cultivator to furnish his
asparagus in a blanched state. One secondary advantage of the
knolls should be stated, however. When cutting the asparagus, the
fine mould of the little mound may be easily removed, and the shoots
taken off low down, and without any injury to the plant.
" From the other plants, three, or at most four, asparagus heads
may be gathered -} but they are not to be cut off with an asparagus-
knife, but removed with the fingers. However, there is a particular
sort of knife, square-shaped at the end, and having teeth on one
side, forming a saw, which will be useful to take away the earth
about the stalk, and will make it easy for the fingers to reach the
subterranean stock, which care must be taken not to injure.
"With regard to the gathering, one finger must be got behind
the asparagus stem at its base, and by bending it, it will easily
come off the stock. In this manner all injury to its neighbours,
which may easily happen with an asparagus-knife, will be avoided ;
and there will not be left any wounded ends, from which the sap will
flow and spread around, occasioning rapid decay. Care should
be taken to close up the hole made for the gathering of the
asparagus, and the knoll is at once to be formed anew.
" In the month of April, the stakes are to be again used, and
the stems fastened to them in due time. After having, in fine
weather, done all that is necessary in the way of cleaning, in the
month of October the dry stalks are to be cut off about ten inches
above the ground, and the dead rubbish thrown out of the aspa-
ragus plantation. From the whole surface of the trenches, and to
a depth of four inches, the earth is to be taken away and thrown
upon the ridges ; this earth is to be substituted by a layer of very
good manure, which layer is to be of a thickness of about an inch
and a half, if night-soil is made use of, or of about two inches if
it is only common manure. At the same time a portion of the
end of the old stalks is to be taken away, preserving that nearest
234 Asparagus Culture in France.
to the crown, so as to indicate the exact site of the plants for the
fourth year.
" After having spread the manure, the ridges must be dug up,
and the manure covered with an inch or two of earth from the
ridges, a small hillock being left over the crown of each plant.
" Fourth Year. — About the middle of March, in dry weather,
or the day after a sprinkling of rain, knolls of the height of from
ten to twelve inches must be formed over each plant with good
mellow earth. The feeble plants, marked with a small stick at
the preceding laying bare, are to be covered over with hillocks of
a thickness of from four to six inches only.
" While earthing up the asparagus the ends of the dry stalks are
to be taken away. The gathering is to take place from the largest
ones during one month at the most. Then they are to be left to
run into seed. The most feeble ones are to be spared in order to
strengthen them. At the second dressing in the month of May,
earth is taken from the shelving beds, in order to cover over, to an
extent of an inch or two, the whole surface of the grounds, so as
to protect the asparagus plantation from the dryness of the summer.
The stakes should be five feet high.
" In the month of October the stalks of the asparagus are to be
cut off at fourteen inches above the ground, and the plantation is
to be cleared of the rubbish j manure is to be spread on the ridges,
which are to be made up from the knolls in the trenches j and are
then to be dug up to a depth of sixteen inches.
" Notwithstanding the manure laid upon the shelving beds, the
roots of the asparagus are to be carefully laid bare in the manner
already described. Upon the crowns are to be put a few handfuls
of good manure, which is to be covered over with two inches of
good mellow earth 5 the knolls, which are to be formed over the
centre of the plants, are to be over three inches in height.
" Fifth Year. — The making of knolls on the asparagus is to
begin in the month of March ; the knolls are to be fourteen inches
high, and their diameter is to be in conformity with the dimensions
of the plants. The gathering is to consist of the heads on all the
Asparagus Culture in France. 235
large plants, and of some only on the feeble ones j the gathering may
last two months at most. In order to get fine asparagus, the heads
are to be gathered once every day, or every other day, or every
third day at farthest, according to the degree of temperature. This
is the way to obtain rosy, red, or violet asparagus. In order to get
it green it will be sufficient to let the heads grow during four or
five days more; they will lengthen and become green. The
second dressing is to be made as in the preceding years. The
stakes are to be put in as soon as the necessity is felt, and the stems,
having regard to the increase of their height and weight, must be
firmly tied, so that the wind may not disturb them and that they
may not be broken.
" In the month of October following, the dry stalks are to be cut
off at fourteen inches above the ground. The plantation is to
be cleared, and the ridges are to be replenished by adding to them
the earth of the knolls which have been raised on the plants for
the gathering. Then the manure is to be spread in the manner
already indicated -, and the digging up of the ridges is next to
take place.
" Sixth Year. — When the asparagus plantation shall have reached
its sixth year, it will then be in full productiveness. The forming
of knolls is to take place in March during fine and dry weather ;
the knolls must always be fourteen inches high, reckoning from the
subterranean stock.
" Nevertheless, the care to be taken is to be the same as in the
preceding years, particularly with regard to cleanliness and staking.
As for insects, they will be less to be feared than during the first
years of the establishment of the asparagus plantation. The beetles
can no longer lay their eggs on the stalks of the asparagus, since
they are cut during two months, and when allowed to start up the
time of the laying of eggs is past.
" In the month of October the shelving beds are to be turned up
in conformity with the manner shown for the preceding year j the
shelving beds and the plants are to be manured, as has been ex-
plained for the fourth year. As the asparagus plantation may last
235 Asparagus Culture in France.
fifteen or twenty years, the operations and the care to be taken are
to be repeated from year to year in the manner above indicated.
" Generally, in a well-established asparagus plantation, the gather-
ing, reckoning from its beginning, is to take place during two
months, whatever may be the climatic circumstances under which
the plantation is placed.
" It must have been seen that the expense is not very great j the
chief object is the care which must be taken. The main point is
to get good plants, in order to obtain good produce. By properly
following the rules laid down here, satisfactory results will be
obtained."
[The mode of forcing asparagus chiefly consists in digging deep
trenches between beds planted for the purpose, covering the beds
with the soil and with frames, filling in the trenches between each
bed with stable manure, and protecting the frames with straw
mats and litter to keep in the heat.]
CHAPTER XVII.
Salad Culture. — Mushroom Growing, &c.
JOT only do the French gardeners supply their own markets
with delicious salads all through the winter and early
spring months, but also, to a considerable extent, those of
some other countries, and send vast quantities to the English
markets. Now it will probably occur to the reader that climate is
the cause of the superiority of the French in this respect, and,
indeed, some practical men repeatedly say so. Nothing can be
more fallacious than this belief, and I have no hesitation in affirm-
ing that, by the adoption of the method to be presently described,
as good salads as ever went to the Paris markets may be grown in
England and Ireland during the coldest months of winter and
spring. It is simply nonsense to say the climate does it ; the
winters in northern France are severer than our own, and I know
many spots in England and Ireland which are preferable to the
neighbourhood of Paris for this culture. Near that city I have often
seen beautiful cos and cabbage lettuces looking as fresh under their
coverings in the middle of winter, when the earth was frost-bound,
as the budding lilac in May : had they been treated as ours usually
are, they would have presented a very different appearance. At
all times of the year the gardens in which salads are grown round
Paris are beautiful examples of cultivation. In the spring and
summer, when they are grown in the open air, nothing can be
more agreeable to look upon j but it is their condition in the cold
238 Salad Culture.
season, when little or nothing can be done with them out of doors,
that demands most attention from us. As very ordinary cultivation
suffices to grow them with us in the favourable parts of the year,
and in the other our markets are supplied from France, it is obvious
that it is as regards the winter and early spring supplies that we
want improvement. That improvement is easily secured.
The first and the chief thing to do towards it is to procure some
of the large bell glasses (cloches) which the French use for this
purpose. They are simply huge bell glasses made of cheap glass,
with a round knob at the top to permit of their being handled with
facility. Not only for salad growing, but for many other purposes,
these are among the most useful things that can be employed in the
garden. The French shift them from one salad to another, raise
seedlings under them, strike cuttings under them, forward asparagus
and many other things with them, and, in a word, make more use
of them than any other article they use in their gardens. They are
cheap — costing about eightpence each if bought in large quanti-
ties, and ninepence or tenpence if bought in small numbers, or
singly — require no repairs, are easily cleaned and stored when not
required. The nice task of giving air is done away with in their
case. Without air on " every possible occasion" the British gar-
dener attempts nothing under glass. By adopting this simple
article, he may forego that ceaseless trouble throughout the winter
and early spring. In the hotter weeks of autumn, these glasses are
tilted up on one side for an inch or so, with a bit of stone placed
underneath 5 but when once winter comes in earnest, then down
they go quite close, and are all through the winter in the same con-
dition as what we call Wardian cases. By the way, the French re-
cognised this principle long before we did, and what is more, have
made a far more practical use of it. For all sorts of winter salad-
growing this huge bell glass of theirs is infinitely superior to any-
thing that we use for like purposes. The plants get full light at all
times, and, while perfectly preserved from the filth and splashing of
the rains in winter, are not in the least "drawn" or injured by the
confinement, the light coming in so freely at all points.
Salad Culture.
The glasses are nearly sixteen inches in diameter, and about as
much in height. For the winter work they are placed on a sloping
spot with a sunny aspect, or the ground is thrown into beds wide
enough to accommodate three lines of glasses. In early autumn
these beds are made and the plants placed upon them, so that they
can be readily covered by the bell glasses when the time comes that
growth is checked in the open air. It should be added that the
ground chosen is thoroughly rich, light, and well and deeply stirred,
and the lettuces are sown at intervals of a fortnight or so, so as to
secure a succession, and to provide for the wants of the various
kinds. The plants put out in September for the early and mid-
autumn supply may not require to be covered if the weather be
finej and if they do, the glasses are a little tilted up as before de-
syi
FIG. 72.
scribed. But when the sun begins to fail and the cold rains to
check growth, about the end of October, then the crop to be cut in
the following month must be covered ; and when towards Christ-
mas the frost begins to take hold of the ground, the glasses must
be firmly pressed down, and a deposit of leaves and litter placed
among and around them. Thus, while all around is at rest in the
grip of ice, the plants will be kept perfectly free from frost, while
receiving abundant light from above, and growing as fresh as April
leaves. Of course a deeper layer of this surrounding litter will be
necessary in case of severe frost than is so in early winter. Cover-
ing them a little more than half-way up with a rather compact body
of leaves and litter, effectually secures them from sharp frosts.
When very severe frosts occur, mats made of straw are spread over
the tops of the glasses -, and should heavy falls of snow occur while
240 Salad Culture.
these mats are on, they will enable the cultivator to carry it bodily
away from the bed or beds j for it should not be allowed to melt on
the beds or in the alleys between. In late spring the cloche is not
required, nor is it for any except those crops that require bringing
forward. Thus the March and April supply is planted in October
on a nice light bed, with a surfacing of an inch or so of thoroughly
rotten manure or leaf mould. These little plants are allowed to
remain all through the winter unprotected ; and when in spring
the most forward lettuces are cut, the glasses are immediately
placed over the most advanced and promising of the little ones that
have remained exposed. By that time they have begun to start up,
encouraged by the early spring sun, and from the moment they
receive the additional warmth and steady temperature of the cloche
they commence to unfold the freshest and most juicy of leaves, and
finish by becoming those great-hearted and tender products which
one may see in such fine condition in the Paris markets in early
spring. In the first instance three or five little plants may be put
under each glass, and these thinned out and used as they grow, so
that eventually but one is left, and that, without exaggeration,
often grows nearly as big as the glass itself. Happily, no water is
required, as the ground possesses sufficient moisture in winter and
spring, and evaporation is prevented by the glasses and the protect-
ing litter that covers the space between them. Thus a genial,
agreeable moisture is kept up at all times, and the very conditions
that suit lettuces are preserved by the simplest means.
