Going on at this rate, a man might spend | this mimickry is still more strongly marked. the morn of his life in arriving at the pres- Besides the butterfly-plant already alluded ent state of botanical science, and the rest to, there is the dove-plant, and a host be of his days in running after its novelties sides, so like to other things than flowers, and changes. We are only too glad when that they seem to have undergone a metapublic sanction triumphs over individual morphosis under the magic wand of some whim, and, as in the cases of Georgina transforming power. proposed for Dahlia, and Chryseis for Eschscholtzia, resists the attempted change. Remembering the countries from which most of them come-the dank jungles of One class of plants, which, though it has Hindoostan-the fathomless woods of Mexlately become most fashionable and culti- ico-the unapproachable valleys of Chinavated by an almost separate clique of nur- one might almost fancy them the remains sery-men and amateurs, cannot yet be said of the magic influence which tradition af to rank with florists' flowers, is that of the firms of old to have reigned in those wild Orchidaceæ, trivially known, when first retreats and that, while the diamond palaintroduced, by the name of air-plants. It ces of Sarmacand, and the boundless cities is scarcely more than ten years ago that of Guatemala, and the colossal temples of any particular attention was bestowed upon Elephanta, have left but a ruin or a name, this interesting tribe, and there are now these fairy creations of gnomes and sprites, more genera cultivated than there were and afreets, and jinns (if so we must call then species known. Among all the curi- them), being traced on the more imperishosities of botany there is nothing more sin- able material of Nature herself, have been gular-we had almost said mysterious handed down to us as the last vestiges of a than the character, or, to speak more tech- dynasty older and more powerful than Eunically, the habit' of this extraordinary ropean man. It is impossible to view a coltribe. The sensation which the first exhi- lection of these magic-looking plants in bition of the butterfly-plant (Oncidium flower without being carried back to the papilio) produced at the Chiswick Gardens visions of the Arabian Nights-not indeed must still be remembered by many of our wandering in disguise through the streets readers, and so wonderful is the resem- of Bagdad with Haroun and his vizier (we blance of the vegetable to the insect speci- beg pardon-wezeer), but entering with men, floating upon its gossamer-stalk, that some adventurous prince the spell-bound even now we can hardly fancy it otherwise palace of some sleeping beauty, or descendthan a living creature, were it not even stilling with Aladdin into the delicious subtermore like some exquisite production of ranean gardens of fruits, and jewels, and fanciful art. Their manner of growth dis- flowers. tinct from, though so apparently like, our native misletoe, and other parasitical plants -generally reversing the common order of nature, and throwing summersets with their heels upward and head downwardone specimen actually sending its roots into the air, and burying its flowers in the soil, living almost entirely on atmospheric moisture, the blossoms in some species sustained by so slender a thread that they seem to float unsupported in the air,-all these things, combined with the most exquisite contrast of the rarest and most delicate colours in their flowers, are not more extraordinary characteristics of their tribe than is the circumstance that in nearly every variety there exists a remarkable resemblance to some work either of animate nature or of art. Common observation of the pretty specimens of this genus in our own woods and fields has marked this in the names given to the fly, the bee, and the spider-orchis; but in the exotic orchises These British species are now transferred by botanists to the genus Ophrys, To pass from the romantic to the useful, we cannot do a kinder deed to our marufacturers than to turn their attention to the splendid works of Mr. Bateman and Dr. Lindley, dedicated to this class of plants. It is well known how contemporaneous was the cultivation of flowers and manufactures in some of our large cities-(at Norwich, for instance, where the taste yet survives, and where there is a record of a flower-show being held so early as 1687)—the flowers which the foreign artisans brought over with them suggesting at the same time thoughts of years gone by and designs for the work of the hour. Our new schools of design might literally take a leaf—and a flower-out of the books we have mentioned, and improve our patterns in every department of art by studying examples of such exquisite beauty, variety and novelty of form and colour as the tribe of orchideous plants affords. Another