Flowers and Flower-Gardens
by
David Lester Richardson
Part 6 out of 7
that in culture, treatment, and other respects they do not associate
with plants of a different character.
One great obstacle which the more extensive culture of bulbs has had to
contend against, may be found in that impatience that refuses to give
attention to what requires from three to five years to perfect,
generally speaking people in India prefer therefore to cultivate such
plants only as afford an immediate result, especially with relation to
the ornamental classes.
_Propagation_.--The bulb after the formation of the first floral core is
instigated by nature to continue its species, as immediately the flower
fades the portion of bulb that gave it birth dies, for which purpose it
each year forms embryo bulbs on each side of the blossoming one, and
which although continued in the same external coat, are each perfect and
complete plants in themselves, rising from the crown of the root fibres:
in some kinds this is more distinctly exhibited by being as it were,
altogether outside and distinct from, the main, or original bulb. These
being separated for what are called offsets, and should be taken off
only when the parent bulb has been taken up and hardened, or the young
plant will suffer.
Some species of bulbous rooted plants produce seeds, but this method of
reproduction, can seldom be resorted to in this country, and certainly
not to obtain new kinds, as the seeds require to be sown as soon as
ripe.
_Soil, Culture, &c_.--For the delicate and rare bulbs, it is advisable
to have pots purposely made of some fifteen inches in height with a
diameter of about seven or eight inches at the top, tapering down to
five, with a hole at the bottom as in ordinary flower pots, and for this
to stand in, another pot should be made without any hole, of a height of
about four inches, sufficient size to leave the space of about an inch
all round between the outer side of the plant pot and the inner side of
the smaller pot or saucer.
This will allow the plant pot to be filled with crocks, pebbles, or
stone chippings to the height of five inches, or about an inch higher
than the level of the water in the saucer, above which may be placed
eight inches in depth of soil and one inch on the top of that, pebbles
or small broken brick. By this arrangement, the saucer being kept
filled, or partly filled, as the plant may require, with water, the
fibres of the root obtain a sufficiency of moisture for the maintenance
and advancement of the plant without chance of injury to the bulb or
stem, by applying water to the upper earth which is also in this
prevented from becoming too much saturated. Light rich sandy loam, with
a portion of sufficiently decomposed leaf mould, is the best soil for
the early stages of growing bulbs.
So soon as the leaves change color and wither, then all moisture must be
withheld, but as the repose obtained by this means is not sufficient to
secure health to the plant, and ensure its giving strong blossoms,
something more is required to effect this purpose. This being rendered
the more necessary because in those that form offsets by the sides of
the old bulbs, they would otherwise become crowded and degenerate, the
same occurring also with those forming under the old ones, which will
get down so deep that they cease to appear.
The time to take up the bulb is when the flower-stem and leaves have
commenced decay; taking dry weather for the purpose, if the bulbs are
hardy, or if in pots having reduced the moisture as above shown, but it
must be left to individual experience to discover how long the different
varieties should remain out of the ground, some requiring one month's
rest, and others enduring three or four, with advantage; more than that
is likely to be injurious. When out of the ground, during the first part
of the period they are so kept, it should be, say for a fortnight at
least, in any room where no glare exists, with free circulation of air,
after which the off-sets may be removed, and the whole exposed to dry on
a table in the verandah, or any other place that is open to the air, but
protected from the sunshine, which would destroy them.
Little peculiarity of after treatment is requisite, except perhaps that
the bulbs which are to flower in the season should have a rather larger
proportion of leaf mould in the compost, and that if handsome flowers
are required, it will be well to examine the bulb every week at least by
gently taking the mould from around them, and removing all off-sets that
appear on the old bulb. For the securing strength to the plant also, it
will be well to pinch off the flower so soon as it shews symptoms of
decay.
The wire worm is a great enemy to bulbs, and whenever it appears they
should be taken up, cleaned, and re-planted. It is hardly necessary to
say that all other vermin and insects must be watched, and immediately
removed.
* * * * *
THE BIENNIAL BORDER PLANTS.
It is only necessary to mention a few of these, as the curious in
floriculture will always make their own selection, the following will
therefore suffice.--
The SPEEDWELL-LEAVED HEDGE HYSSOP, Gratiola veronicifolia, _Bhoomee,
sooel chumnee_, seldom cultivated, though deserving to be so, has a
small blue flower.
The SIMPLE-STALKED LOBELIA, Lobelia simplex, introduced from the Cape,
yields a pretty blue flower.
The EVENING PRIMROSE, Oenothera mutabilis, a pretty white flower that
blossoms in the evening, its petals becoming pink by morning.
The FLAX-LEAVED PIMPERNEL, Anagallis linifolia, a rare plant, giving a
blue flower in the rains; introduced from Portugal.
The BROWALLIA, of two lauds, both pretty and interesting plants;
originally from South America.
The _Spreading Browallia_, B. demissa is the smallest of these, and
blossoms in single flowers of bright blue, at the beginning of the cold
weather.
The _Upright Browallia_, B. alata, gives bloom in groups, of a bright
blue; there is also a white variety, both growing to the height of
nearly two feet.
The SMALL-FLOWERED TURNSOLE, Heliotropium parviflorum, _B'hoo roodee_,
differs from the rest of this family which are mostly perennials; it
yields groups of white flowers, which are fragrant.