By means of the same glasses the various small saladings may
be grown to perfection, or receive a desirable start. Thus, for
instance, if corn salad be desired perfectly clean and fresh in mid
winter, it will be obtained by sowing it between the smaller let-
tuces grown under these glasses ; and so with any other small salad
or seedling that maybe gathered or removed without loss before or
at the time the more important crop requires all the room. These
bell glasses will be found of quite as much advantage in the British
garden as they are in the French j they will render possible the
production of as fine winter salads in our gardens as ever the French
Salad Culture. 241
grew; they will enable us to supply our own markets with an im-
portant commodity, for which a good deal of money now goes out
of the country ; and, not least, their judicious use will make fresh
and excellent salads possible in winter. At present the produce is
so inferior and so dirty at that season, that it is generally avoided,
and rightly so ; for lettuces when hard and wiry from alternations of
frost, sleet, and rains — slug-eaten and half-covered with the splash-
ings of the ground, above which they hardly rise — are not worth
eating or buying. And though they may be grown well in frames
and pits, the method herein described is better and simpler than
that, and the lettuces thus produced are finer than those grown in
English gardens in winter.
The Barbe de Capucin is the most common of all salads in Paris
in the winter and early spring, and for its culture the cloche is not
required. It may be readily raised by every person having a
rough hotbed, or even a cellar, and is a good salad that nobody
need be without. It is perhaps too bitter for some tastes, bat is
often now used by English families, and is well worthy of culture
in small gardens, because so very easily forced when other salads
are scarce. The market gardeners in the neighbourhood of Paris
sow in the month of April every year quantities of the wild chicory
seeds on purpose to produce this salad. Before the early frosts they
dig them out with a fork, taking great care not to break the roots,
and put them in by the bells in a place where they will be ready to
hand in the middle of October. A hotbed is prepared in an obscure
place — in a deep cellar or cave without air or light will be prefer-
able. In this genial hotbed they are forced : being first tied up in
bundles, slightly sprinkled with water, the tops cut off at the end
of a fortnight or three weeks, and the old roots thrown away, as
they will not bear a second cutting. They may be kept for plant-
ing out, but it is scarcely worth while to do so. Successions of this
are kept up every fortnight.
This salad is of all others that which may be had with the least
amount of trouble by any person in possession of a spot of rough
ground, a cellar, or any dark place where a little heat might be
R
242 Salad Culture.
used to start the blanched leaves of the chicory in winter j and
therefore it is desirable that it be brought into universal use. Should
the taste be too bitter to those unaccustomed to it, or who do not like
bitter salads, the addition of corn salad, celery, beetroot, &c., improves
and modifies the flavour, and makes a very distinct and agreeable
salad. Space prevents me going more into the various particulars
as to salad culture in the neighbourhood of Paris, where a great
number of varieties suited to the various seasons are grown, and
there is in consequence some slight variations as to treatment, but
the important and chief points of their cultivation are indicated in the
preceding pages. It should, however, be added that endive, let-
tuce, &c., are cultivated and forced to a considerable extent, and
with great success, on the narrow hotbeds elsewhere alluded to.
The general state of the Parisian market gardens is such that I
cannot conclude without making some allusion to it. It has been
frequently said that the minute division of property in land retards
the improvement of agriculture in France. It may be so with
farming, but it certainly does not hold good with market gardens.
Those in and around Paris are comparatively small, but they are the
best and most thoroughly cultivated patches of ground I have ever
seen. Every span of the earth is at work 5 and cleanliness, rapid
rotation, deep culture, abundant food and water to the crops — in a
word, every virtue of good cultivation — are there to be seen. I doubt
very much if such good results could be obtained by a larger system,
and certainly in no part of Britain is the ground, whether garden
or farm, so thoroughly cultivated or rendered nearly as productive
as in these little family gardens. They may be so called, for they
are usually no larger than admits of the owner's eye seeing the
condition of every crop in the garden at once, and the French
market gardeners as a class " keep to themselves," marry among
themselves, and seem content with about as much ground as
gives occupation to the family. They are as a rule a very
prosperous class. I am not aware that their superior culture
has been noticed by any former horticultural writer who has
visited France ; but Paris being within eleven hours of London,
Mushroom Culture.
243
the truth of what I say of its market gardens can be readily tested,
and they are at all times worthy of being seen.
MUSHROOM CULTURE. — In old times the market gardeners of
Paris used to grow the mushroom with profit, but since the champig-
nonnistes cultivate it with much less danger from cold in the caves
under Paris and its environs, the market gardeners, who used to
raise it to a great extent in the open air, do so now to a much
smaller degree. In fact, they would have to renounce its culture
altogether were it not that the mushrooms they produce are
whiter, finer, and bring a better price than those grown in the
caves. They begin with the preparation of the manure of course,
and collect that of the horse for a month or six weeks before they
make the beds ; this they prepare in some firm spot of the market
garden, and take from it all rubbish, particles of wood, and mis-
cellaneous matters ; for, say they, the spawn is not fond of these
bodies. After sorting it thus, they place it in beds two feet thick,
or a little more, pressing it with the fork. When this is done the
mass or bed is well stamped, then thoroughly watered, and finally
again pressed down by stamping. It is then left in that state for
eight or ten days, by which time it has begun to ferment. After
these eight or ten days the bed ought to be turned well over and
re-made on the same place, care being taken to place the manure
that was near the sides of the first- made bed towards the centre in
the turning and re-making j then they leave the mass for another
ten days or so, at the end of which time the manure is about in
proper condition for making the beds that are to bear the mush-
rooms. If they do not find the stuff "sweet," unctuous, and of
a bluish-white colour in the interior, they do not expect much
success ; but by carrying out the foregoing simple directions there
is little chance of having it otherwise. Then they make the little
ridge-shaped beds — about twenty-six inches wide and the same in
height — formed like " the back of an ass," and placed in parallel
lines, at a distance of twenty inches one from the other. The
manure is made into close little beds gradually and carefully, the
R 2
244 Mushroom Culture.
man pressing it down well with the fork, so as to give the whole
mass a firm close-fitting texture, so to speak, and gradually narrow-
ing as he builds till his little ridges are finished. Of course the
length of those ridges will be determined by the wants of the
grower j in a market garden they may extend over and cover a
considerable extent. The beds once made, the manure soon begins
to warm again, but does not become unwholesomely hot for the
spread of the blanc or spawn. When the beds have been made
some days, the cultivator spawns them, having of course ascertained
beforehand that the heat is genial and suitable. Generally the
spawn is inserted, the holes being made in one line around the bed,
within a few inches of the base, and at about thirteen inches apart
in the line. Some cultivators insert two lines, the second about
seven inches above the first. In doing so, it would of course be
well to make the holes for the spawn in an alternate manner. The
spawn is inserted in bits about the size of three fingers, and then
the manure is closed in over, and pressed firmly around it. This
done, the beds are covered with about six inches of clean litter.
Ten or twelve days afterwards they visit the beds, to see if the spawn
has taken well. When they see the white filaments spreading in
the bed they know that the spawn has taksn, and that it is good.
If they do not see that it has begun to spread, they do not leave
the bed alone, as too many do amongst ourselves, but take the
spawn they suppose to be bad and replace it with better. But,
using good spawn, and being practised hands at the work, they
rarely fail in this particular j and when the spawn is seen spreading
well through the bed, then, and not before, they cover the beds
with fresh sweet soil to the depth of about an inch or so. When
the beds are made in the open air — as, indeed, they generally are —
the little pathway between them is simply loosened up, and its soil
applied equally, firmly, and smoothly with a shovel. With these
open-air beds they succeed in getting mushrooms in winter. The
chemise , or covering of hay or litter, is put on immediately after the
beds are earthed, and kept there as a protection. They have not
long to wait till the beds are in full bearing, and when they are in
Mushroom Culture. 245
that state it is thought better to examine and gather from the
beds every second day, or even every day where there are many
beds. Into each little hole from which mushrooms have been
pulled they place firmly a small quantity of earth. Sometimes,
when the chemise gets mouldy and rotten during a wet season,
they remove it, and replace it with another ; and sometimes during
a very dry season they are obliged to water it. And thus they
grow excellent mushrooms, and in great quantity.
The culture in a cave differs but little from the preceding. The
accompanying cut shows the size
and position of the little beds in the
cave. Shelves may be raised against
the walls to accommodate small beds
like the narrow one placed against the
wall of the cave. The manure is first
prepared above ground, and the beds FIG. 73.
are covered with soft light earth —
soft white chalky earth covering such as I have seen. So far
as I had opportunities of observing, mushrooms are produced
on those diminutive beds as freely as upon those of a larger size —
as abundantly as could be desired, in fact j but I am not able to point
out any distinct advantage upon the methods practised by good
cultivators among us, and chiefly speak of it in consequence of the
interest attaching to the cave-culture. I had, however, not suffi-
cient opportunity of seeing the French system of mushroom culture.
It is not very easy to visit the best market-gardens, and still more
difficult to find one's way into the mushroom-caves.
Mr. James Barnes, of Bicton, who was as well acquainted with
the old school of horticulturists as he is well known among the
new, writes as follows of what he saw of mushroom-growing in the
neighbourhood of Paris : — " Early on the first morning of my late
visit to Paris, myself and a companion started to see the grea.
central market. Our first object was to inspect the flower, fruit,
salad, and vegetable departments, where we saw quantities of
freshly-gathered mushrooms of fine quality. We then took a hasty
246 Mushroom Culture.
run through the fish, flesh, fowl, frog, and snail departments, in
which were fine fat snails huddled together by the bushel. Many an
English cultivator would, I am sure, be glad to see his store of these
pests pressed into such close quarters. Soon afterwards a cab con-
veyed us to the entrance-gate of the horticultural department of the
great International Exhibition. Here we feasted our eyes on fruits,
vegetables, salads, &c., and also made a close inspection of the fruit-
tree department, where many and various methods of training, &c.,
were displayed. Here were to be seen placed about the vegetable-
tents, &c., little mushroom-beds in the form of Lilliputian potato-
pits, covered with clusters of mushrooms of good quality, at the
sight of which I pulled off my hat and began to rub the dust out
of my eyes. Some one close by asks, Have these mushrooms really
been produced on those little toy-looking beds ? Oh, yes, there
cannot be a doubt of it, for here are buttons bursting up, varying in
size from that of a pea to that of a child's halfpenny ball ; and on
inspecting them afterwards I found these bunches, which I had
first seen as buttons, were open plates, the size of a teacup, some
even larger than that. Of course, the character of the materials of
which the beds consisted did not escape my observation. I also saw,
one evening afterwards, near the Palais Royal, in the window of a
splendid restaurant, fine pineapples, melons, pears, grapes, and
other fruits, as well as salads, &c., exhibited, and along with them
one of these miniature mushroom-beds — aye, and covered over with
good mushrooms, too. ' Well,' muttered I, ' what an old goose
I am ! after cultivating mushrooms for fifty years, not to have
thought of this.' When a boy I used to be sent to a farmer's
dunghill in search of mushroom spawn j and we brought home at
times a cartload or so of natural spawn in the shape of lumps, spits,
or sods, from mill track, hotbed, or elsewhere, and often it was in
a damp state. To secure it for future use, it was placed in sheds to
dry slowly ; but on that next the w^all, or in damp corners, lots of
mushrooms would burst forth, and exhaust the spawn, if not occa-
sionally moved about. Some of these lumps and crumbs of spawn
placed in boxes, and cased over, set in gentle heat, did, in fact,
Mushroom Culture. 247
produce many good dishes of mushrooms. Also under the footpath
trellises of early vineries and peach-houses I have seen lots of
natural spawn placed and covered, from which mushrooms were
gathered at the commencement of forcing, when the heat was only
moderate. Notwithstanding, however, these hints, received from
nature herself, blindness continued, and no idea whatever occurred
to me that this useful esculent could be so easily produced for the
million as I now find it can be. Let me now state the fact that the
little French mushroom-beds consisted of flakes or sods of fine
natural spawn cut out of the stable dung-heap, encased in a light-,
coloured, loamy, muddy soil — not, however, battered, rammed, or
trodden hard, as is usual with us, but laid over the surface to about
the same thickness as that of an ordinary mushroom-bed, and left
a little loose and knobbly — an advantageous condition as far as
watering is concerned.