class of plants, very different would call the attention of designers, is that from that just mentioned, to which we liant of the Ferns. Though too commonly neglect- | having deposited their precious contents on ed by the generality, botanists have long our shores, return again by the same ship turned their attention towards this exten- filled with the common flowers of England, sive and elegant class. These humble denizens of earth can boast their enthusiasts and which our brethren in the East affectionate‹ That dwell beside our paths and homes,' monographists, as much as the pansy or the rose: nor has the exquisite tracery of their y value by association above all the brilfronds escaped the notice of the artist and of their sunny sky. garlands the wayfarer. But few, perhaps, even of This interchange of sweets was a few those who have delighted to watch the cro- and spray, as is well known, being most inyears ago almost unattainable, the sea-air zier-like germ of the bracken bursting from the ground in spring, and the rich um-effects are now completely avoided by these jurious to every kind of plant; but their evil ber of its maturity among the green gorse air-tight cases, which admit no exterior inof autumn, are aware that Britain can pro- fluence but that of light. Without entering duce at least thirty-six distinct species of into any deep physiological explanation, it its own, with a still greater number of sub-into ordinate varieties; these, too, constituting animal life, does not exhaust the nutritive may be enough to say that vegetable, unlike but a very small fraction of the 1508 spe- properties of air by repeated inhaling and cies which Sadler enumerates in his general exhaustion; so that these plants aided percatalogue. Mr. Newman, in his recent work, has figured more than eighty varie-haps by the perfect stillness of the confined ties, the natural growth of our own isles alone, and mentioned fourteen distinct species found in one chasm at Ponterwyd! Though some of the tail-vignettes of his volume fail in representing-as how could it be otherwise the natural abandon and elegance of this most graceful of all plants, we would still recommend the great variety and beauty of his larger illustrations as much to the artist and manufacturer, and embellisher, as to the fern-collector himself. Our notice of ferns might seem rather foreign to the subject of ornamental gardening (though we shall have something to say of a fernery bye and bye,) were it not for the opportunity it affords us of introducing, probably for the first time to many of our readers, a botanical experiment, which, though for some years past partially successful, has but lately been brought to very great perfection for the purposes both of use and ornament. We allude to the mode of conveying and growing plants in glasscases hermetically sealed from all communication with the outer air. There are few ships that now arrive from the East Indies without carrying on deck several cases of this description, belonging to one or other of our chief nurserymen, filled with orchideous plants and other new and tender varieties from the East, which formerly baffled the utmost care to land them here in a healthy state. These cases frequently furnished by the extreme liberality of Dr. Wallich, the enterprising and scientific director of the Hon. Company's gardens in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, form on shipboard a source of great interest to the passengers of a four-months' voyage, and, after atmosphere, so favourable to all vegetation, continue to exist, breathing, if we may so say, the same air, so long as there is moisnight a slight dew on the glass, which they ture enough to allow them to deposit every imbibe again during the day. The soil is moistened in the first instance, but on no account is any further water or air admitted. The strangers which we have seen thus transmitted, being chiefly very small portions of succulents and epiphytes, though healthy, have shown no inclination to flourish or blossom in their confinement; but it must be remembered that the temperature on the deck of a ship must be very much lower than what this tribe requires, and the quantity of wood-work which the case requires to stand the roughnesses of the voyage, greatly impedes the transmission of light. As soon as the slips are placed in the genial temperature of the orchideous house, they speedily shoot out into health and beauty. But while this mode of conveyance answers the purposes of science, a much more beautiful adaptation of the same principle is contrived for the bed-room garden of the invalid. Who is there that has not some friend or other confined by chronic disease or lingering decline to a single chamber ?