The FLAX-LEAVED CANDYTUFT, Iberis linifolia, with its purple blossoms,
is very rare, but it has been sometimes grown with, success.
The STOCK, Mathiola, is a very popular plant, and deserves more
extensive cultivation in this country.
The _Great Sea Stock_, M sinuata, is rare and somewhat difficult to
bring into bloom, it possesses some fragrance and its violet colored
groups of flowers have rather a handsome appearance about May.
The _Ten weeks' Stock_, M annua, is also a pleasing flower about the
same time. In England this is an annual, but here it is not found to
bloom freely until the second year, its color is scarlet, and it has
some fragrance.
The _Purple Gilly flower_, M incana, is a pretty flower of purple color,
and fragrant. There are some varieties of it such as the _Double_,
multiplex, the _Brompton_, coccinea, and the _White_, alba, varying in
color and blossoming in April.
The STARWORT, Aster, is a hardy flowering plant not very attractive,
except as it yields blossoms at all seasons, if the foot stalks are cut
off as soon as the flower has faded, there are very numerous varieties
of this plant which is, in Europe a perennial, but it is preferable to
treat it here as only biennial, otherwise it degenerates.
The _Bushy Starwort_, A dumosus, is a free blossoming plant in the
rains, with white flowers.
The _Silky leaved Starwort_, A. sericeus, is Indigenous in the hills,
putting forth its blue blossoms during the rains.
The _Hairy Starwort_, A pilosus, is of very pale blue, and may, with
care, be made to blossom throughout the year.
The _Chinese Starwort,_ A chinensis, is of dark purple and very prolific
of blossoms at all times.
The BEAUTIFUL JUSTICIA, J speciosa, although, described by Roxburgh as a
perennial, degenerates very much after the second year, it affords
bright carmine colored flowers at the end of the cold weather.
The COMMON MARVEL OF PERU, Mirabilis Jalapa _Gul abas, krushna kelee_,
is vulgarly called the Four o'clock from its blossoms expanding in the
afternoon. There are several varieties distinguished only by difference
of color, lilac, red, yellow, orange, and white, which hybridize
naturally, and may easily be obliged to do so artificially, if any
particular shades are desired.
The HAIRY INDIGO, Indigofera hirsuta, yields an ornamental flower with
abundance of purple blossoms.
The HIBISCUS This class numbers many ornamental plants, the blossoms of
which all maintain the same character of having a darkened spot at the
base of each petal.
The _Althaea frutex_, H syriacus, _Gurhul,_ yields a handsome purple
flower in the latter part of the rains, there are also a white, and a
red variety.
The _Stinging Hibiscus_ H pruriens, has a yellow flower at the same
season.
The _Hemp leaved Hibiscus_, H cannabinus, _Anbaree_, is much the same as
the last.
The _Bladder Ketmia_, H trionum, is a dwarf species, yellow, with a
brown spot at the base of the petal.
The _African Hibiscus_ H africanus, is a very handsome flower growing to
a considerable height, expanding to the diameter of six to seven inches,
of a bright canary color, the dark blown spots at the base of the petals
very distinctly marked, the seeds were considered a great acquisition
when first obtained from Hobarton, but the plant has since been seen in
great perfection growing wild in the _Turaee_ at the foot of the
Darjeeling range of hills, blooming in great perfection at the close of
the rains.
The _Chinese Hibiscus_, H rosa sinensis, _Jooua, jasoon, jupa_,
although, really a perennial flower, is in greatest perfection if kept
as a biennial, it flowers during the greater part of the season a dark
red flower with a darker hued spot, there are also some other varieties
of different colors yellow, scarlet, and purple.
The TREE MALLOW, Lavatera arborea, has of late years been introduced
from Europe, and may now be found in many gardens in India yielding
handsome purple flowers in the latter part of the rains.
But it is unnecessary to continue such a mere catalogue, the character
and general cultivation of which require no distinct rules, but may all
be resolved into one general method, of which the following is a sketch.
_Propagation_--They are all raised from seed, but the finest double
varieties require to be continued by cuttings. The seed should be sown
as soon as it can after opening, but if this occur during the rains, the
beds, or pots, perhaps better, must be sheltered, removing the plants
when they are few inches high to the spot where they are to remain, care
being at the same time taken in removing those that have tap roots, such
as Hollyhock, Lavatera, &c not to injure them, as it will check their
flowering strongly, the best mode is to sow those in pots and transplant
them, with balls of earth entire, into the borders, at the close of the
rains. Cuttings of such as are multiplied by that method, are taken
either from the flower stalks, or root-shoots, early in the rains, and
rooted either in pots, under shelter, or in beds, protected from the
heavy showers.
_Culture_--Cultivation after the plants are put into the borders, is the
same as for perennial plants. But the duration and beauty of the flowers
is greatly improved by cutting off the buds that shew the earliest, so
as to retard the bloom--and for the same reason the footstalk should be
cut off when the flowers fade, for as soon as the plant begins to form
seed, the blossoms deteriorate.
* * * * *
THE ANNUAL BORDER PLANTS.
These are generally known to every one, and many of them are so common
as hardly to need notice, a few of the most usual are however mentioned,
rather to recal the scattered thoughts of the many, than as a list of
annuals.