'•'As regards mushroom-growing, my mind was, however,
not yet exactly at ease, so I kept rummaging about day after
day in my gardening tours through royal and other extensive
forcing grounds. Where there was a good deal of stable-dung,
I always noticed the smell of mushroom spawn, and the dung
placed in tidy-shaped heaps full of it This seemed to me to be
very generally the case, and that from these heaps any quantity
of fine, strong, natural spawn could be cut out in flakes or sods of
any size or thickness, for laying on the floors of caves, cellars,
or sheds, or on mushroom-house shelves. Mushrooms could
thus be cultivated in any cave or cellar, old box, tea chest, or
the like.
" How is it that this beautiful, strong, natural mushroom spawn
is so abundant in France ? Can it be because entire horses are the
rule there, not the exception, as with us ? Let us suppose a quan-
tity of natural mushroom spawn to be discovered in a dunghill,
hotbed, mill track, &c. Atmospheric influence prevents this body
of spawn from being utilized where it is found. The custom,
therefore, has been, on discovering such useful treasure, to collect
as much of it as retains its freshness and full natural properties, in
248 Mushroom Culture.
flakes, sods, or cakes, and to gradually dry it for spawning newly-
made beds. It must be gradually dried, but not in the full sun,
or in a quick draught -, for, if so, it will surely perish. Instead of
submitting it to this drying process, however, were we to place it at
once on the floor of a cave, cellar, mushroom-house, or in any other
suitable situation, quantities of mushrooms would be the result in
a few days. It is by simply watching and assisting nature in her
interesting ways that such useful results occur. For instance, im-
mense quantities of natural spawn are allowed to perish and ex-
haust themselves for lack of observation or the simple knowledge
of how to utilize it. Twenty tons may be hidden in a dunghill,
and through the unsuitableness of the atmosphere not a hatful of
mushrooms may ever be produced therefrom ; but had this spawn
been discovered, and placed in situations in which a suitable
atmosphere could have been commanded, sufficient mushrooms
might have been produced to feast the inhabitants of a large
town, and that at a very reasonable rate. Even supposing we were
in a locality in which natural spawn could not be readily dis-
covered, a suitable dung or muck heap could be spawned, and
when in good condition turned to valuable account, as previously
described. From what has been said it will be clear that we
are yet very blind to nature's ways, and that we have, moreover,
much to learn.
" I am aware that it has been considered difficult to produce fine
crops of mushrooms of the best quality throughout the year, on
account of our sudden atmospheric changes -, for example, during
the past season few natural mushrooms have been produced.
Mushrooms will not stand either heat, cold, wind, wet, or drought.
A dry summer, succeeded by fine early autumn rains, not exces-
sive j these followed by quiet, warm days and humid, foggy nights,
when the warmth of the atmosphere by day is from 60° to 65°,
and then only for a short time at noon, and when that of the nights
ranges from ^o° to 55° — these are the conditions under which the
greatest abundance of good mushrooms is sure to be produced natu-
rally. Taking, therefore, the year through, the cave, cellar, and
Mushroom Culture.
249
mushroom house proper are the only places in which these condi-
tions can be fully borne out; but for many weeks during spring,
summer, and autumn mushrooms might be freely produced in
various ways, and in many places, very simply, indeed, with
but little trouble or expense, by those who have at command a
cellar, a shed, the corner of a fuel house, a tent, or some other shel-
tered corner."
CHAPTER XVIII.
Horticultural Implements, Appliances, &c.
JPART altogether from modes of culture, we may effect
considerable improvement, neatness, and economy in our
gardens by adopting several articles described in this
chapter, and I would earnestly draw the attention of both profes-
sional and amateur gardeners to their claims.
THE CLOCHE. — This, which is simply a large and cheap bell-
glass, is used in every French garden that I have seen, and it is the
cloche which enables the French market
gardeners to excel all others in the produc-
tion of winter and spring salads. Acres of
them may be seen in the market gardens
around Paris, and private gardens have
"" them in proportion to their extent — from
FIG. 74. the small garden of the amateur with a
few dozen or scores, to the large garden
where they require several hundreds or thousands of them. They
are about sixteen inches high, and the same in diameter of base,
and cost about a franc a piece, or a penny or two less if bought in
quantity. As the " moonist" of poor Artemus Ward failed with
his moon, so my artist has failed with the cloche, but in another
direction — he has made it too ornamental, given it an elegant rim.,
Horticultural Implements, Appliances > etc. 25 1
and rendered it altogether too good-looking. The form in common
use is almost straight sided and somewhat conical. In reply to
numerous correspondents who have written inquiring about this
cheap bell-glass, I have to state that the English dealers have not
got them, nor are they likely to procure them, getting as they do
several times the price for the bell-glasses in common use with us
for indoor propagation, &c. But, nevertheless, I trust that the
cloches will not be kept in the background for that, as they are re-
markably cheap, and as useful for indoor or any other propagation
as the very costly articles now in vogue with us — apart from their
use in salad growing, &c. Messrs. Vilmorin, the well-known
seed merchants of Paris, have obliged me with the address of a
person who supplies them — Rouchonnat jeune, 75, Rue du Fau-
bourg St. Antoine. He offers them at 85 francs per 100, if more
than 500 are taken j smaller quantities at 90 francs per 100 — i.e.
at the rate of about ninepence each. The cloches are packed
by twenties, four francs being charged for the package ; but the
vendor will not be responsible for breakage in transit. The advan-
tages of the cloche are — it never requires any repairs 5 it is easy of
carriage when carefully packed (one inside the other in a rough
frame made for the purpose) -, by carefully handling, one is very
rarely broken in the Paris market gardens — level as a billiard- table
and without a leaf out of its place ; they are easily cleaned — a swill in
a tank and a wipe of a wad of hay every autumn clears and prepares
them for their winter work. They are useful in many ways besides
salad growing ; for example, in advancing various crops in spring,
raising seedlings and striking cuttings : and finally, they are cheap.
A thousand of them may be bought for 4o/.,'or less in France, and
with good management these would soon more than repay the cul-
tivator. But of course it is only in market gardens that they would
be required in such quantities as that, and in some small gardens not
more than a few dozen will be wanted. Every garden should be
furnished with them according to its size ; and when we get used to
them and learn how very useful they are for many things, from the
full developing of a Christmas rose to the forwarding of herbs, and
Horticultural Implements, Appliances , etc.
even stools of asparagus in spring, I have no doubt they will be
much in demand. Having spoken of the most particular and im-
portant use of this article in connexion with salad culture, no more
need be said of it here.
EDGINGS FOR PARKS, PUBLIC GARDENS, DRIVES, &c. — The
edgings in gardens have a very important bearing on their
general aspect, and often on their cleanliness. Hosts of people
with gardens are continually looking oat for a good edging, and
many are taken in by the aspect of those made of tiles, &c.
Any variety of brick, imitation stone, or terra-cotta edging, is
the ugliest and most unsatisfactory thing that can be admitted into
an ornamental garden. Massive edgings of stone around panels,
&c., in geometrical gardens are of course not included in the
pottery ones now alluded to. These last are enough to spoil the
prettiest garden ever made, and are as much at home round a
country seat as a red Indian at a mild evening party. Look at
them as they are carefully arranged by the exhibitors in one or two
of our public gardens, and possibly you may think they are clean,
symmetrical, and the very thing desired. When brought home
and arranged around the borders their true charms begin to display
themselves. Being " of a geometrical turn," if I maybe allowed so
to describe them, they must be arranged so as to look quite straight
in the line. If they wabble about, one this way and one that, they
"don't look nice," even granting that the things themselves are
tolerable. Now it is nearly impossible to ""set" them easily and
cheaply, so that they will remain erect. To have them set by a
mason may be resorted to by some; but it is simply a way of
wasting money. Of course, a good workman may set them neatly
enough by ramming down the soil firm on each side ; but, even if
perfectly well arranged, they are, after all, the worst variety of
edging known. Then, again, they are often of a texture that
cracks into small pieces with the first frost, though there are some
much more tenacious. The expense in the first instance is a good
deal, and one way or another they become unsatisfactory, till there
Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc. 253
is no tolerating them any longer, and they are thrown by with the
old iron or the oyster shells.
The reason why people have resorted to them is, that the
edgings ordinarily used prove disappointing and dirty, and they
long for something that will be neat and tidy at all times. To
abuse a bad thing without offering a better, or any at all, is often
better than to stand still and tolerate a nuisance ; but in this
instance I am able to recommend a capital permanent edging —
everlasting, in fact, and with nothing that could offend the most
critical taste. This is simply made of rustic rods of cast iron, in
FIG. 75.
imitation of the little edgings of bent branches that everybody must
have seen. They are evidently cast from the model of a bent
branchlet, generally about as thick as the thumb, but they are of
various sizes. The marks where the twigs are supposed to have
been cut off are visible, and altogether the thing looks as rustic as
could be desired, is firm as a rock when placed in position, and, in
a word, perfect. These irons are of course stuck in the ground
firmly, and as shown in the figure. But, while prettier than any
stick edging ever seen, they are, when fastened, also the most
firm and permanent of all. They may be set up by any boy. The
fact that they are not stiff and ugly tile-like bodies prevents their
254 Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc.
offending the eye if one or two should fall a little out of place here
and there. But this is nearly impossible ; for at the place where
every two sticks cross each other they are tied by a little bit of
common wire. They should be so plunged in the walk, or by the
side of the walk, that about seven inches of the little fence appears
above ground. This, however, may be varied with the size of the
subjects which they are used to encompass j six or seven inches is
the height given for edges for ordinary purposes. They are equally
useful for the park, pleasure-ground, or even the kitchen-garden.
In parks and pleasure-grounds, however, we usually have edgings
of grass, and therefore it may occur to the reader that they are
useless therein ; but the little fences of bent wood which furnished
the idea for these iron edgings were generally used to prevent grass
near much-frequented spots from being trodden upon; and of
course those now recommended will answer the purpose better.
But it is in much-frequented places along drives, and in public gar-
dens and parks, that their chief merit will be found. They may be
seen in every public garden in Paris, from the little squares near
the Louvre where you may notice them obscurely running along
outside of the ivy edgings, to the slopes of the Buttes Chaumont
and the more frequented parts of the Bois de Boulogne, and they
must ere long be as widely adopted in England, for it is impossible
to find a better or more presentable edging.
