FIRS, LARCHES, AND CEDARS.

I. Leaves tetragonal, awl-shaped, scattered in insertion.

'bies excélsa commùnis Dec.
A. Clanbrasiliana. (Lawson.)
A. orientális Tourn. (H. S.)
A. nigra Poir. (Lawson.)
A. n. var. gracilis Lawson. (Lawson.)
A. Smithiana Arb. Brit. (H. S.)
A. Morinda Hort. (H. S.)
4. Menzièsü Doug. (H. S.)
A. canadensis Mr. (Lawson.)
Picea pectinata. (Lawson.)

P. (p.) cephalónica Arb. Brit. (H. S.)
P. (p.) Pinsapo Arb. Brit. (H. S.)

CUPRE'SSINE.

U'LMUS montana pendula, which we have long tried to find the origin of, was, we lately learned from Mr. Booth of Hamburg, found in a bed of seedlings in the Perth Nursery, a year or two after the peace. Mr. Booth purchased the plant, and from it arose the whole stock here and on the Continent.

Flex Aquifolium fastigiàtum exists in a garden in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, near the new cemetery, as well as in a garden in Derby.

Ilex Aquifolium pendulum, a very strongly marked variety, has also been lately discovered in Dalkeith Park, and, we believe, will soon be in the trade. New Varieties. - Nurserymen should look over their beds of seedlings before they are transplanted, with a view to discovering pendulous varieties and fastigiate varieties, which, probably, every tree in existence is liable to sport into. We have, within the present century, found both of them in the common oak, the Scotch elm, and the common hawthorn; and one sport in several species, such as the pendulous common ash, sophora, &c. They should also, in the leafing season, look after varieties that come early into leaf, such as the Glastonbury thorn; in summer, those that sport in their foliage, such as the one-leaved ash, the eagle's claw maple, and the fern-leaved oak; and, in autumn and winter, those that retain their leaves longer than usual, such as the evergreen privet. The time will probably one day come when every species will have its fastigiate, its pendulous, its early, its late, its variegatedleaved, and its abnormal-leaved, varieties.

Fagus antarctica and betuloides.—We have lately had an opportunity of seeing these interesting beeches in Kew Gardens. They are in a healthy state, and, we understand, strike from cuttings without difficulty; so that, thanks to the excellent system now pursued at Kew of distributing and exchanging with other botanic gardens and with the nurserymen, these trees will soon be as generally diffused as their merits will entitle them to be. (See Sir W. Hooker's Notes on the Botany of the Antarctic Voyage, p. 54.)

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

(Continued from p. 373.)

THE design, fig 100., is a plan of the Roccoco Garden of Baron Hügel in the neighbourhood of Vienna, mentioned with so much praise in an article on the baron's country residence in our preceding volume, p. 150. For the plan we are indebted to a friend, who procured it at Vienna about a year ago. This gentleman observes on it, that, though the beds did not look so well in reality as they do on paper, from the acute angles of the lobes of the larger masses, and from the inequality of the heights of the flowers with which they were planted at the time he saw it, yet, as it is always supplied with the best kinds of flowers, and kept in the very highest order, it is the admiration of every one.

a and b are beds, we suppose, of low shrubs; c, circular bed, separated by a zone of turf, e, from the bed d; f, border of turf; g, h, gravel walks; i, bed with a pedestal and statue in the centre; k, a small oval bed, separated from 4, by a zone of turf; m, n, acute-lobed beds on turf; o, p, beds with lobes, terminating with less acute points.

The section A B shows that the walks are considerably below the level of the compartments containing the beds, and that the edgings to those walks are sloped down; and, if the section is correct according to the scale, these slopes exceed a foot in perpendicular depth; a taste not uncommon in France and Germany, but rarely to be met with in England. It gives the walks the character of ditches.

The running pattern on the circumferential border originated in England, we believe, by the Dowager Duchess of Bedford, about the year 1800, is capable of producing a very brilliant effect, by planting the circular beds (c) with brilliant colours, each alternating with white; for example, beginning at c, and proceeding to the right, we might have dark red, white, blue, white, yellow, white, scarlet, white, purple, white, and so on. The interlacing beds (d) might be planted exactly on the same principle, but omitting white. Proceeding to the right from the bed d, which may be yellow, the next may be crimson, the next purple, then orange, then blue, and so on.

If we were asked our opinion of this design, we should say, in one word, that the dug beds in the interior were not in harmony of form with those of the surrounding chain pattern; they have scarcely a single line in common. This must be obvious at the first glance to every man with the eye of an artist. But we will go a little into detail for the sake of others.