The MIGNIONETTE, Resoda odorata, is too great a favorite both on account
of its fragrance and delicate flowers not to be well known, and by
repeated sowings it may be made under care to give flowers throughout
the year but it is advisable to renew the seed occasionally by fresh
importations from Europe, the Cape, or Hobarton.
The PROLIFIC PINK, Dianthus prolifer _Kurumful_, is a pretty variety;
that blossoms freely throughout the year, sowing to keep up succession,
the shades and net work marks on them are much varied, and they make a
very pretty group together.
The LUPINE, Lupinus, is a very handsome class of annuals, many of which
grow well in India, all of them flowering in the cold season.
The _Small blue Lupine_, L. varius, was introduced from the Cape and is
the only one noticed by Roxburgh.
The _Rose, and great blue Lupine_, L. pilosus and hirsutus, are both
good sized handsome flowers.
The _Egyptian, or African Lupins_, L. thermis, _Turmus_, is the only one
named in the native language, and has a white flower.
The _Tree Lupine_, L. arboreus, is a shrubby plant with a profusion of
yellow flowers which has been successfully cultivated from Hobarton
seed.
The CATCHFLY, Silene, the only one known here is the small red, S.
rubella, having a very pretty pink flower appearing in the cold weather.
The LARKSPUR, Delphinum, has not yet received any native name, and
deserves to be much more extensively cultivated, especially the
Neapolitan and variegated sorts. The common purple, D. Bhinensis, being
the one usually met with; it should be sown in succession from September
to December, but the rarer kinds must not be put in sooner than the
middle of November, as these do not blossom well before February, March,
or April.
The SWEET PEA, Lathyrus odoralus, is not usually cultivated with
success, because it has been generally sown too late in the season, to
give a sufficient advance to secure blossoming. The seeds should be put
in about the middle of the rains in pots and afterwards planted out when
these cease, and carefully cultivated to obtain blossoms in February or
March.
The ZINNIA, has only of late years been introduced, but by a mistake it
has generally been sown too late in the year to produce good flowers,
whereas if the seed is put into the ground about June, fine handsome
flowers will be the result, in the cold weather.
The CENTAURY, Centaurea, is a very pretty class of annuals which grows,
and blossoms freely in this country.
The _Woolly Centaury_, C. lanata, is mentioned by Roxburgh as indigenous
to the country, but the flowers are very small, of a purple color,
blossoming in December.
The _Blue bottle_ O. cyanus, _Azeez_, flowers in December and January,
of pink and blue.
The _Sweet Sultan_, C. moschata, _Shah pusund_ is known by its fragrant
and delicate lilac blossoms in January and February.
The BALSAM, Impatiens, _Gulmu'hudee, doopatee_ is not cultivated, or
encouraged as it should be in India, where some of the varieties are
indigenous. A very rich soil should be used.
Dr. R. Wight observes, that Balsams of the colder Hymalayas, like those
of Europe, split from the base, rolling the segment towards the apex,
whilst those of the hotter regions do the reverse.
All annuals require the same, or nearly the same treatment, of which the
following may be considered a fair sketch.
_Propagation_.--These plants are all raised from seed put in the earth
generally on the close of the rains, although some plants, such as
nasturtium, sweet pea, scabious, wall-flower, and stock, are better to
be sown in pots about June or July, and then put out into the border as
soon as the rains cease. The seed must be sown in patches, rings, or
small beds according to taste, the ground being previously stirred, and
made quite fine, the earth sifted over them to a depth proportioned to
the size of the seed, and then gently pressed down, so as closely to
embrace every part of the seed. When the plants are an inch high they
must be thinned out to a distance of two, three, five, seven, or more
inches apart, according to their kind, whether spreading, or upright,
having reference also to their size; the plants thinned out, if
carefully taken up, may generally be transplanted to fill up any parts
of the border where the seed may have failed.
_Culture_. Weeding and occasionally stirring the soil, and sticking such
as require support, is all the cultivation necessary for annuals. If it
be desired to save seed, some of the earliest and most perfect blossoms
should be preserved for this purpose, so as to secure the best possible
seed for the ensuing year, not leaving it to chance to gather seed from
such plants as may remain after the flowers have been taken, as is
generally the case with native gardeners, if left to themselves.
* * * * *
FLOWERS THAT GROW UNDER THE SHADE OF TREES.
It is of some value to know what these are, but at the same time it must
be observed that no plant will grow under trees of the fir tribe, and it
would be a great risk to place any under the _Deodar_--with all others
also it must not be expected that any trees having their foliage so low
as to affect the circulation of air under their branches, can do
otherwise than destroy the plants placed beneath them.
Those which may be so planted are;--Wood Anemone.--Common Arum.--Deadly
Nightshade--Indian ditto.--Chinese Clematis--Upright ditto--Woody
Strawberry--Woody Geranium.--Green Hellebore.--Hairy St. John's
Wort.--Dog's Violet.--Imperial Fritillaria--The common Oxalis, and some
other bulbs.--Common Hound's Tongue.--Common Antirrhinum.--Common
Balsam.--To these may be added many of the orchidaceous plants.
* * * * *
ROSES.