— ' one, we will suppose, who a short while ago was among the gayest and the most admired of a large and happy circle, now through sickness dependent, after her One staff and stay, for her minor comforts and amusements on the angel visits of a few kind friends, a little worsted-work, or a new Quarterly, and in the absence or dulness of these, happy in the possession of some fresh-gathered flower, and in watering and tending a few pots of favourite plants, which are to her as friends, and whose flourishing progress under her tender care offers a melancholy but instructive contrast to her own decaying strength. Some mild autumn-evening her physician makes a later visit than usual-the room is faint from the exhalations of the flowers-the patient is not so well to-day-he wonders that he never noticed that mignionette and those geraniums before, or he never should have allowed them to remain so long-some weighty words on oxygen and hydrogen are spoken-her poor pets are banished for ever at the word of the man of science, and the most innocent and unfailing of her little interests is at an end. By the next morning the flowers are gone, but the patient is no better; there is less cheerfulness than usual; there is a listless wandering of the eyes after something that is not there; and the good man is too much of a philosopher not to know how the working of the mind will the body, and too much of a Christian not to prevent the rising evil if he can; he hears with a smile her expression of regret for her long-cherished favourites, but he says not a word. In the evening a largish box arrives directed to the fair patient, and superscribed, 'Keep this side upwards---with care.' There is more than the common interest of box-opening in the sick chamber. After a little tender hammering and tiresome knot-loosening, Thompson has removed the lid ;----and there lies a large oval bell-glass fixed down to a stand of ebony, some moist sand at the bottom, and here and there over the whole surface, some tiny ferns are just pushing their curious little fronds into life, and already promise, from their fresh and healthy appearance, to supply in their growth and increase all the beauty and interest of the discarded flowers, without their injurious effects. It act upon is so. These delicate exotics, for such they are, closely sealed down in an air-tight world of their own, flourish with amazing rapidity, and in time produce seeds which provide a generation to succeed them. Every day witnessing some change, keeps the mind continually interested in their progress, and their very restriction from the open air, while it renders the chamber wholesome to the invalid, provides at the same time an undisturbed atmosphere more suited to the development of their own tender frames. We need scarcely add, that the doctor the next morning finds the wonted cheerful smile restored, and though recovery may be beyond the skill, as it is ὀμμάτων δ' ἐν ἀχηνίαις ἔβρει πᾶσ ̓ ἀφροδίτα,ÆscH. Agam. 408. beyond the ken, of man, he at least has the satisfaction of knowing that he has lightened a heart in affliction and gained the gratitude of a humble spirit, in restoring, without the poison, a pleasure that was lost. For more minute particulars of the management of these chamber-gardens, we must refer our readers to page xviii. of Mr. Newman's Introduction, where also they will find described the ingenious experiments of Mr. Ward, of Wellclose Square,* of the same kind, but on a much larger scale; and if delicate health restricts any friend of theirs to the confinement of a close apartment, we recommend to them the considerate kindness of our good physicians, and to 'go and do likewise.' Gardening, as well as Literature, has its curiosities,' and a volume might be filled with them. How wonderful, for instance, the sensitive plant which shrinks from the hand of man,-the ice-plant that almost cools one by looking at it,-the pitcherplant with its welcome draught,-the hairtrigger of the stylidium,-and, most singular of all, the carnivorous 'Venus' fly-trap' (Dionœa muscipula)— Only think of a vegetable being carnivorous !'which is said to bait its prickles with something which attracts the flies, upon whom it then closes, and whose decay is supposed to afford food for the plant. Disease is turned into beauty in the common and crested moss-rose, and a lusus naturæ reproduced in the hen-and-chicken daisy. There are phosphorescent plants, the fireflies and glow-worms of the vegetable kingdom. There are the microscopic lichens and mosses; and there is the Rafflesia Arnoldi, each of whose petals is a foot long, its nectary a foot in diameter, and deep enough to contain three gallons, and weighing fifteen pounds! What mimickry is there in the orchisses, and the hare's-foot fern, and the Tartarian lamb (Polypodium Baronyetz!) What shall we say to Ge : rarde's Barnacle-tree, whereon do grow certaine shells of a white colour tending to russet, wherein are contained