The beds, with the exception of those of the chain pattern with which the figure is surrounded, are not appropriate to the subject. Beds with so many acute recesses and sharp-pointed prominences can very rarely be covered with plants in such a manner as not to render the form of the dug ground more prominent than the form of the surface covered by the flowers; now the dug ground being merely the means of attaining the end, this can never be in good taste, because it is not consistent with good sense to render the former of more importance than the latter. This would be true, even if these beds were artistically designed; but they are wholly deficient of merit as works of art. Beds for flowers in a flower-garden may either be composed of geometrical lines and forms, as in Elizabethan flower-gardens, or of arabesque shapes, as shown in the French gardens in the Louis XIV. style; but to what style of art can we refer the beds m, n, o, p, which remind us of the leaves of Arum Dracunculus, or some exotic aroïdaceous plant. If they were sufficiently large to occupy twenty or thirty acres each, and to be planted with trees and shrubs, which would effectually prevent more than one or two sides of the figure from being seen at one view, then we should say that, with the excep tion of the acute points of the lobes, the shapes might pass; but, for a flowergarden, where the whole of each bed will be seen at once, they are, from want of harmony, and from their unfitness for being covered, totally inadmissible in this design or in any other. A minor argument is, that the shape of such beds cut out in turf, unless they have concealed brick, stone, or wood edges, can never be kept correct; and it is a principle in the arts of design, that every design should be suitable to the purpose for which it is to be used, and to the nature of the materials employed in its execution. Another minor objection is, that the beds m, n, o, p, &c., have not sufficient relation to the boundary lawn on which they are placed. A far better effect would have been produced, in our opinion, by simply marking off a grass margin all round each compart ment, and considering the interior as the bed. The beds would then have been of the exact shape of the compartments, less the width of the surrounding verge. It is true that this would not have harmonised these beds with the surrounding circular forms, but it would have harmonised each bed with the form of the compartment on which it was placed, and rendered it fit for being covered with flowers. But even the required harmony might have been given in a considerable degree by gently curving the edges of the beds, and by substituting circular beds for i and k. Had the two beds i been circular, and not of their present discordant shape, they would have harmonised beautifully with the surrounding row of circular beds (c); and, had the beds marked & been

circular, instead of oval, and a little larger than c, they would have formed beautiful connecting links between the larger circular beds (i) and the smaller (c). Much of the effect of every flower-garden depends on the manner in which it is connected with the surrounding scenery. From the description of Baron Hügel's residence, already referred to, we are not able to form an opinion on this subject. It is said to be a garden within a garden, and to have become the model garden of Austria. If the last is the case, we can only say that we are sorry to hear of the diffusion of so much bad taste. We have no doubt, from the intellectual activity of the Austrian head gardeners, and especially such men as M. Charles Rauch, this design will be the means of leading to something better. Whoever contrived the design has had little or no artistical knowledge, otherwise he would have given artistical shapes to the beds m, n, o, p; and he has not had a proper conception of what the shapes adapted for a flower-garden ought to be, otherwise he would have had no beds that were not of comparatively simple forms, with no acute angles, whatever might be his talents for designing forms of intricacy.

(To be continued.)

ART. XIII. Botanical, Floricultural, and Arboricultural Notices of the Kinds of Plants newly introduced into British Gardens and Plantations, or which have been originated in them; together with additional Information respecting Plants (whether old or new) already in Cultivation : the whole intended to serve as a perpetual Supplement to the "Encyclopædia of Plants," the "Hortus Britannicus," the "Hortus Lignosus," and the "Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum."

Curtis's Botanical Magazine; in monthly numbers, each containing seven plates; 3s. 6d. coloured, 3s. plain. Edited by Sir William Jackson Hooker, LL.D., &c., Director of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew. Edwards's Botanical Register; in monthly numbers, new series, each containing six plates; 3s. 6d. coloured, 3s. plain. Edited by Dr. Lindley, Professor of Botany in the University College, London. Paxton's Magazine of Botany, and Register of Flowering Plants; in monthly numbers; large 8vo; 2s. 6d. each.

1638. TRO'LLIUS
acaulis Lindl. stemless

Ranunculaced.

Aorjl Y Cashmere 1842. D s.l.p Bot. reg. 1843, 32. A very pretty hardy herbaceous plant, the seeds of which were sent by Dr. Royle from Cashmere. The flowers are of a golden yellow, and spread open like those of an anemone, instead of having the globe-like appearance of the cominon Trollius europæ'us. The plant was first mentioned in the Miscellany to the Bot. Reg. for 1842. (Bot. Reg., June, 1843.)

1641. HELLE'BORUS

D s.p

olympicus Lindl. Olympian A or 2 jn G Bithynia 1842. Bot. reg. 1842, 58. This very handsome species of hellebore is a native of the Bithynian Olympus, whence it was sent to the Horticultural Society by Mr. Sandison, Her Majesty's consul at Brusa. It has very handsome palmate leaves, and pale green flowers, which are white at the tips of the sepals. It is quite hardy, but it should be grown in peat soil, in a moist situation. (Bot. Reg., Oct. 1842.)

Dilleniaceæ.

Candollea tetrándra Lindl. This is a larger and much handsomer plant than Candollea cuneiformis. The leaves are about 2 in. long, broad in proportion, 3d Ser. 1843. VIII.

GG