nor do they often think of putting their shoulders to the wheel to try to improve the bad situation, or of opening their eyes a little earlier of a morning to try to assist nature at the supposed unkind time of the season. A man may make the most perfect preparation imaginable in his own mind, and then by misapplication be completely deceived; particularly if he does no more to it himself than making the preparation, trusting to other people much; who if they are ever so good and careful, if they do not happen to see the nature of what they are doing, often commit sad errors. Some men appear to follow a business for years without giving their proceedings a candid consideration; but sow when it is spring, and gather when it is autumn, because they observe others do the same, or that their grandfather did the same. However, the time will come when this mode of doing business will not do.

It is pretended by many growers that ericas are a most difficult tribe of plants to manage, in respect to watering; but, if they are potted in coarse soil with plenty of stones, and well drained, using some charcoal over the crocks and a few knobs of charcoal amongst the soil, taking care to have all sweet and wholesome, there is no fear of the plants doing well.

I am fond of a good span-roofed house for heaths, opening on both sides at the ends, and the top lights movable, so that.the house can have abundance of air, which may be regulated according to the kind of weather, &c. A house of this description can be aired suitably at all seasons.

Cutting down old naked plants I practise at any time in the season, as I observe any variety requires it. The different varieties making their growth at different seasons is my reason for so doing. The best time is when they are about commencing to make their young wood; and I take care to leave one living branch on the plant, as I find, by cutting down into the old naked wood, and not leaving any living wood, sometimes they will not break. If a plant is properly managed from the first and kept topped, it never requires cutting down.

In commencing tying and training the tall naked ericas, I got some neat stakes made out of double laths and painted them green; and, with some small twine painted and green thread, I brought the heads of the plants down, and trained them round five or six of these small stakes, which was the means of their making generally plenty of young shoots. The next time of training I got them still lower down. I have of late entirely dispensed with stakes, training them in the following manner. I put from five to ten short green-painted stumps, leaving them about 1 in. above the rim of the pot, and run a fine wire round the whole, by which means the plant can be tied neatly down to any required shape: if neatly done, it is scarcely perceptible, and

there is nothing more to do. When shifting into larger pots, it is only necessary to cut the wire asunder, and place the stakes near the rim of the pot, adding two or three more, joining a piece more wire, and shifting some of the ties a little. It is very quickly done by an active person; and is not only neat, but very durable.

Propagating heaths is much easier and more simply done than most people imagine. Fill the pots half full of crocks, then add a handful of good rich open heath soil, and about 1 in. of pure sand with a small portion of charcoal dust. Take the most healthy cuttings, cut them clean with a sharp knife, clear off a portion of the leaves, and put them in to the depth of a quarter of an inch, covering them down close with a bellglass. Take off the glass every morning, wipe it with a dry cloth, and leave it off for half an hour or so, taking care to water them with a fine-rosed pot often; for I have observed thousands of cuttings put in and lost for the want of sufficient

water.

Heath-growing may be summed up in a few words. Get good, tough, rooty, gritty heath soil, sweet and wholesome, with a portion of pure sand, stones, pebbles, or flints; a good drainage, with a portion of charcoal used in a rough state. The plants should stand in a healthy airy situation, and be watered with pure water; if the water is not pure, put charcoal in it. Keep them at all times and seasons well aired, and syringed often on a fine morning; it is the life and soul of them.

Bicton Gardens, Feb. 13. 1843.

ART. IV. On Laying out and Planting the Lawn, Shrubbery, and Flower-Garden. By the CONDUctor.

(Continued from p. 266.)

THE design fig. 73. is for a flower-garden combining a shrubbery; the plants, in both cases, to be a miscellaneous assemblage planted regularly, according to height, colour, and time of flowering. In the centre is a basin of water with a stone margin and vases at the angles, the entrance to which is through arches of trellis work, covered with hardy herbaceous climbers, such as convolvulus, tropæolum, &c., at a, a, a, a; or a cypress or conical-shaped Juniperus, or Irish yew, may be planted in each of the small squares at the four openings. The beds are not more than 2 ft. wide, in order to admit of only a single row of plants in each; every plant is to be encouraged to form a circular mass of 18 in. in diameter, leaving a separation of 3 in. between plant and plant when full grown, and the same distance between the plants and the grass, so that in fact each plant will be a circle of 18 in. in diameter, standing within a square of 2 ft. on the side. On the beds next the walk the lowest plants, or those which do not rise above 9 in. or 1 ft., are to be planted; on the next the middle-sized plants which do not rise above 2 ft., and on the third bed, plants which grow from 3 ft. to 5 ft. in height. The plants in each bed may be arranged jointly according to the colour of the flowers and the time of flowering as follows:

For the line of beds next the walk, eight white-flowering plants for Fe

Fig. 73. A Flower-Garden surrounded by a Shrubbery.

bruary, March, April, May, June, July, August, and September, planted in succession; next, eight red-flowering plants for the same months; and so on, through blue, yellow purple, orange, and brown, commencing again with white. The line of beds next the walk being completed in this manner, the second line may commence with purple or orange, and the third with brown. As several of the plants in each colour will continue in bloom more than a month, there will never be any colour wanting. In the middle line of beds there will be no plants for February or March, because there are scarcely any plants which rise above a foot that bloom in these months; and in the third line of beds there will be none for February, March, or April, and only the crown imperial for May, because almost all tall-growing plants flower late. The beds for shrubs, which are on the other side of the walk, are to be planted in single rows distributed on the same general principles as the herba

ceous plants. The first row will contain hardy heaths, low vacciniums, and other ericaceous plants, daphnes, &c., which do not rise above 9 in., of which there are upwards of a hundred species and varieties purchasable in the London nurseries.