WATERING IN PARISIAN PARKS, GARDENS, &c. — The French
system of watering gardens, &cv is excellent, or at least the gene-
rally adopted system ; for at the Jardin des Plantes there are yet
watering-pots made of thick copper, which are worthy of the days
of Tubal Cain, but a disgrace to any more recent manufacturer, and
a curse to the poor men who have to water with them. Gene-
rally Parisian lawns and gardens are watered every evening with the
hose, and most effectively. It is so perfectly and thoroughly done,
that they move trees in the middle of summer with impunity; keep
the grass in the driest and dustiest parts of Paris as green as an
emerald, the softest and thirstiest of bedding plants in the healthiest
Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc. 255
state j and as for the roads, the way they are watered cannot be
surpassed. They are kept agreeably moist without being muddy,
while firm and crisp as could be desired. Of course all this is
effected in the first instance by having the water laid on ; but that
is not all. With us, even where we have the water laid on, we too
often spend an immense amount of labour in distributing it. In
Paris generally it is applied with a solitary hose, which pours a
vigorous stream, divided and made coarse or fine either by turning
a cock, by the finger, or even by the force of the water. This is
of course the way they apply it to beds of shrubs, &c., that require
individual watering, so to speak, and it is also the way they water
the smaller bits of grass about the Louvre and other places j but
when it comes to watering a large space of grass it is very different,
and then it is that their system is seen in all its excellence. One
day in passing by the racecourse at Longchamps 1 saw it carried out
in perfection. The space had become very much cut up by the
great review and the races. In any case they water it to keep it as
green as possible in summer. At first sight it would appear a diffi-
cult thing to water a racecourse, but two men were employed in
doing it effectually. Right across the whole open space from east
to west stretched an enormous hose of metal, but in joints of say
about six feet each. The whole was rendered flexible by these
FIG. 76.
portions being joined to each other by short strong bits of leathern
hose, each metal joint or pipe being supported upon two pairs of
little wheels. Fig. 76 shows a section of the apparatus at work.
By means of these the whole may be readily moved about without
the slightest injury to the hose in any part. At about a yard or so
apart along this pipe jets of water came forth all in one direction,
and spread out so as to fully sprinkle the ground on one side $ and
256 Horticultural Implements, Appliances > etc.
thus four feet or so of the breadth of the whole plain of Longchamp
was being watered from one hose. There were two of these hoses
at work, one man attending to each of them j the only attention re-
quired being to pass from one end of the line to the other, and push
forward the hose as each portion became sufficiently watered. In
this way also I saw them watering the lawns at Baron James
Rothschild's beautiful place in the same neighbourhood. The
simplest thing of all is the way they make the perforations for the
lets along the pipe. They are simply little longitudinal holes
driven in the pipe with a bit of steel. They must be made across
the pipe, or the water will not spread in the desired direction.
There are various modes of spreading water in use about Paris,
but none of them half as good as this simple method. The
hose for watering the roads is arranged on wheels also, but, as
it must be at all times under command when carriages pass by,
it has only one rose or jet, which is directed by a man who moves
about among the carriages with the greatest ease, and keeps his
portion of the road in capital condition. Of course it is a much
cheaper way than carrying the water about as we do, as then we
must have horse and cart, wear and tear, and man also ; whereas,
by having the water laid on, all the men have to do in watering is
to attach the hose and commence immediately. In the same way
as much work can be done in a garden in a day as with ten men
by the ordinary mode j so that in the end it is much cheaper to
have the water laid on. There can be no doubt that to the efficient
watering much of the success of the fine foliaged plants in Paris
gardens is to be attributed.
The profuse cropping of the market gardens here is also due, to
some extent, to their regular watering : the ground being always
moist and friable. In the market gardens they raise the water
from deep wells by horse-power, and send it to barrels and cement
cisterns plunged in various parts of the garden. In each market
garden, and in many nurseries, you usually see a horse of the esta-
blishment working one of these pumps. The remarkably succulent
radishes, turnips, &c., with which the Paris markets are supplied in
Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc. 257
the heat of summer, owe their merit to abundant watering and a
very rich light soil. Indeed, they sow them on beds nearly com-
posed of well rotted manure.
ATTACHING WIRE TO GARDEN-WALLS, &c. — If there be any
one practice of French horticulturists more worthy than another
of special recommendation to the English fruit-grower, it is
their improved way of placing wires over walls or in any
position in which it may be desired to neatly train fruit trees.
Than our own mode of erecting espaliers, or wiring walls, nothing
FIG. 77.
can be more hideous. So many have been the failures in British
gardens as regards the placing on walls of the wire to which to
affix the trees, that it has been given up as useless and too expen-
sive, and many have said that the old-fashioned shred and nail are
the best things. But there is a very much better and sounder way,
and I am completely converted as to the value of the French mode
of wiring a wall, of which Fig. 77 is an illustration. In the first
instance, several strong iron spikes are driven into the wall at the
ends — in the right angle formed by two walls, and then rough nails,
or rather hooks, are driven into the wall in straight lines by a mason,
258 Horticultural Implements, Appliances 3 etc.
exactly in the line of direction in which the wire is wanted to pass.
The wires are placed at about ten inches apart on the walls, and the
little hooks for their support, also galvanized, are placed at about
ten feet apart along each wire. The wires are made as straight as
a needle and as tight as a drum, by being strained with the
raidisseur. Through the hooks the wire is to pass for its support,
and of course it is necessary to have those lines of hooks quite
straight, a thing which a mason can readily arrange. The wire
— about as thick as strong twine— is passed through the little hooks,
fastened at both ends of the wall, into the strong iron nails, and then
made as tight and firm as can be desired by the tiny rack-wheel of
the tightener. These little tighteners being placed one over
another, or nearly so, in vertical lines, and at great distances apart,
they are not noticeable on the wall. The wires remain at about the
distance of half an inch or three quarters from the wall. If we
consider the expense of the shreds and nails, the procuring and
cutting of the former, the destroying of the surface of the walls by
the nails, and the leaving of numerous holes for vermin to take
refuge in, the great annual labour of nailing, the miserable work it
is for men in our cold winters and springs, — it will be freely ad-
mitted that a change is wanted badly. The system of wiring a wall
above described is simple, cheap, almost everlasting, and excellent
in every particular ; and it must ere many years elapse be nearly
universally adopted in our fruit gardens. A man may do as much
work in one day along a wall wired thus as he could in six with the
old nail and shred. As to galvanized wire having an injurious
effect on the fruit trees trained on, it is simply nonsense ; I will not
therefore waste my space and the intelligent reader's time by dis-
cussing it. That is the only thing that can be said against this
beautiful system of wiring. Given a concrete wall as described
elsewhere in this book, smoothly plastered and wired thus, what
fruit trees could be in a more excellent position than those upon it ?
The temporary coping taken off after all danger from frost was
past, every leaf would be under the refreshing influence of the
summer rains, all the advantages of walls as regards heat would be
Horticultural Implements, Appliances y etc. 259
obtained, the syringing engine would not be counteracted by count-
less dens offering diy beds and comfortable breeding-places to the
enemies of the gardener and the fruit tree, while the appearance ot
the wall would be all that could be desired. We will next turn to
an equally important subject —
TRELLISES FOR ESPALIER TREES. — The French call their wall-
trees " espalier," and in adopting the word from them the English
have transferred it to those standing away from walls, but trained
in a manner similar to wall trees. They term our espalier contre-
espalier, but the terms wall-tree and espalier are distinctly and
generally understood among us, and therefore it is better to use
them in the usual sense. I merely mention this to account for
using the word espalier in its English sense while discussing matters
connected with French fruit culture. The simplicity and excellence
of their mode of making supports for espaliers will be better shown
by Figure 37 and others than by verbal description. The raidisseur is
again employed here — one for each length of wire, and the strong end
supports are of T-iron. One whole garden is devoted to single and
double trellising of this kind at Versailles — the tall lines of trellising
being placed at about five yards apart, and rods of strong wire run
from one to the other, so as to give the whole square of trellises
mutual support. As neat dividing lines in English gardens, and as
the best support ever introduced for espaliers, such trellises are sure
to spread amongst us.
The galvanized wire which is so universally useful for the fruit
garden is sold in twenty-three different sizes. Of this an inter-
mediate size is that best suited and usually selected for strong
and permanent garden work, albeit a mere thread to the costly
bolt-like irons we use. The sort suited for walls is sold at
about 3/. 6s. for 100 kilogrammes equal to a little more than
220 Ibs. English. Each kilogramme (a trifle more than 2 Ib. 3 oz.)
of this affords more than 131 English feet of wire. The price given
is that for the second quality of wire, the first quality of the same
pattern costs about 6s. 6d. more for the 220 Ibs. Thus, of this wire
S 2
2 So Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc.
of the very best quality, and such as if placed properly in its
position is as permanent as it is useful, 200 Ibs. avoirdupois may be
obtained for less than 4/., and 220 Ibs. will extend a distance of
13,123 English feet. This size will also suit well for espaliers,
though a size or two stronger had better be used for the tallest and
strongest trellises. A size, or even several sizes smaller, will suffice
for dwarf trellises with three rows of wire or so, to accommodate
very dwarf trees of any shape the cultivator may desire.
Since writing the above, I have been informed by Mr. J. B.
Brown, of 90, Cannon-street, and 148, Upper Thames-street, E.G.,
that he supplies the chief Parisian houses who furnish French fruit-
growers with this useful galvanized wire, and therefore we may
expect to procure it cheaper in England.
USEFUL TRELLISING FOR YOUNG TREES IN NURSERIES, &c.
— In some of the best fruit nurseries I noticed a simple and
effective kind of trellising used for training young wall and
espalier trees. It is useful in enabling the French to keep in
FIG. 78.
stock trees for these purposes to a greater age than is the case
in our own nurseries, and for various purposes should prove
useful to the grower of young fruit trees. I need not say that a
larger and modified application of the same plan would do well
Horticultural Implements y Appliances, etc. 26 j
for large espalier trees, indeed I have seen it applied with good
effect, and it perfectly suits a method which is not uncommon in
France, of keeping the upper branches of trees/trained horizontally,
shorter than the lower ones, so as to secure perfect vigour in the
lower branches. This trellis may be established at a trifling cost
by using light posts of rough wood, or, if permanent and greater
strength be desired, of T-iron. In either case the posts must be
firmly fixed. The wire should be passed through a hole or strong
eye in the top of the pole, and fixed with stones or irons in the
ground. For the better training of the shoots straight, their rods
may be extended from the post to the wires with but little trouble.
TRELLISING FOR THE PEACH TRAINED AS AN OBLIQUE CORDON
AGAINST WALLS. — The wire and the little straightener is very
efficiently used so as to do away with any necessity for nailing in
FIG. 79.
training the peach en cordon, as shown in the accompanying figure.
When the lines which the wires are to follow are fixed upon bolts
and eyes are driven in, the wire is fixed to and passed through them,
and then tightened with our useful little friend the raidisseur.
2,62 Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc.
PROTECTION FOR ESPALIER TREES. — This is a thing we rarely
attempt, but which the French sometimes do with success. The
FIG. 80.
accompanying figure shows a mode of arranging two rows of trees
in a manner different to that already shown on the double trellis.
Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc. 263
Here the main supports are strong posts. French gardens are
usually surrounded by walls, and in establishing a system of trellis-
ing for growing the choicer pears it is considered wise to stretch an
occasional wire from the trellis to the adjoining walls or from one
trellis to another. Thus if a whole square is devoted to galvanized
trellises for pears — at say nine feet high, and at from fifteen to twenty
feet apart, the intermediate space being cropped, the trellises in addi-
tion to being individually well supported, afford each other a mutual
support by means of strongish wires running across all the lines of
trellising, say at thirty feet apart. This is shown by the line G, in
Fig. 80. At the bottom run rows of horizontal cordon apples of
the most important kinds. The posts are placed closer apart in
erecting the trellises than when the trees are "abandoned" to the
vicissitudes of the weather.
B B shows the support for the temporary protection, F F ; gal-
vanized wires are run through about the points E and D, while
the lines H H, descending at long intervals, are fixed firmly to stones
in the ground and to the little iron posts, L L. Neat straw mats
are generally fixed on the top of these, the mats being made so
neatly and firmly that no untidiness is observed. For the English
garden, however, tarpaulin on cheap light frames would be better.