THE ROSE, ROSA, _Gul_ or _gulab_: as the most universally admired,
stands first amongst shrubs. The London catalogues of this beautiful
plant contain upwards of two thousand names: Mr. Loudon, in his
"_Encyclopaedia of Plants_" enumerates five hundred and twenty-two, of
which he describes three species, viz. Macrophylla, Brunonii, and
Moschata Nepalensis, as natives of Nepal; two, viz. Involucrata, and
Microphylla, as indigenous to India, and Berberifolia, and Moschata
arborea, as of Persian origin, whilst twelve appear to have come from
China. Dr. Roxburgh describes the following eleven species as
inhabitants of these regions:--
Rosa involucrata,
-- Chinensis,
-- semperflorens,
-- recurva,
-- microphylla,
-- inermis,
Rosa centiflora,
-- glandulifera,
-- pubescens,
-- diffusa,
-- triphylla,
most of which, however, he represents to have been of Chinese origin.
The varieties cultivated generally in gardens are, however, all that
will be here described.
These are--
1. The _Madras rose,_ or _Rose Edward_, a variety of R centifolia, _Gul
ssudburul_, is the most common, and has multiplied so fast within a few
years, that no garden is without it, it blossoms all the year round,
producing large bunches of buds at the extremities of its shoots of the
year, but, if handsome, well-shaped flowers are desired, these must be
thinned out on their first appearance, to one or two, or at the most
three on each stalk. It is a pretty flower, but has little fragrance.
This and the other double sorts require a rich loam rather inclining to
clay, and they must be kept moist.[138]
2. The _Bussorah Rose_, R gallica, _Gulsooree_, red, and white, the
latter seldom met with, is one of a species containing an immense number
of varieties. The fragrance of this rose is its greatest recommendation,
for if not kept down, and constantly looked to, it soon gets straggling,
and unsightly, like the preceding species too, the buds issue from the
ends of the branches in great clusters, which must be thinned, if well
formed fragrant blossoms are desired. The same soil is required as for
the preceding, with alternating periods of rest by opening the roots,
and of excitement by stimulating manure.
3. The _Persian rose_, apparently R collina, _Gul eeran_ bears a very
full-petaled blossom, assuming a darker shade as these approach nearer
to the centre, but, it is difficult to obtain a perfect flower, the
calyx being so apt to burst with excess of fulness, that if perfect
flowers are required a thread should be tied gently round the bud, it
has no fragrance. A more sandy soil will suit this kind, with less
moisture.
4. The _Sweet briar_ R rubiginosa, _Gul nusreen usturoon_, grows to a
large size, and blossoms freely in India, but is apt to become
straggling, although, if carefully clipped, it may be raised as a hedge
the same as in England, it is so universally a favorite as to need no
description.
5. The _China blush rose_, R Indica (R Chinensis of Roxburgh), _Kut'h
gulab_, forms a pretty hedge, if carefully clipped, but is chiefly
usefully as a stock for grafting on. It has no odour.
6 The _China ever-blowing rose_, R damascena of Roxburgh, _Adnee gula,
gulsurkh_, bearing handsome dark crimson blossoms during the whole of
the year, it is branching and bushy, but rather delicate, and wants
odour.
7 The _Moss Rose_, R muscosa, having no native name is found to exist,
but has only been known to have once blossomed in India; good plants may
be obtained from Hobart Town without much trouble.
8 The _Indian dog-rose_, R arvensis, R involucrata of Roxburgh, _Gul be
furman_, is found to glow wild in some parts of Nepal and Bengal, as
well as in the province of Buhar, flowering in February, the blossoms
large, white, and very fragrant, its cultivation extending is improving
the blossoms, particularly in causing the petals to be multiplied.
9. The _Bramble-flowered rose_ R multiflora, _Gul rana_, naturally a
trailer, may be trained to great advantage, when it will give beautiful
bunches of small many petaled flowers in February and March, of
delightful fragrance.
10. The _Due de Berri rose_, a variety of R damascena, but having the
petals more rounded and more regular, it is a low rather drooping shrub
with delicately small branches.
_Propagation_.--All the species may be multiplied by seed, by layers, by
cuttings, by suckers, or from grafts, almost indiscriminately. Layering
is the easiest, and most certain mode of propagating this most beautiful
shrub.
The roots that branch, out and throw up distinct shoots may be divided,
or cut off from the main root, and even an eye thus taken off may be
made to produce a good plant.
Suckers, when they have pushed through the soil, may be taken up by
digging down, and gently detaching them from the roots.
Grafting or budding is used for the more delicate kinds, especially the
sweet briar, and, by the curious, to produce two or more varieties on
one stem, the best stocks being obtained from the China, or the Dog
Rose.
_Soil &c._--Any good loamy garden soil without much sand, suits the
rose, but to produce it in perfection the ground can hardly be too rich.
_Culture_.--Immediately at the close of the rains, the branches of most
kinds of roses, especially the double ones, should be cut down to not
more than six inches in length, removing at the same time, all old and
decayed wood, as well as all stools that have branched out from the main
one, and which will form new plants; the knife being at the same time
freely exercised in the removal of sickly and crowded fibres from the
roots; these should likewise be laid open, cleaned and pinned, and
allowed to remain exposed until blossom buds begin to appear at the end
of the first shoots; the hole must then be filled with good strong
stable manure, and slightly earthed over. About a month after, a basket
of stable dung, with the litter, should be heaped up round the stems,
and broken brick or turf placed over it to relieve the unsightly
appearance.