little living creatures which shells in time of maturity do open, and out of them grow those little living things, which falling into the water do become fowles, which we call Barnacles?' What monsters (such at least they are called by botanists) has art produced in doubling flowers, in dwarfing, and hybridizing;-painting the lily,'-for there are pink (1) lilies of the valley, and pink violets, and yellow roses, and blue hydrangeas; and many are now seeking that philosopher's stone of gardening,' the blue dahlia -a useless search, if it be true that there is no instance of a yellow and a blue variety in the same species. Foreigners turn to good account this foolish rage of ours for everything novel and monstrous and unnatural, more worthy of Japan and China than of England, by imposing upon the credulous seeds and cuttings of yellow moss-roses, and scarlet laburnums, and fragrant pæonies, and such like. upon Strange things too have been attempted in garden ornaments. We have spoken of water-works, like the copper tree at Chatsworth, to drench the unwary; and the Chinese have, in the middle of their lawns, ponds covered with some water-weed that looks like grass, so that a stranger is plunged in over head and ears while he thinks he is setting his foot the turf. In the ducal gardens at Saxe-Gotha is a ruined castle, which was built complete, and then ruined exprès by a few sharp rounds of artillery! Stanislaus, in the grounds of Lazienki, had a broad walk flanked by pedestals upon which living figures, dressed or undressed 'after the manner of the antients,' were placed on great occasions. The floating gardens, or Chinampas, of Mexico, are mentioned both by Clavigero and Humboldt. They are formed on wicker-work, and when a proprietor wishes for a little change, or to rid himself of a troublesome neighbour, he has only to set his paddles at work, or lug out his towing-rope, and betake himself to some more agreeable part of the lake. We wonder that the barbaric magnificence which piled up mimic pyramids, and Chinese watch-towers, and mock Stonehenges, never bethought itself of imi tating these poetical Chinampas. It was. one of Napoleon's bubble schemes to cover in the gardens of the Tuileries with glass— those gardens which were turned into potato-ground during the Revolution, though the agent funnily complains that the Directory never paid him for the sets! One of the most successful pieces of magnificent gardening is the new conservatory at Chatsworth, with a carriage-drive through the centre, infinitely more perfect, though we suppose not so extensive as the covered winter-garden at Potemkin's palace of Taurida, near St. Petersburgh, which is a semicircular conservatory described as attached to the hall of the palace, wherein 'the walks wander amidst flowery hedges, and fruit-bearing shrubs, winding over little hills,'-in fact a complete garden, artificially heated, and adorned with the usual When embellishments of busts and vases. this mighty man in his travels halted, if only for a day, his travelling pavilion was erected, and surrounded by a garden à l'Anglaise!' composed of trees and shrubs, and divided by gravel walks, and ornamented with seats and statues, all carried forward We ought in fairness with the cavalcade! to our readers to add that Sir John Carr, notorious by another less honourable prænomen, is the authority for this; though, indeed, his statement is authenticated by Mr. Loudon (Encyc. Gard., sect. 842.) We have heard of the effect of length being given to an avenue by planting the more distant trees nearer and nearer together; among gardening crotchets we have never yet seen a children's garden as we think it might be made---beds, seats, arbours, mosshouse, all in miniature, with dwarf shrubs and fairy roses, and other flowers of only the smallest kind; or it might be laid out on turf, to suit the intellectual spirit of the age, like a map of the two hemispheres. but It is time that we pass to that portion of our subject which is generally considered under the peculiar patronage of the ladies. Evelyn, a name never to be mentioned by gardeners without reverence, says somewhere, in describing an English place which he had visited, 'My lady skilled in the flowery part; my lord in diligence of planting;' and this is a division of country labour which almost universal consent and practice have sanctioned. The gardens at Wimbledon House and Ealing Park (we dare not trust ourselves to take a wider view, or we know not where to stop) are alone enough to show what the knowledge and taste of our country women can achieve in their own department; and with the assistance of Mrs. Loudon, the fair posses sors of the smallest plot of garden-ground on a smaller scale: it is much more useful may now emulate on an humbler scale these splendid examples. than a wheelbarrow for carrying away