I describe this more for what it suggests than anything else. Some
like arrangement is badly wanted with us, and need not be difficult
to contrive. By having a few lines of choice apples trained on the
low-cordon system at each side, and two good rows of pear trees,
a great deal of valuable fruit could be protected at the same time
by making some arrangement whereby the whole could be covered
with cheap canvas.
COPING TOR WALLS. — Having several times spoken of the deep
copings the careful French cultivator uses for his fruit wall, I here
give a rough figure showing a section of the tile-coped wall, and
projecting from beneath the coping the iron rod which serves as a
support for the temporary coping. The artist has omitted to show
the rod slightly turned up at the end. The French take a good
264 Horticultural Implements y Appliances, etc.
FIG. 81.
deal of trouble with temporary copings, and find them of the greatest
use in getting good and regular crops, for the frosts are severe in the
northern parts and all around Paris, in fact nearly all the region north
of the river Loire, the most
important region of France.
The best temporary coping
I have ever seen used was
narrow lengths of tarpaulin
nailed on cheap frames from
six feet to eight feet- long,
and about eighteen inches
wide. The use of such on
walls devoted to the culture
of choice pears, peaches, &c.,
would result in a marked im-
provement. The temporary
coping has a great advantage
in being removable, so that the trees may get the full benefit of the
summer rains when all danger is past, and not suffer from want of
light near the top of the wall, as they would if such a wide protect-
ing coping were permanent. I believe that such a coping would
be much more effective than any of the netting and canvas protec-
tions now in use in English gardens.
MATS FOR COVERING PITS, FRAMES, &c. — In our cold and
variable climate, the winter covering for many minor glass struc-
tures is of the greatest importance. It is a thing that at pre-
sent we do in a very expensive and by no means satisfactory
way. The French mode of doing it is much cheaper, neater, and
more effective ; and in passing through their market gardens and
forcing-grounds in winter, it is one of the first if not the chief thing
that seems to the English horticulturist as worthy of imitation. The
covering used consists of neat straw mats about an inch thick, the
sides as clean and neat as if cut in a machine, the mat knit together
by twine, and its texture such that it may be rolled up neatly and
Horticultural Implements, Appliances > etc. 265
closely. If I mistake not, one of these mats, which is much better
as a protecting agent than a bass-mat, costs about one-third the pre-
sent price of a bass-mat, while in point of appearance and amount
of protection given the advantage is all in favour of the French
paillaisson. The figure given represents a simple frame for making
these mats in the nurseries of M. Jamain, the celebrated cultivator
of orange trees, and I append his description of it. There are
several frames for this purpose, and there is also a machine for
making these mats, which are indispensable to the French gardener j
but the one here described is the best and simplest for general use.
"Get two pieces of timber (i) about 3 inches thick, 4 inches wide,
and as long as required. Pierce these timbers, as shown in the
figure, and introduce A in the holes
to maintain the same width between
the sides, and support the nails or
screw, as shown in the cut. These
nails are to keep the string tight
(5). The board may be shifted
from hole to hole so as to make mats
of any desired length. The length
of the string must be about three
times as long as the straw mat, and
rolled round a little handle, made as
in E. The straw must be placed on
the machine so as to have all its cut
or lower ends close against the sides,
the tops meeting in the middle, and
so thick as not to have the straw mat
thicker than three-quarters of an inch when finished. The stitches
must not be wider than three-quarters of an inch, and be worked as
follows (see F of the figure). Take a little of the straw with the left
hand, and work the handle with the right, first over the straw, then
over the bended string, coming back underneath, and passing swiftly
the handle between the two strings, pulling tightly and pressing
the straw, so as to have a flat stitch, and not thicker than three-
FIG. 82.
266 Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc.
quarters of an inch at the most. The same operation is repeated
until the mat is finished. The machine described has been at
work for the last twenty years in our nursery, at Paris, and is
yet as good as new. An ordinary workman may make daily from
thirty to forty yards run of these straw mats with it." Wherever
frames and pits have to be covered, the adoption of these mats
would effect a considerable saving, and be productive of much satis-
faction to the cultivator.
All new or strange things of this sort are adopted slowly by
horticulturists 5 but that they would immediately adopt this, if they
had an opportunity of seeing it in working order, I have no doubt j
and I hope yet to see it in general use in British gardens. In
France it is found so useful that it is employed for many purposes
besides that of covering frames, and they even make a very effective
temporary coping for walls of it in some cases. I doubt very much
if anything I can say for these mats will give the gardener a full
idea of their utility. In all gardens where men are regularly em-
ployed they may be made during bad weather in winter ; and as
there is often a difficulty about procuring enough of useful indoor
work for men during bad weather, the making of these mats will
be a gain from that point of view alone. Indeed, in many country
places, where straw is abundant, the making of these mats will
cost a mere trifle. As bass-mats are now very expensive compared
to what they were, this matter is well worth the attention of horti-
culturists generally. The mat is shown in use at Fig. 83, a little
thicker than it should be. In connexion with this subject, the system
of framing generally used in France may be alluded to.
FRAMES FOR FORCING, &c. — The French market gardeners use
an immense quantity of frames, and it is by their aid they procure
most of the tender and excellent forced vegetables, &c., sent
to the markets in early spring. These frames are made of very
rough woodj are narrow — not exceeding four feet in width ; and
arranged in close lines completely immersed in the heating material.
The illustration will give an idea of the appearance of these beds.
Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc. 267
Most undoubtedly the principle is better and cheaper than our own.
We employ large and well-made frames in private gardens, and for
the most part place them so that all but the base is exposed to the
influence of the weather, and the plants therein are more liable to
changes of temperature and cold. By having the frames narrow,
all the sidework rough and cheap, and the frames placed in close
lines, we get the greatest amount of heat at the smallest cost. By
having nothing but the surface of the glass exposed, nothing is
lost, and when the frames are covered by the neat, warm, and
flexible straw mats above described, they are as snug as could be
desired. When it is simply desired to preserve bedding plants, &c.,
through the winter in frames, the spaces between the rough-sided
frames are merely filled up with leaves and slightly heating mate-
rial, as shown in my figure ; but where used for forcing, the manure
FIG, 83.
is of course placed underneath the frames also. About two feet of
space is left between each frame, or just enough for the convenience
of the workmen. Generally they seemed to me to be put together
by the workmen of the market gardens : two stout posts being
driven firmly in at one end, and an end-board nailed to them. Then
at every four feet or so minor posts are driven down, and the rough
front and back-boards nailed to them. The cropping of these
frames is dense and excellent, as is the case with the market garden
cropping generally.
GLAZING GLASSHOUSES, — In the matter of glasshouses we have
little or nothing to learn from the French beyond what is displayed
at La Muette. A great variety of houses were shown at the Ex-
position, all of iron, usually neatly and well built, occasionally
elegant, but offering very little which is worthy of adoption. The
268 Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc.
French use iron houses, and generally think our wooden ones too
heavy and cumbrous. One mode of glazing is worth notice, and
better and neater than we often see in England. The panes did
not overlap, but met evenly, a particle or so of putty being used
between them if they do not meet exactly j and on the outer side
a neat thin strip of lead paper, about half an inch wide, is laid over
each junction. The appearance of this silvery strip is good, and it
is in every way effective. It is, in fact, heartily adopted by M.
Barillet, and is probably not surpassed, if equalled, by any mode of
glazing. The house is by its use glazed almost hermetically, while
there is not a particle of the rustiness that occurs in English houses
from decaying putty, &c., to be seen. There is no difficulty what-
ever in the repairing of such houses, which is not the case in some
of our novel modes of glazing. This method is good and elegant :
the best for large houses, which should generally be of iron, if we
do not wish them to be intolerably ugly. The small houses of the
French are of iron too, and nothing can be -more useful than the
very cheap, two-light, low iron houses at La Muette. The aspect
of most French glasshouses is spoiled by the effect of the shading
employed — laths connected together by string and little hooks,
and painted dark green, and by nearly all the houses above the
small and useful low two-light ones having a gangway over the
roof, so that men may pass to arrange this shading, &c. It is
a bad, very awkward, and very expensive way. The mode of
glazing here alluded to is well worthy of our adoption for con-
servatories, and indeed ah1 iron houses, and may be seen largely
employed in the great nursery garden of the city of Paris at
Passy.
GARDEN LABELS. — There were very many labels shown in the gar-
dens of the Exposition, the best being some small ones exposed by
M. H. Aubert, 189, Rue du Temple. These were in rather thickish
zinc, and very neatly and deeply impressed and accentuated. They
wereof sizes suitable for rose and fruit trees, small ones for numbering,
others with stems for using with pot plants, and so on. There is a
thinner type of the same style common enough in our seed-shops,
Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc. 269
and not very dear : but after you get them comes the writing,
and that is the difficulty, or the stamping, or whatever it may
be — usually a failure, and always a labour requiring some taste
and neatness. Now you can get these labels deeply, and neatly,
and plainly impressed by this M. Aubert at three francs per £00, fur-
nishing him with a list of the sorts required in the first instance.
As anybody who has meddled with such matters knows, to get such
labels deeply and well impressed would be very cheap at three or even
five francs the 100, even without considering the cost of the labels
themselves. I need therefore hardly say that being able to pro-
cure them ready to attach to roses, fruit trees, &c., at three francs per
100 is a great advantage. Our labelling generally is a great mis-
take, and this surely is a step towards having plants decently
labelled without incurring great expense. Small ones for number-
ing are sold at one franc per 100.
GARDEN CHAIRS. — We will next turn to chairs, of which there
are numerous kinds to be seen. The kind of chair which may be
seen in quantities in all public places in Paris, with a convex seat
made of elastic strips of metal springing from the sides and joined
together in a little central piece, was much
admired by English visitors. Fig. 84 repre-
sents it. There are many modifications of this,
the best being one in which the seat made of
these united bands is covered with a slight
wire network. These chairs stand any weather,
and are nevertheless as elastic and comfort-
able as any drawing-room chair. The neatest
and most elegant and comfortable conservatory,
pleasure-ground, or summer-house chair ever
seen is composed of three of these seats united
in one, the larger framework of the back and FIG. 84.
sides being made of charmingly rustic iron about
as thick as the thumb, the smaller spray being tied to the larger
by imitation osier twigs. This was shown by M. Carre, the maker
of the greater number of chairs in this way.
270 Horticultural Implements, Appliances y etc.
TRUCKS FOR TUBS OR VERY LARGE POTS. — This very handy
little truck is what the French use for moving orange tubs, &c.
It would be impossible to find anything more useful in its way. I
FIG. 85.
have seen the gardeners actually running with big specimens on
them. The pot or tub is caught by the little iron feet, then thrown
on its side and tied firmly if a long distance has to be traversed.
THE NUMEROTEUR. — Numbering instead of labelling is now
adopted in so many gardens and nurseries, that the making
widely known of this useful instrument cannot fail to be useful.
The following description of it originally appeared in the Gardeners'
Chronicle : — " Horticulture is a science so vast, and embraces sub-
jects so different, that however good a man's memory may be it is
insufficient, a nd hence it becomes necessary to give it mechanical
aid. Among the means employed are tickets or labels written upon
parchment or paper, or small pieces of wood, &c. -} but these are
soon effaced, and are very liable to get lost or displaced. A very
good plan frequently adopted consists in the use of small bands of
lead, which are rolled round the stems or branches of the plants.
Upon this lead a number is marked, corresponding with a catalogue,
in which the name and any particular remarks are entered. This
method is sure ; but to carry it out several things are necessary.
First there is wanted a series of numbers from i to 10, or rather
from i to 9, the zero combined with other figures, making the
numbers 10, 20, 100, &c. Then this series of numbers must be
fixed upon a block of wood, and the figures have to be impressed
Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc. 271
upon the leads by means of a small hammer. So that to mark the
leads we want — ist, a pair of scissors to cut the metal j 2nd, a set
FIG. 86.