While flowering, too, it will be well to water with liquid manure at
least once a week. If it be desired to continue the trees in blossom,
each shoot should be removed as soon as it has ceased flowering. To
secure full large blossoms, all the buds from a shoot should be cut off,
when quite young, except one.
The _Sweet briar rose_ strikes its root low, and prefers shade, the best
soil being a deep rich loam with very little sand, rather strong than
otherwise; it will be well to place a heap of manure round the stem,
above ground, covering over with turf, but it is not requisite to open
the roots, or give them so much manure as for other varieties. The sweet
briar must not be much pruned, overgrowth being checked rather by
pinching the young shoots, or it will not blossom, and it is rather
slower in throwing out shoots than other roses. In this country the best
mode of multiplying this shrub is by grafting on a China rose stock, as
layers do not strike freely, and cuttings cannot be made to root at all.
The _Bramble-flowered rose_ is a climber, and though not needing so
strong a soil as other kinds, requires it to be rich, and frequently
renewed, by taking away the soil from about the roots and supplying its
place with a good compost of loam, leaf mould, and well rotted dung,
pruning the root. The plants require shelter from the cold wind from the
North, or West, this, however, if carefully trained, they will form for
themselves, but until they do so, it is impossible to make them blossom
freely, the higher branches should be allowed to droop, and if growing
luxuriantly, with the shoots not shortened, they will the following
season, produce bunches of flowers at the end of every one, and have a
very beautiful effect, no pruning should be given, except what is just
enough to keep the plants within bounds, as they invariably suffer from
the use of the knife. This rose is easily propagated by cuttings or
layers, both of which root readily.
The _China rose_ thrives almost anywhere, but is best in a soil of loam
and peat, a moderate supply of water being given daily during the hot
weather. They will require frequent thinning out of the branches, and
are propagated by cuttings, which strike freely.[139]
As before mentioned, Rose trees look well in a parterre by themselves,
but a few may be dispersed along the borders of the garden.
_Insects, &c._ The green, and the black plant louse are great enemies to
the rose tree, and, whenever they appear, it is advisable to cut out at
once the shoot attacked, the green caterpillar too, often makes
skeletons of the leaves in a short time, the ladybird, as it is commonly
called, is an useful insect, and worthy of encouragement, as it is a
destroyer of the plant louse.
* * * * *
CREEPERS AND CLIMBERS
The CLIMBING, and TWINING SHRUBS offer a numerous family, highly
deserving of cultivation, the following being a few of the most
desirable.
The HONEY-SUCKLE, Caprifolium, having no native name, is too well known,
and too closely connected with the home associations of all to need
particularizing. It is remarkable that they always twine from east to
west, and rather die than submit to a change.
The TRUMPET FLOWER, Bignonia, are an eminently handsome family, chiefly
considered stove plants in Europe, but here growing freely in the open
ground, and flowering in loose spikes.
The MOUNTAIN EBONY, Bauhinia, the distinguishing mark of the class being
its two lobed leaves, most of them are indigenous, and in their native
woods attain an immense size, far beyond what botanists in Europe appear
to give them credit for.
The VIRGIN'S BOWER, Clematis, finds some indigenous representatives in
this country, although unnamed in the native language; the odour however
is rather too powerful, and of some kinds even offensive, except
immediately after a shower of rain. They are all climbers, requiring the
same treatment as the honey suckle.
The PASSION FLOWER, Passiflora, is a very large family of twining
shrubs, many of them really beautiful, and generally of easy
cultivation, this country being of the same temperature with their
indigenous localities.
The RACEMOSE ASPARAGUS, A. racemosus, _Sadabooree, sutmoolee_, is a
native of India, and by nature a trailing plant, but better cultivated
as a climber on a trellis, in which way its delicate setaceous foliage
makes it at all times ornamental, and at the close of the rains it sends
forth abundant bunches of long erect spires of greenish white color, and
of delicious fragrance, shedding perfume all around to a great distance.
* * * * *
KALENDAR WORK TO BE PERFORMED.
JANUARY.
Thin out seeding annuals wherever they appear too thick. Water freely,
especially such plants as are in bloom, and keep all clean from weeds.
Cut off the footstalks of flowers, except such as are reserved for seed,
as soon as the petals fade. Collect the seeds of early annuals as they
ripen.
FEBRUARY.
Continue as directed in last month. Prepare stocks for roses to be
grafted on, R. bengalensis, and R. canina are the best. Great care must
be paid to thinning out the buds of roses to insure perfect blossoms, as
well as to rubbing off the succulent upright shoots and suckers that are
apt to spring up at this period. Collect seeds as they ripen, to be
dried, or hardened in the shade.
Collect seeds as they ripen, drying them carefully, for a few days in
the pods, and subsequently when freed from them in the shade, to put
them in the sun being highly injurious. Give a plentiful supply of water
in saucers to Narcissus, or other bulbs when flowering.
MARCH.
Cut down the flower stalks of Narcissus that have ceased flowering, and
lessen the supply of water. Take up the tubers of Dahlias, and dry
gradually in an open place in the shade, but do not remove the offsets
for some days. Pot any of the species of Geranium that have been put out
after the rains, provided they are not in bloom. Give water freely to
the roots of all flowers that are in blossom. Mignionette that is in
blossom should have the seed pods clipped off with a pair of scissors
every day to continue it. Convolvulus in flower should be shaded early
in the morning, or it will quickly fade. The Evening Primrose should be
freely watered to increase the number of blossoms. Look to the
Carnations that are coming into bloom, give support to the flower stem,
cutting off all side shoots and buds, except the one intended to give a
handsome flower.