cuttings, dead leaves, and rubbish of all kinds. There are in this volume many excellent general directions for the ordinary garden labours, some of which we shall notice, interweaving them with further observations of our own. In her Gardening for Ladies,' Mrs. Loudon, indeed, initiates them far beyond the mere culture of flowers, and those lighter labours which have usually been assigned to the amateur, She enters into practical details in real good earnest, gives Watering is the mainstay of horticuldirections to her lady-gardeners to dig and ture in hot countries. When King Solomanure their own parterres- -on this latter mon, in the vanity of his mind, made him subject there is no mincing of the matter-gardens and orchards,' he made him also and calls a spade a spade. Perhaps she satis-pools of water to water therewith the fies herself that, if not a feminine, this has wood that bringeth forth trees;' and the at least been a royal pastime, and so throws prophets frequently compare the spiritual in the weight of King Laertes in Homer prosperity of the soul to a watered garto balance the scale. But really, what den.' It is with us also a most necessary with our nitrate of soda, bone-dust, gypsum, operation, but very little understood. Most guano, all our new patent pocket-manures, young gardeners conceive that the water portable, compressed, crystalline, liquid, for their plants cannot be too fresh and desiccated, disinfected, and the rest of them, cold; and many a pail of water that has we are by no means sure that this most ne- stood in the sun is thrown away in order cessary but rather disagreeable portion of to bring one fresh from the ambrosial horticulture may not soon be performed by fount.' A greater mistake could not be the same delicate nerves that have hitherto made. Rain-water is best of all; and dirty fainted at the mention of it. and stagnant water, and of a high temperature-anything is better than cold springwater. Mrs. Loudon recommends pumpwater to be exposed in open tubs before it is used, and to be stirred about to impregnate it with air; perhaps the addition of liquid manure or any other extraneous matter would be useful. Those who have found how little service their continual watering has done to their plants in a dry summer would do well to attend to these simple rules. Ten years ago, when our authoress married Mr. Loudon, 'it was impossible,' she says, 'to imagine any person more completely ignorant of everything relating to plants and gardening' than herself. She has been certainly an apt scholar, and no expert reviewer can doubt there is some truth in her remark that her very recent ignorance makes her a better instructor of beginners, from the recollection of her own wants in a similar situation. One wrinkle of hers we recommend strongly to our fair readers, the gardening gauntlet,† described and pictured in page 10. We have seen this in use, and can assure them that it is far from an inelegant, and certainly a most comfortable assistant in all the operations of the garden. Let us also add a contrivance of our own, a close-woven wickerbasket, on two very low wheels, similar to those used at the Euston Square and most railway stations for moving luggage, only Lawns and gravel-walks, the pride of English gardens, can hardly have too much care bestowed upon them. Oftentimes more of the beauty of a garden depends on the neatness with which these are kept than even on the flowers themselves. Great attention should be paid to the kinds of grass seeds which are sown for new lawns. The horticultural seedsmen have selections made for this purpose. We must refer our readers to Mrs. Loudon's 9th chapter; but let them be sure not to omit the sweet* According to Cicero, De Sen. c. 15. Homerus scented spring-grass (Anthoxanthum odoraLaertem lenientem desiderium, quod capiebat e filio, tum), which gives its delicious fragrance to colentem agrum, et eum stercorantem facit.' new-made hay. Lime-water will get rid moriæ lapsu,' say the critics, the passage in Odys. w. 226, not bearing out this meaning. But in line of worms when they infest the lawn in 241 of the same book, the appexixave may imply great quantities; but perhaps it is as well the renewal as well as the loosening of the soil. We not to destroy them altogether. Most garshould venture to translate it by the word 'mulch-deners strive to eradicate the moss from ing.' Here, again, our old friend Laertes meets us. their grass it seems to us that it should Truly there is nothing new under the sun. He had rather be encouraged: it renders the lawn his gardening gloves before Miss Perry of Stroud, much more soft to the foot, prevents its becelebrated by Mrs. Loudon as the inventor of in hot weather, and saves ing dried up much labour in mowing. The most per them : Χειρίδας τ' ἐπὶ χερσὶ, βάτων ἕνεκα - Ο4. ω. 229. 16 VOL. LXX. 'Me |