272 Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc.
of numbers ; 3rd, a block to receive them; and 4th, a hammer to
strike and indent the figures in the leads. This apparatus there-
fore becomes troublesome, especially when it is necessary to change
its place, as is the case when it has to be used in different parts of a
large garden, or in a field. Besides, it suffices for one of the little
figures to be lost to render the whole series useless. A considera-
tion of these inconveniences induced an ingenious cutler, M. Hardt-
ville, of the Rue St. Jacques, in Paris, to invent the Numeroteur, or
Numbering Pincers. This instrument in its general form resembles
a large pair of scissors, in which the blades instead of being cutting
are flat and blunt, with the upper extremity prolonged. On the
inner side of the upper of these blades is fixed a series of ten figures
arranged in order, from i to 9, followed by o. These figures are
placed at the end of small steel shanks screwed into the blade, and
upon the opposite blade, which is flat, the figures are marked in
hollows, so that, without grouping, one is able to effect with cer-
tainty any necessary numerical combinations. A pressure of the
blades suffices to indent the figure in the piece of lead that has been
placed between them, and the lead is then withdrawn and placed
in the same way beneath whatever other figure or figures may
make up the number required. The blades of these numbering
pincers work upon a movement similar to that of a pair of scissors,
the alternate opening and shutting of the curved portion or handle
also opening and shutting the two opposite blades, so that it is only
necessary to put the plate of lead straight with the figure which is
wanted, and then to make a pressure, to have this figure indented
on the lead. At the end of one blade, in a line with the figures, is
a small punch, with which, if necessary, to pierce the lead, in order
to admit of passing through it a wire thread, by which it may be
suspended. To complete this instrument M. Hardiville has added,
on the side of one of the branches, a small blade, which by means
of a spring adapted to the other branch, forms a pair of scissors
with which to cut the leads. When the scissors are not needed,
the spring is unfastened, being made to do so easily and quickly,
and the blade then tightens itself against the branch of the pincer
Horticultural Implements, Appliance sy etc. 273
without any trouble. At the base is a moveable spring which
serves to open the branches. Thus we see that this instrument is
very complete, but its value is augmented by its not being com-
plicated, and especially by its being of a reasonable price —
ten francs."
THE SECATEUR. — Of garden cutlery I will only mention the
secateur, and this is an instrument that every gardener should
possess himself of at once. I know well the prejudice that exists
in England among horticulturists against things of this kind, and
their almost superstitious regard for a good knife — a state of things
quite justified by the nature of most inventions brought out for
the amelioration of gardening. I also believed in a good knife
above all, but when I saw how useful is the secateur to the fruit-
growers of France, and how much more easily and effectively they
cut with them exactly as desired, I became at once converted.
A secateur is seen in the hands of every French fruit-grower, and
by its means he cuts as clean as the best knife-man with the best
knife ever whetted. They cut stakes with them almost as fast as
one could count them j they have recently made some large ones
for cutting stronger plants — such as the strong awkward roots of the
briars collected by the rose-growers. Of these secateurs there are
many forms, several of the best being figured here. First we have
the Secateur Vauthier (Fig. 87), a strong and handy instrument. Its
sloping semi-cylindrical handles have their outer side rough, which
gives a firm hold j the springs, though strong, resist the action of
the hand gently j the curvature of the blade and the adjustment
are perfect j and lastly, the principal thing, the action is so easy as
never to hurt the hand.
"During the many years of my experience," observes M. Lachaume,
a fruit-grower who describes this implement in the Revue Horticole,
" I have used tools of all kinds, and the tools have also used me a
little ; but I have never met with anything which gave me so much
satisfaction as the Secateur Vauthier. Every desirable quality is
combined in it, and I recommend it with perfect confidence. The
T
274 Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc.
strongest branch will not resist its cutting, nor a single branch,
however well concealed, be inaccessible to it. Moreover, the
double notch on the back of the blade and hook (in which a wire
FIG. 87.
is shown in the figure) will enable the operator when employed at
his trellises to cut every wire without using the pincers.
The Secateur Lecointe (Fig. 88) is another variety recommended by
the leading French horticultural journal. It appears to have some
advantages over the others in the substitution of a coiled spring for the
Horticultural Implements,, Appliances,, etc.
ordinary flat spring previously adopted. The inventor was led to
devise this kind of spring in order to avoid the annoyance arising
from the frequent breakage of the form
usually employed. It is said that this form
of spring secures an easy and gentle action
of the instrument, and has the advantage
of lasting longer than others, from not
being so liable to break, while it secures
a firmness and evenness in working which
is not otherwise attained. A further im-
provement is pointed out in the fastening,
which consists of a stop which catches
when the two handles are drawn together,
a projecting portion on the outside acting
as a spring which is to be pressed when
the instrument is required to be opened.
M. Lecointe of Laigle is the inventor.
Fig. 89 represents the secateur of older
date than the preceding, and one more
generally used. It is much employed at Montreuil. There can
be no doubt that where much pruning of any kind is done, and
particularly pruning of a rather rough nature,
the secateur is a valuable implement. It was
first invented by M. Bertrand of Molleville.
THE RAIDISSEUR. — This is the name for
the little tightening, straightening machine,
which plays such a very important part in the
wiring of garden walls, or erecting of trellises
for fruit-growing in France. It is an imple-
ment which, though insignificant in itself, is
calculated to make a vast improvement in our
gardens and on our walls. It will save labour,
time, expense, and make walls, permanent
trellises, &c., infinitely more agreeable to the eye and useful to
T 2
FIG. 88.
FIG. 89.
2J6 Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc.
the cultivator than ever they were before. There are various forms
which I need hardly describe, as they are so well shown in the ac-
companying cuts. The first (Fig. 90) is a reduced figure of one about
FIG. 90.
three inches long, and of which I brought some specimens from
Paris. The engraver has placed it in the best position to show its
structure. The wire that passes in through one end is slipped
through a hole in the axle ; the other end is attached to the tongue,
as shown in the engraving, and then by the aid of a key. Fig. 9 1 ,
FIG. 91.
placed on the square end of the axle, the whole is wound as tight
and straight as could be desired. The first form figured is very
much used in the best gardens, and always seemed to me to do its
work most effectively. The next figure is the tendeur, or stretcher
FIG. 92.
of Collignon, recommended by Du Breuil. It does not differ
much from the preceding. D shows the point of insertion of the
wire that has to be tightened ; B the fastening of the other end of
the wire j and A the head on which the key is placed. Fig. 93 is
a side view of the same implement. The best form of these
Horticultural Implements, Appliances, etc. 377
raidisseurs cost about threepence apiece in Paris. We cannot well
have more efficient things, though we may succeed in getting them
of a cheaper form. Indeed, I once saw one in use, about forty
FIG. 93.
miles from Paris, which could not have cost more than a good nail,
but unfortuately I forgot to secure a specimen or take a sketch of
it. However, I hope to secure it some day. The foregoing kinds
are galvanized, just like the wire. That shown by Fig. 94 is a very
FIG. 94.
simple one, not galvanized, and which was shown in use in the fruit
garden of the Great Exposition. This last form is surely such as can
be readily and cheaply produced in any manufacturing town. The
best of these tighteners are insignificant in price ; and if it were not
so it would still be profitable to employ them in consequence of the
great saving they effect, by enabling us to use a very thin wire,
which is quite as efficient and infinitely neater than the ponderous
ones now generally used with us, where the nail and shred has given
way to some costly system of wiring.
37 & Horticultural Implements, Appliances ', etc.
IMPROVED FRUIT SHELVES. — The stocks of winter pears I had
the pleasure of seeing in some French gardens were remarkably fine
in many instances ; but, in one case, the mode of storing them in
the fruit room was so superior that I have devoted a couple of
figures to illustrating it. Instead of being confined to wide shelves
or benches all round, as is usually the case, there were several sets
of shelves arranged along the room — rather narrow, sloping oak
shelves — supported by oak uprights. These shelves are wide
enough for five rows of pears on each side, and on such a slope that
FIG. 95.
the pears rise gradually, line after line, so that the eye could see
each fruit with ease, without handling or disturbing any, and of
course this was a great gain. But the careful constructor had gone
further, by making the slight concavity upon which each line of
pears rested of two laths, so that the air could flow up beneath them.
No single fruit \vas allowed to touch its fellow, and thus they were
in a very much better condition than in the British fruit-room,
where all are frequently packed tight together, and the good ones
Horticultural Implement sy Appliances > etc. 279
often liable to get tainted by the bad. This was in the pear-room
at Baron Rothschild's, and a more pleasing sight could not be pre-
sented to the lover of a garden — the successive shelves of splendid
fruit being so arranged that every individual pear could be examined
without touching one. I need scarcely say that in the case of a
fruit requiring so much nicety of judgment and attention as the
pear does, in the gardener who makes the most of his collection,
and has each kind, or even each perfect fruit, eaten at the right
time, this is a great gain.
A NEW LAWN PLANT.
|MONG the more important plants which I became ac-
quainted with in the Jardin des Plantes for the first time
is one whose name it is not expedient to mention oitener
than is absolutely necessary — Pyrethrum Tchihatchewii (Boiss.),
and which I forgot to allude to while describing that establish-
ment. I first saw it growing on the mound near the large cedar,
covering the dry and arid ground under the shade of trees with
a close carpet of short, fresh, dark green leaves, elegantly divided,
and lying quite close to the ground. The position was a sloping
one, the soil chalky and very bad. Notwithstanding these draw-
backs, nothing could have looked better than the little carpet
formed by the Pyrethrum. It not only looks well in summer,
when grasses, if they cannot grow well in such positions, are at
all events to be seen in a fresh green state in others ; but in
winter and early spring, when all around is dead and at rest, it
looks as green as healthy ivy. It is perfectly hardy, and runs about
close to the ground in a remarkably rapid manner. It does not
seem to grow more than an inch and a half or two inches high,
and in spring and summer bears white flowers, which rise a little
higher than those of the daisy, and must be removed in the same
way if the making of a fine lawn with this plant be attempted.
From what I have seen of the plant, I have no hesitation in saying
that it is certain to be useful in some positions in gardens and plea-
sure-grounds, and probably will be found generally useful. The spots
for which we may count upon it as a gain are deeply-inclined banks
on a dry soil, where grasses grow with difficulty, and perhaps almost
perish during dry weather in summer j the many places under
trees, which are usually bare from the shade, and from the roots of
the trees drying and impoverishing the surface. From the nume-
rous inquiries that are made about suitable plants for covering such
A New Lawn Plant. 281
positions, there can be no doubt that this will prove a great boon
to many for these purposes alone ; and on dry sandy hot soil, where
grass perishes in summer, it may prove the plant so long sought for
on such. The Spergula, so famous at one time, and which was so
great a failure generally, from its superficial hold of the surface
and tendency to die off in patches, and become spotty after attaining
a green and luxuriant condition, has no merits compared with the
Pyrethrum, which "takes hold of the ground" in a determined
way, and from its fine constitution is not at any time liable to go off
from disease. Having no experience of its doings on a rich loam
or a clay soil, I cannot say what it may prove worth on such ; but it
is worthy of a trial on all. On slopes, among other positions in
which a loose and shifting soil was troublesome, it is very likely to
prove valuable, the well divided leaves matting amongst the sand,
which serves to hold it well together. When distributed amongst
cultivators, trials of its use, both alone and in company with other
turf-rnaking plants, should be made. It is not as yet to be had for
sale in this country j but I hope some of our nurserymen will intro-
duce it ere long.
FRUIT TREE PROTECTION, CORDONS, &c.