The outer bed of shrubs should be planted with taller-growing kinds, chiefly showy rhododendrons and azaleas, kalmias, mahonias, &c.

In both the lines of beds of shrubs care should be taken to distribute the evergreens and the variegated-leaved plants with some degree of regularity among the others; and the same care ought to be taken in distributing the herbaceous plants. Among the latter there are certain white-leaved plants, such as cerastium, some varieties of auricula, some species of gnaphalium, &c., which ought to be equally distributed : and the same care ought to be had with respect to glaucous and grass-leaved plants, such as the garden pink; and evergreen plants, such as the sweetwilliam, the wallflower, &c.

In planting such a garden, whether with flowers or shrubs, it must always be borne in mind that the garden constitutes a regular formal figure, and that the principle of regularity must be maintained throughout. Every herbaceous plant and shrub must be pruned and trained, and taken up and reduced when necessary; so as to form a circle in the plan, and a dome, or semi-globe, or a cone more or less blunt, in the elevation. The lines of beds next the walk, whether of herbaceous plants or shrubs, will be composed of semi-globes or flattened domes; the herbaceous plants in the second row of somewhat pointed domes, the diameter of the base being 18 in., and the highest point of the elevation 2 ft.; while the herbaceous plants in the third row, and the shrubs in the second row, will be trained so as to form sugar-loaf or blunt conical shapes.

To plant such a garden as this botanically, keeping all the species of a genus together, would render it disagreeable even to the commonest observer, because there would be no obvious relation between the mind displayed in laying out the beds and that employed in planting them, between the designer and the executer, the artist and the artisan.

(To be continued.)

ART. V. Result of an Experiment made by Messrs. W. Drummond and Sons to show the proper Depth of Covering for Grass Seeds and Clovers. Communicated by Messrs. DRUMMOND.

THE following seeds were sown on the 13th of May, 1842, on an open border of light soil, the covering regulated by a frame standing 3 in. in depth at a b, and level with the surface at c d, the border 4 ft. wide: the white dots show where the seeds have brairded, and the proportionate thickness of the plants in the different depths; thus proving to a certainty the great loss sustained by the ordinary mode of covering, or rather burying, the seeds.

1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Fig. 74. Diagram showing the Growth of Grass Seeds sown at different Depths.

1. Perennial rye grass; 2. Timothy grass; 3. Meadow fescue; 4. Red clover; 5. White clover; 6. Yellow clover; 7. Rib grass; 8. Meadow foxtail; 9. Hard fescue; 10. Smooth-stalked meadow grass; 11. Cocksfoot; 12. Crested dogstail; 13. Wood meadow grass; 14. Fiorin; 15. Italian rye

grass.

The perennial rye grass alone has grown at 3 in. deep; but after 14 in. the plants decrease more than half.

Agricultural Museum, Stirling, April 27. 1843.

REVIEWS.

ART. I. Catalogue of Works on Gardening, Agriculture, Botany, Rural Architecture, &c., lately published, with some Account of those considered the more interesting.

TREATISE on the Tank System of communicating Heat to Horticultural Structures. By W. E. Rendle, F.H.S. With eight wood engravings, 12mo, pp. 56. London and Plymouth, 1843.

The long extract from the Gardener's Chronicle, in favour of the tank system of heating as developed by Mr. Rendle, which will be found in a subsequent page, renders it unnecessary to express here our entire approbation of it. In this little book Mr. Rendle has shown, by descriptions and woodcuts, how the tank system may be applied to a propagating-house, to a forcing or orchidaceous house, to a botanic stove, to a pine-pit, and to the cucumber, melon, strawberry, and the forcing of moss and other roses. Fig. 75.

Fig. 75. Section of a Span-roofed House heated according to Mr. Rendle's Tank System. kindly lent us by Mr. Rendle, exhits a span-roofed propagating, forcing, or orchidaceous house, which is in fact suited for any kind of plant requiring bottom heat. "In lieu of a wooden tank, one of brick or stone, coated with Roman cement, would here answer well. The cistern is represented as being fixed on a solid base of masonry, which, in this instance, I would recommend to be at least 12 in. in depth, so as to contain a very large body of water; for, the larger the body of water, the longer of course the continuance of heat, while I question very much whether the fire would require attendance more than once a day. The slates with which the tanks are covered should rest on a brick partition, over which may be a layer of sand, sawdust, or any suitable material, into which to plunge the pots. The water may be contrived to pass from the one side of the path to the other, by means of an inverted siphon passing under the pathway."