APRIL.
Careful watering, avoiding any wetting of the leaves is necessary at
this period, and the saucers of all bulbs not yet flowered should be
kept constantly full, to promote blossoming--the saucers should however
be kept clean, and washed out every third day at least. Frequent weeding
must be attended to, with occasional watering all grass plots, or paths.
Wherever any part of the garden becomes empty by the clearing off of
annuals, it should be well dug to a depth of at least eighteen inches,
and after laying exposed in clods for a week or two, manured with tank
or road mud; leaf mould, or other good well rotted manure.
MAY.
This is the time to make layers of Honeysuckle, Bauhinia, and other
climbing and twining shrubs.
Mignionette must be very carefully treated, kept moist, and every
seed-pod clipped off as soon as the flower fades, or it will not be
preserved. Continue to dig, and manure the borders, not leaving the
manure exposed, or it will lose power. Make pipings and layers of
Carnations.
JUNE.
Thin out the multitudinous buds of the Madras rose, also examine the
buds of the Persian rose, to prevent the bursting of the calyx by tying
with thread, or with a piece of parchment, or cardboard as directed for
Carnations.
Watch Carnations to prevent the bursting of the calyx, and to remove
superfluous buds. Re pot Geraniums that are in sheds, or verandahs, so
soon as they have done flowering, also take up, and pot any that may yet
remain in the borders. Prune off also all superfluous, or straggling
branches. Continue digging over and manuring the flowering borders. Sow
Zinnias, also make cuttings of perennials and biennials that are
propagated by that means, and put in seeds of biennials under shelter,
as well as a few of the early annuals, particularly Stock and Sweet-pea.
JULY.
Make cuttings and layers of hardy shrubs, and of the Fragrant Olive; put
in cuttings of the Willow, and some other trees. Plant out Pines, and
Casuarina, Cypress, Large-leaved fig, and the Laurel tribe. Transplant
young shrubs of a hardy nature.
Divide the roots, and plant out suckers, or offsets of perennial border
plants. Make cuttings and sow seeds of biennials, as required; also a
few annuals to be hereafter transplanted. Sow also Geraniums. Continue
making pipings of Carnation, plant out, or transplant hardy perennials
into the borders.
AUGUST.
This may be considered the best time for sowing the seeds of hardy
shrubs. Plant out Aralia, Canella, Magnolia, and other ornamental trees.
Transplant delicate and exotic shrubs. Remove, and plant out suckers,
and layers of hardy shrubs. Prune all shrubs freely.
Divide, and plant out suckers, and offsets of hardy perennials, that
have formed during the rains. Plant out tender perennial plants, in the
borders, also biennials. Prune, and thin out perennial plants in the
borders. Put out in the borders such annuals as were sown in June,
protecting them from the heat of the sun in the afternoon. Sow a few
early annuals. Plant out Dahlia tubers where they are intended to
blossom, keeping them as much as possible in classes of colors. Make
pipings of Carnations.
SEPTEMBER.
Prick out the cuttings of hardy shrubs that have been made before, or
during the rains, in beds for growing. Prune all flowering shrubs,
having due regard to the character of each, as bearing flowers on the
end of the shoots, or from the side exits, give the annual dressing of
manure to the entire shrubbery, with new upper soil.
Remove the top soil from the borders, and renew with addition of a
moderate quantity of manure. Put out Geraniums into the borders, and set
rooted cuttings singly in pots. Plant out biennials in the borders, also
such annuals as have been sown in pots. Re-pot and give fresh earth to
plants in the shed.
OCTOBER.
Open out the roots of a few Bussorah roses for early flowering, pruning
down all the branches to a height of six inches, removing all decayed,
and superannuated wood, dividing the roots, and pruning them freely. The
Madras roses should be treated in the same manner, not all at the same
time, but at intervals of a week between each cutting down, so as to
secure a succession for blossoming. Plant out rooted cuttings in beds,
to increase in size.
Sow annuals freely, and thin out those put in last month, so as to leave
sufficient space for growing, at the same time transplanting the most
healthy to other parts of the border.
NOVEMBER.
Continue opening the roots of Bussorah roses, as well as the Rose
Edward, and Madras roses, for succession to those on which this
operation was performed last month. Prune, and trim the Sweetbriar, and
Many-flowered rose.
_Flower-Garden_--Divide, and plant bulbs of all kinds, both, for border,
and pot flowering. Continue to sow annuals.
DECEMBER
Continue opening the roots, and cutting down the branches of Bussorah,
and other roses for late flowering. Prune, and thin out also the China
and Persian roses, as well as the Many-flowered rose, if not done last
month. Train carefully all climbing and twining shrubs.
Weed beds of annuals, and thin out, where necessary. Sow Nepolitan, and
other fine descriptions of Larkspur, as well as all other annuals for a
late show. Dahlias are now blooming in perfection, and should be closely
watched that every side-bud, or more than one on each stalk may be cut
off close, with a pair of scissors to secure full, distinctly colored,
and handsome flowers.
[For further instructions respecting the culture of flowers in India I
must refer my readers to the late Mr. Speede's works, where they will
find a great deal of useful information not only respecting the
flower-garden, but the kitchen-garden and the orchard.]