•URING the latter part of April, and after this book had
gone to press, I made an extensive tour through the mid-
land and northern counties, visiting many of the best-
managed gardens, taking particular notice of the state of the garden
fruit crops, and more particularly of the means taken to protect
them from frost.
By this time many fruit-growers must be aware of the disastrous
effects of the spring upon their crops of wall fruit. We have rarely
had a spring so destructive. At first bright and beautiful for many
weeks, it induced the trees to waken out of their wintry sleep before
the accustomed time -, and then, just as pears were fully in bloom,
and apple trees blushing with the unfolded flowers, killing frosts
occurred and destroyed the expanded blooms of the pear, the young
closed buds of the apple, and to a greater extent those of other
fruits. This was the case about London, and also to a considerable
extent in other districts. Never had bloom buds been so abundant.
Some may suppose their apples to be safe, while the flower buds
are in numerous cases killed at the heart, though perfect looking
externally. Such at all events is the case in low-lying situations,
those more or less elevated seeming to escape with slighter injury.
If I had nothing to say of the subject but this, it would simply
be a waste of space to notice it j for the loss of fruit crops in our
gardens is too common an occurrence to demand recording. What
does require notice, and the urgent attention of everybody interested
in the garden culture of fruit trees, is the fact that the rule in
British gardens is not to afford the trees any efficient protection
while they are in a state liable to be injured by frost. I have
recently visited many of the finest and best-managed gardens in
England, and found the best and tenderest of our open-air fruits
without protection in the majority of cases, and very imperfectly
protected in others. Gardens grand in extent and with every
Fruit Tree Protection, Cordons, etc. 283
reasonable means, display their walls without any noticeable coping
to throw off cold rains and sleet, and protect the trees from frost.
In many cases the very imperfect protection of some kind of net-
ting is afforded to the peach trees (which do not require it so badly
as other kinds), and all the rest are " left to nature" with a vengeance.
In the case of ordinary standard or orchard trees, things must
be left to take their chance $ but it is little less than disgraceful
that this should be the rule with trees for which we go to consider-
able expense to build walls and pay constant attention to. By plant-
ing orchards with crops beneath the trees, as the London market-
gardeners do, we insure a crop in any case j and paying but
little or no attention to the trees when failure does occur, the loss
is not great. Not so with the wall and garden trees. Their cul-
ture is little better than an expensive delusion until we take care to
protect them, so that a crop will be secured every year. The pre-
sent system is not only deplorable from the direct loss of fruit that
it occasions, but also from the fact that the trees, having nothing
to bear during a season when the blossoms are destroyed, make
wood so gross and infertile, that, even if the following spring prove
a favourable one, there may be a poor crop or none at all from want
of fruit buds. Walls are expensive) wall trees, if properly managed,
are expensive too, for they, unlike an orchard tree, require skilled
attention, and a great deal of it 5 and they can only pay by taking
care to guard the fruit buds from death by frost. There is no finer
climate than ours for the perfecting of wall fruit ; the difficulty
presented is to get the fruit well set and out of danger of frost. We
have good seasons and bad seasons — years in which the blossom
opens early and is killed, years in which it opens late and is killed
also, and others in which some kinds of fruit escape without injury 5
but the right way to avert loss of crops is to give up all guessing
about good or bad seasons, realize that we are always liable to such
a destructive spring as the present, and make such arrangements as
will render ourselves quite fearless of the like.
The destruction is apparent in the best-managed gardens as well
as the worst. The following extracts from the report of the able
284 Fruit Tree Protection, Cordons, etc.
superintendent of the Chiswick Garden, Mr. A. F. Barren, pub-
lished in the Gardener s Chronicle of April 18, will explain how
matters stand in the Chiswick Garden : — " I have made a pretty
general examination to-day (April 14) of our fruit prospects, and
have to report as follows :
"Pears. — Bloom very abundant on all varieties. Flowers large
and healthy, but fully two-thirds destroyed by frost on the night of
March 24, when the thermometer fell to 19 degrees. Some of the
earlier varieties on dwarf pyramids and espaliers were then in full
flower, such as Louise Bonne, Doyenne d'Ete, &c. Of these scarcely
a blossom escaped ; others which were then only in bud did not
suffer so severely. This present week is again exceedingly trying
for the blossoms, the latter being much excited by intensely warm
sunshine during the day, with the nightly occurrence of from seven
to eight degrees of frost, and biting easterly winds. Under these
circumstances I find a little more injury done every night. The
relative effects of frost on different varieties, under exactly the
same conditions, are worth notice.
"Apples. — Bloom abundant ; considerably injured when in bud
from the same cause as that which affected pears, especially in the
case of dwarf pyramidal trees. It may be worthy of remark that
apple blossom is much more tender than that of the pear. Apples
in the bud state are just as easily destroyed as full-blown pear
blossom, and both are more tender than peach blossom.
" Plums. — Blossoms abundant j nearly all destroyed on dwarf
trees, and slightly injured on tall standards.
" Cherries. — Bloom abundant 5 greatly injured, especially on
dwarf trees.
(< Peaches promise well : in short they are not at all injured even
where they have been unprotected.
" Apricots very scarce — destroyed by frost.
" It is sad, however, to find our expectations of a bountiful yield
of fruit thus destroyed, while one short month ago they were so
bright."
It will thus be seen that no garden can be in a worse plight for
Fruit Tree Protection, Cordons,, etc. 285
want of protection than that of the Royal Horticultural Society,
which ought to be an example to the country. The wall pears and
other fruits in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society, and in
the majority of gardens, instead of being protected from the frost, are
perhaps more exposed to its influence than the flowers of a standard
tree. The tree allowed to assume its natural shape has its blossoms
arranged in so many ways — some low in the tree and protected by
upper branches, some well exposed to the sun, and others on the late
and shady sidd — that it has a good chance of setting a sufficiency of
fruit. The pear grown against a wall, and equally exposed to the
sun in all its parts, is, on the other hand, induced to expose its
blossoms more at one time j and the spurs projecting beyond the
usually insignificant coping of the wall against which the tree is
placed for heat and protection, it is a mere chance if the blossoms
escape destruction. So it is with other fruits. " Peaches promise
well" at Chiswick and elsewhere — doubtless because the close way
in which the slender shoots of the peach are nailed to the wall
secures it some protection from sleet and frosts, no matter how in-
significant the coping.
Compared to this system of half-doing, that of the London
market-gardeners growing standard trees and cropping all the
ground underneath with bush fruits and vegetables, so as to secure
a crop in any case, is excellent ; arid if they generally took the
trouble to thin the branchlets, so as to obtain larger and more per-
fect fruit, would leave nothing to desire, so far as kinds that grow
well as standards are concerned. Of the present state of wall-fruit
culture in this country, and of the necessity for improvement, there
can be no doubt. The remedies are simple and certain. The
adoption of the wide temporary coping of tarpaulin, nailed over
light frames about eighteen inches wide, described elsewhere in this
book, and which was the best and simplest and neatest of the
various copings I saw in use in France, would alone result in a vast
improvement to our crops of wall fruit. It is so light, so easily
placed, and so effective. Fixed close under whatever permanent
coping the wall may possess, and sloping down with a roof-like
286 Fruit Tree Protection, Cordons, etc.
pitch, all cold, rains, and sleet are thrown effectually off; and it
prevents radiation more effectively than the best protections now in
use, even in gardens where the walls are considered worth the trouble
of protection in spring. It may be fixed so as to be undisturbed by
the highest winds ; and when the trees are out of flower may be
taken away, stored without trouble for another year, and the walls
then exposed to the refreshing and cleansing summer rains. No
permanent coping of like breadth and efficiency is advisable; it
would darken the wall too much, whereas when the temporary
coping is removed every leaf enjoys full light, and the wall may be
perfectly covered from top to bottom with healthy wood.
But to fully compensate us for the trouble of thoroughly protect-
ing walls, a little revolution is necessary in our garden fruit culture.
We must, as elsewhere pointed out in this book,, crop the borders
in front of walls with fruit trees trained on the low and simple
cordon principle. By doing so we shall at once dispose of the
much-debated question of what is best to do with the fruit borders,
and at the same time collect such a valuable lot of fruit trees im-
mediately in front of each wall, as would render it both convenient
and highly desirable to protect efficiently both walls and borders,
and by the same means. A very narrow border would accommo-
date four or six lines of apples or pears trained on the cordon prin-
ciple, and an extension of the cheap canvas protection given to the wall
would suffice to cover them also. Where the borders were wide a
greater number could, of course, be planted in parallel lines, and
some simple mechanical arrangement made, whereby both wall and
border might be covered.
In the report from Chiswick Mr. Barren remarks, that " a spring
like this would be fatal to low cordons." This, coming from such
a quarter, seems to invite a word of reply from me. Considering
that nearly everything else was killed, it was fair to assume that the
"low cordons" would be likely to share the lamentable fate of the
general stock, even though there is not one in the Chiswick garden.
I have frequently seen low cordons, properly managed, bear abun-
dantly in districts of France as much exposed to spring frosts as the
Fruit Tree Protection, Cordons, etc. 28;
neighbourhood of London. Low cordons might lose their crop
such a season as the present, but what variety of fruit tree can be
so easily protected if arranged as I have elsewhere in this book de-
scribed— the walls and borders both perfectly covered and the whole
thoroughly protected ? By proper management the severest spring
we experience could not injure such cordons j and the only thing
that their extensive planting would prove fatal to would be reports
such as those that are now too common, and of which the above is
a type. Even Chiswick, much as it suffers during such frosts as
the present, could not fail to succeed with the cordons arranged as
proposed. I will venture respectfully to suggest to the Council
that by planting its fruit borders with cordons, and thoroughly pro-
tecting all, they would by the certain and superior crops soon obtain
a considerable return, and at the same time teach the public a useful
practical lesson.
Whether the border is covered with cordons or not — rising but
little above the ground, they cannot shade the wall — the lower parts
of the walls, if not perfectly covered with the larger trees, should
be covered with cordons as soon as possible, and from them alone may
be gathered, in many places where there is bare wall space, as much
fine fruit as would pay for the expense of protection. The only
objection urged against my proposal, that the bare lower portions
of our garden walls, &c., should be covered with the finer apples and
pears, worked on the Paradise and Quince stocks, was that if the
walls were properly and sufficiently clothed with the trees to which
they are devoted, there would be no. room for the cordons. A
likely objection enough, if walls were often to be seen in such a
state. I have recently noticed miles of garden wall quite bare at the
bottom which is capable of affording quantities of as Jine fruit as it is
possible to grow. And if I noticed this in a tour through the richest
and best gardens in England, how much more so does it apply to
the thousands of gardens in these islands that do not receive regular
and skilled attention ! However, my proposal for rendering this
waste space highly profitable is certain to be universally accepted
ere long j and I was agreeably surprised to find it already under trial
2 88 Fruit Tree Protection, Cordons, etc.
on a large scale in the gardens at Welbeck, the magnificent, seat of
the Duke of Portland. Mr. Tillery, the able gardener, has every
confidence in its success, and his little Calville Blanche apples are
in full bloom, though not planted many weeks. Thus my hope that
we shall soon furnish our own supply of this fine kind will probably
be fulfilled sooner than expected. Nothing can be more easily esta-
blished or more pleasant to attend to than these little trees of choice
apples and pears on the bottoms of low walls, walls of houses, pits,
&c., with a sunny exposure. And though the idea of parallel lines
of neatly furnished cordons stretching along the fruit borders may
not seem practical to all, the day is not far distant when its real
advantages will be clear to every cultivator of our choicer hardy
fruits.
INDEX.
A CACIA LOPHANTA, 8.
Acanthus latifolius, 33.
Acclimatization Society, garden of, 89.
Andropogon squarrosum, 35.
Anthriscus fumarioides, 60.
Apple, the, trained as a cordon, 138.
Apples, selection of, for cordons, 147.
Aralia edulis, 35.
„ japonica, 35.
„ papyrifera, 6.
„ Sieboldi, 36.
Arundo conspicua, 38.
„ Donax, 36.
„ „ versicolor, 37.
Asparagus culture in France, 224.
Asphalte roads and footways, 103.
Athamanta Matthioli, 61.
TgAMBUSAS, the hardy species, 38.
Bedding plants, &c., houses for at
La Muette, 67.
Bird-feeding in the Tuileries' gardens, 80.
Bois de Boulogne, the, 87.
OALADIUM ESCULENTUM, 8.
** Calville Blanche apple, 140.
Canna nigricans, 1 1.
Cannas, the, 10.
„ how to arrange, n — 12.
Castor-oil plant, 19.
Cemeteries, 106.
Chairs, garden, 269.
Chamaerops excelsa, 40.
Champs Elyse'es, &c., gardens of, 81.
Cloche, the, 250.
Columnar training of the pear-tree, 178.
Coping for walls, 263.
Cordon, definition of, 137.
„ the simple, 138.
„ bilateral, 139.
Cordons should be planted on our fruit-
borders, 141.
„ planting, training of, &c., 148.
Cordon, the pear as a, 151.
„ system of training fruit-trees,
the, 136.
Crambe cordifolia, 42.
„ juncea, 42.
Cucumber, the perennial, 42.
Cucumis perennis, 42.
Cuscutas, culture of, 100.
£)ATISCA CANNABINA, 42.
Dracaenas, the, 13.
gCHEVERIA METALLICA, 13.
Edgings for parks, public gardens,
drives, &c., 252.
Elymus arenarius, 43.
Erianthus Ravennae, 43.
Espalier trees, improved mode of making
trellises for, 259.
„ „ protection for, 262.
pERDINANDA EMINENS, 14.
Ferulas, the, 43.
Ficus elastica, 14.
Fig culture and protection, 204.
Flax, New Zealand, 18.
Floral decoration of apartments in
Paris, no.
Frames for forcing, 266.
Fruit shelves, improved, 278.
„ tree protection, cordons, &c., 282.
HARDEN chairs, 268.
labels, 268.
Gardens and parks, public, of Paris, 75.
Garden walls, a new and cheap method
of making, 207.
290
Index.
Gladiolus, arrangement of, 131.
„ culture at Fontainebleau, 125.
„ selection of, 130.
Glazing glass-houses, 267.
Grin, M., his system of pinching the
peach, 185.
Gynerium argenteum, 44.
J-JARDY fern-like plants for the
flower garden, 59.
Hardy plants of fine habit that may be
raised from seed, 63.
Helianthus orgyalis, 46.
Herbaceous plants, hardy, worthy of
use in flower garden or pleasure
ground, 62.
Hibiscus roseus, 47.
Horticultural implements, appliances,
&c., 250.
[IMPROVEMENTS, suggestions to-
wards, 183.
India-rubber plant, 14.
Isopyrum thalictroides, 60.
Ivy and its uses in Parisian gardens, 120.
„ border, to make, 122.
J
ARDIN des Plantes, the, 96.
T ABELS, garden, 268.
~* La Muette, 64.
Lawn plant, a new, 280.
Le jardin fleuristede la Ville de Paris, 64.
Louvre, gardens of, 76.
Luxembourg, garden of the, 91.
TyfACLEAYA CORDATA, 47.
Mole cricket, destruction of, 127.
Mats for covering pits, frames, &c.,
264.
Melianthus major, 48.
Meum adonidifolium, 61.
Molopospermum cic atari urn, 49.
Montreuil, peach growing at, 187.
Musaensete, 15.
Mushrrx>m culture, 243.
TSJICOTIANA MACROPHYLLA,
49-
Numeroteur, the, 270.
QLEANDER, culture of, 220.
Orange, culture of. By H. Jamam,
217.
Orobanche, culture of, 100.
pALMETTE VERRIER, the, 161.
„ how to form, 163.
Palms suited for subtropical garden-
ing, 20.
Panicum bulbosum, 49.
„ virgatum, 1 1.
Pare des Buttes-Chaumont, 94.
„ Monceau, the, 84.
Peach, the, as a cordon, 152.
Pear, „ „ 151.
„ growing, improved trelhs for, 157.
„ „ double „ „ 159.
„ improved mode of growing as an
espalier, 155.
„ trees, hedges of, 182.
Pendulous training, 179.
Peucedanum longifolium, 61.
„ involucratum, 61.
„ Petteri, 61.
Phormium tenax, 18.
Phytolacca decandra, 50.
Pits and frames, mats for covering, 264.
Plants used for room and window deco-
ration in Paris, 116.
Polygonum cuspidatum, 51.
Polymnia grandis, 16.
„ maculata, 17.
„ pyramidalis, 17.
Preserving grapes through winter and
spring, 193.
„ the peach, 203.
Propagating at La Muette, 73.
Pyramidal training, 167.
Pyrethrum achillaefolium, 61.
„ tanacetiodes, 61.
J^AIDISSEUR, the, 275.
Railway embankments, fruit-grow-
ing on, 179.
Rhus glabra laciniata, 5r.
Ricinus communis, 19.
Road-making, &c., 103.
Rose culture in pots, note on, 134.
Roses, exhibition of, at Brie Comte
Robert, 133.
Rose-showing in France, 133.
Index.
291
gALAD CULTURE, &c., 237.
Seaforthia elegans, 20.
Secateur, the, 273.
Sedum spectabile, 53.
„ Falarium, 53.
Sessile elatum, 61.
„ globiferum, 61.
„ gracile, 61.
Silaus tenuifolius, 61.
Solanums, the, 21.
Stocks to use for cordons, 147*
Subtropical gardening, hardy plants
for, 31.
» » i.
„ what it has taught us, 2.
„ how far it is practicable
both in the colder and warmer
parts of this country, 3.
Subtropical plants, a select list of 100
kinds, 25.
„ „ 24 kinds, 29.
„ „ that may be raised
from seed, 29.
Sweet potato, culture of, 99.
yANACETUM ELEGANS, 61.
Thalictrum fcetidum, 60.
„ minus, 59.
Trees in Parisian avenues and boule-
vards, 101.
Trellises for espalier trees, 259.
Trellising for young trees in nurseries,
260.
„ „ the peach as an oblique
cordon against walls, 261.
Tritomas, the, 53.
Trucks for tubs or large pots, 270.
Tuileries, gardens of, 79.
JJHDEA BIPINNATIFIDA, 23.
yERBESINA GIGANTEA, 24.
Verbascum vernale, 57.
, coping for, 263.
Wall fruit, frequent destruction of,
under the present system, 783.
Watering in Parisian parks, gardens,
&c., 25.
White lilac, forcing of.
Wigandia macrophylla, 25.
„ caracasana, 25.
„ urens.
„ Vigieri.
Wire, attaching to garden walls, 257.
„ French mode of attaching it to
garden walls, 257.
YUCCAS,the,s7.
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Nursery Songs.
Edith and Milly's Housekeeping.
The Life of a Doll.
John Gilpin.
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THE KEEPSAKE,
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Sing a Song of Sixpence.
The Sea Side.
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Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
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Frisky , the Squirrel.
Pussy's London Life.
Hector, the Dog.
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Joseph and his Brethren. I The bonders of Providence.
The Story of King David. \ The Proverbs of Solomon.
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THE MILESTONES OF LIFE. By the Rev. A. F.
THOMSON, B.A. A Book of Thoughtful Essays for Young Men.
SWEET COUNSEL. By SARAH TYTLER, Author of
" Papers for Thoughtful Girls."
SONGS: SACRED AND DEVOTIONAL. Selected
(by permission) and edited by J. E. CARPENTER.
GOLDEN LEASES FROM AMERICAN POETS.
With a Preface by the late ALEXANDER SMITH.
THE LAUREL AND THE LYRE. A Selection of
Standard Poetry. By the late ALARIC A. WATTS.
THE CHARMS OF ELOCUTION. By GEORGE
VASEY. With steel Portrait.
WARNE'S POPULAR NURSERY BOOKS.
THE BOOK OF NURSERr TALES. Fully Illus-
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In crown 8vo, cloth gilt, price %s. 6d. ; or with gilt edges, 4*.
OUR FAVOURITE NURSERr RHYMES. With
upwards of One Hundred Illustrations, by A. W. BAYES, T.
DALZIEL, and J. B. ZWECKER. Engraved by the BROTHERS
DALZIEL. In small 410, cloth gilt, %s. 6d. ; or with the Plates
fully Coloured, $j.
AUNT FRIENDLY^ GIFT. With Seventy-two
pages of original Illustrations, printed in Colours, by EDMUND
EVANS and DALZIELS. In imperial i6mo, cloth gilt, price $s. 6d.
NURSERr RHYMES, TALES, AND JINGLES.
With Woodcuts by COPE, DYCE, HORSLEY, &c. In imperial i6mo,
boards, price 2s. 6d. ; or cloth, gilt edges, 3*. 6d.
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ELLEN MONTGOMERY'S BOOK-SHELF.
By the Authors of "The Wide, Wide World," " The Golden Ladder."
With Illustrations by J. D. WATSON, £c., printed in Colours.
QUEECHY. By the Author of " The Wide, Wide World,"
THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD.
GOLDEN LADDER.
MELBOURNE HOUSE.
THE OLD HELMET.
By Miss WETHERELL.
WALKS FROM EDEN.
THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.
NETTIE'S MISSION. By ALICE GRAY.
THE THREE LITTLE SPADES. ) By the Author of
THE STAR OUT OF JACOB. ) " The Golden Ladder."
DERRY. A Tale of the Revolution. By CHARLOTTE
ELIZABETH.
DAISY. A Sequel to " Melbourne House."
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THE BOYS OF HOLY WRIT, AND BIBLE NAR-
RATIVES.
THE FEMALE CHARACTERS OF HOLY WRIT.
TALES AND STORIES. By Miss MITFORD.
BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. Complete Edition.
BUNYAN'S HOLY WAR. Complete Edition.
ROBINSON CRUSOE. By DANIEL DEFOE. \ with
THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. fn&J^
WILLIS THE PILOT. ) Ham.
Bedford Street, Covent Garden.
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THE ENCOMBE STORIES; or, Tales for Sunday Read-
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STORIES OF OLD. Bible Narratives for Young Children \
—Old and New Testament. By CAROLINE HADLEY.
ZEN OBI A, QUEEN OF PALMYRA. By the Rev.
WILLIAM WARE.
ROME AND THE EARLY CHRISTIANS. Ditto.
RALPH LUTTRELL. A Book for Boys. By H.
ST. JOHN CORBET.
THE TREASURES OF THE EARTH; or, Mines,
Minerals, and Metals. By WILLIAM JONES. With original <
Illustrations by COOPER.
BY CATHERINE D. BELL (COUSIN KATE).
In small crown 8vo, with original Illustrations, cloth, New Style, gilt.
ROSA'S WISH, and How She Attained It.
MARGARET CECIL; or, I Can because I Ought.
HORACE AND MAY; or, Unconscious Influence.
ELLA AND MARIAN; or, Rest and Unrest.
HOME SUNSHINE; or, The Gordons.
THE GRAHAMS; or, Home Life.
KENNETH AND HUGH; or, Self-Mastery.
HOPE CAMPBELL; or, Know Thyself.
AUNT AIL IE ; or, Patience and its Reward.
Bedford Street, Covent Garden.
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