* * * * *
MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.
THE TREE-MIGNONETTE.--This plant does not appear to be a distinct
variety, for the common mignonette, properly trained becomes shrubby. It
may be propagated by either seed or cuttings. When it has put forth four
leaves or is about an inch high, take it from the bed and put it by
itself into a moderate sized pot. As it advances in growth, carefully
pick off all the side shoots, leaving the leaf at the base of each shoot
to assist the growth of the plant. When it has reached a foot in height
it will show flower. But every flower must be nipped off carefully.
Support the stem with a stick to make it grow straight. Even when it has
attained its proper height of two feet again cut off the bloom for a few
days.
It is said that Miss Mitford, the admired authoress, was the first to
discover that the common mignonette could be induced to adopt tree-like
habits. The experiment has been tried in India, but it has sometimes
failed from its being made at the wrong season. The seed should be sown
at the end of the rains.
GRAFTING.--Take care to unite exactly the inner bark of the scion with
the inner bark of the stock in order to facilitate the free course of
the sap. Almost any scion will take to almost any sort of tree or plant
provided there be a resemblance in their barks. The Chinese are fond of
making fantastic experiments in grafting and sometimes succeed in the
most heterogeneous combinations, such as grafting flowers upon fruit
trees. Plants growing near each other can sometimes be grafted by the
roots, or on the living root of a tree cut down another tree can be
grafted. The scions are those shoots which united with the stock form
the graft. It is desirable that the sap of the stock should be in brisk
and healthy motion at the time of grafting. The graft should be
surrounded with good stiff clay with a little horse or cow manure in it
and a portion of cut hay. Mix the materials with a little water and then
beat them up with a stick until the compound is quite ductile. When
applied it may be bandaged with a cloth. The best season for grafting in
India is the rains.
MANURE.--Almost any thing that rots quickly is a good manure. It is
possible to manure too highly. A plant sometimes dies from too much
richness of soil as well as from too barren a one.
WATERING.--Keep up a regular moisture, but do not deluge your plants
until the roots rot. Avoid giving very cold water in the heat of the day
or in the sunshine. Even in England some gardeners in a hot summer use
luke-warm water for delicate plants. But do not in your fear of
overwatering only wet the surface. The earth all round and below the
root should be equally moist, and not one part wet and the other dry. If
the plant requires but little water, water it seldom, but let the water
reach all parts of the root equally when you water at all.
GATHERING AND PRESERVING FLOWERS.--Always use the knife, and prefer such
as are coming into flower rather than such as are fully expanded. If
possible gather from crowded plants, or parts of plants, so that every
gathering may operate at the same time as a judicious pruning and
thinning. Flowers may be preserved when gathered, by inserting their
ends in winter, in moist earth, or moss; and may be freshened, when
withered, by sprinkling them with water, and putting them in a close
vessel, as under a bellglass, handglass, flowerpot or in a botanic box;
if this will not do, sprinkle them with warm water heated to 80 deg. or 90 deg.,
and cover them with a glass.--_Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Gardening_.
PIPING---is a mode of propagation by cuttings and is adopted in plants
having joined tubular stems, as the dianthus tribe. When the shoot has
nearly done growing (soon after its blossom has fallen) its extremity is
to be separated at a part of the stem where it is hard and ripe. This is
done by holding the root with one hand and with the other pulling the
top part above the pair of leaves so as to separate it from the root
part of the stem at the socket, formed by the axillae of the leaves,
leaving the stem to remain with a tubular or pipe-looking termination.
The piping is inserted in finely sifted earth to the depth of the first
joint or pipe and its future management regulated on the same general
principles as cuttings.--_From the same_.
BUDDING.--This is performed when the leaves of plants have grown to
their full size and the bud is to be seen at the base of it. The
relative nature of the bud and the stock is the same as in grafting.
Make a slit in the bark of the stock, to reach from half an inch to an
inch and a half down the stock, according to the size of the plant; then
make another short slit across, that you may easily raise the bark from
the wood, then take a very thin slice of the bark from the tree or plant
to be budded, a little below a leaf, and bring the knife out a little
above it, so that you remove the leaf and the bud at its base, with the
little slice you have taken. You will perhaps have removed a small bit
of the wood with the bark, which you must take carefully out with the
sharp point of your knife and your thumb; then tuck the bark and bud
under the bark of the stock which you carefully bind over, letting the
bud come at the part where the slits cross each other. No part of the
stock should be allowed to grow after it is budded, except a little
shoot or so, above the bud, just to draw the sap past the
bud.--_Gleenny's Hand Book of Gardening_.
ON PYRAMIDS OF ROSES.--The standard Roses give a fine effect to a bed of
Roses by being planted in the middle, forming a pyramidal bed, or alone
on grass lawns; but the _ne plus ultra_ of a pyramid of Roses is that
formed of from one, two, or three plants, forming a pyramid by being
trained up three strong stakes, to any length from 10 to 25 feet high
(as may suit situation or taste), placed about two feet apart at the
bottom; three forming an angle on the ground, and meeting close together
at the top; the plant, or plants to be planted inside the stakes. In two
or three years, they will form a pyramid of Roses which baffles all
description. When gardens are small, and the owners are desirous of
having _multum in parvo_, three or four may be planted to form one
pyramid; and this is not the only object of planting more sorts than one
together, but the beauty is also much increased by the mingled hues of
the varieties planted. For instance, plant together a white Boursault, a
purple Noisette, a Stadtholder, Sinensis (fine pink), and a Moschata
scandens and such a variety may be obtained, that twenty pyramids may
have each, three or four kinds, and no two sorts alike on the whole
twenty pyramids. A temple of Roses, planted in the same way, has a
beautiful appearance in a flower garden--that is, eight, ten, or twelve
stout peeled Larch poles, well painted, set in the ground, with a light
iron rafter from each, meeting at the top and forming a dome. An old
cable, or other old rope, twisted round the pillar and iron, gives an
additional beauty to the whole. Then plant against the pillars with two
or three varieties, each of which will soon run up the pillars, and form
a pretty mass of Roses, which amply repays the trouble and expense, by
the elegance it gives to the garden--_Floricultural Cabinet_.
How TO MAKE ROSE WATER, &c--Take an earthen pot or jar well glazed
inside, wide in the month, narrow at the bottom, about 15 inches high,
and place over the mouth a strainer of clean coarse muslin, to contain a
considerable quantity of rose leaves, of some highly fragrant kind.
Cover them with a second strainer of the same material, and close the
mouth of the jar with an iron lid, or tin cover, hermetically sealed. On
this lid place hot embers, either of coal or charcoal, that the heat may
reach the rose-leaves without scorching or burning them.
The aromatic oil will fall drop by drop to the bottom with the water
contained in the petals. When time has been allowed for extracting the
whole, the embers must be removed, and the vase placed in a cool spot.
Rose-water obtained in this mode is not so durable as that obtained in
the regular way by a still but it serves all ordinary purposes. Small
alembics of copper with a glass capital, may be used in three different
ways.
In the first process, the still or alembic must be mounted on a small
brick furnace, and furnished with a worm long enough to pass through a
pan of cold water. The petals of the rose being carefully picked so as
to leave no extraneous parts, should be thrown into the boiler of the
still with a little water.
The great point is to keep up a moderate fire in the furnace, such as
will cause the vapour to rise without imparting a burnt smell to the
rose water.
The operation is ended when the rose water, which falls drop by drop in
the tube, ceases to be fragrant. That which is first condensed has very
little scent, that which is next obtained is the best, and the third and
last portion is generally a little burnt in smell, and bitter in taste.
In a very small still, having no worm, the condensation must be produced
by linen, wetted in cold water, applied round the capital. A third
method consists in plunging the boiler of the still into a larger vessel
of boiling water placed over a fire, when the rose-water never acquires
the burnt flavour to which we have alluded. By another process, the
still is placed in a boiler filled with sand instead of water, and
heated to the necessary temperature.
But this requires alteration, or it is apt to communicate a baked
flavour.
SYRUP OF ROSES--May be obtained from Belgian or monthly roses, picked
over, one by one, and the base of the petal removed. In a China Jar
prepared with a layer of powdered sugar, place a layer of rose-leaves
about half an inch thick; then of sugar, then of leaves, till the vessel
is full.
On the top, place a fresh wooden cover, pressed down with a weight. By
degrees, the rose-leaves produce a highly-coloured, highly-scented
syrup; and the leaves form a colouring-matter for liqueurs.
PASTILLES DU SERAIL.--Sold in France as Turkish, in rosaries and other
ornaments, are made of the petals of the Belgian or Puteem Rose, ground
to powder and formed into a paste by means of liquid gum.
Ivory-black is mixed with the gum to produce a black colour; and
cinnabar or vermilion, to render the paste either brown or red.
It may be modelled by hand or in a mould, and when dried in the sun, or
a moderate oven, attains sufficient hardness to be mounted in gold or
silver.--_Mrs. Gore's Rose Fancier's Manual_.
OF FORMING AND PRESERVING HERBARIUMS.--The most exact descriptions,
accompanied with the most perfect figures, leave still something to be
desired by him who wishes to know completely a natural being. This
nothing can supply but the autopsy or view of the object itself. Hence
the advantage of being able to see plants at pleasure, by forming dried
collections of them, in what are called herbariums.
A good practical botanist, Sir J.E. Smith observes, must be educated
among the wild scenes of nature, while a finished theoretical one
requires the additional assistance of gardens and books, to which must
be superadded the frequent use of a good herbarium. When plants are well
dried, the original forms and positions of even their minutest parts,
though not their colours, may at any time be restored by immersion in
hot water. By this means the productions of the most distant and various
countries, such as no garden could possibly supply, are brought together
at once under our eyes, at any season of the year. If these be assisted
with drawings and descriptions, nothing less than an actual survey of
the whole vegetable world in a state of nature, could excel such a store
of information.
With regard to the mode or state in which plants are preserved,
desiccation, accompanied by pressing, is the most generally used. Some
persons, Sir J.E. Smith observes, recommend the preservation of
specimens in weak spirits of wine, and this mode is by far the most
eligible for such as are very juicy: but it totally destroys their
colours, and often renders their parts less fit for examination than by
the process of drying. It is, besides, incommodious for frequent study,
and a very expensive and bulky way of making an herbarium.
The greater part of plants dry with facility between the leaves of
books, or other paper, the smoother the better. If there be plenty of
paper, they often dry best without shifting; but if the specimens are
crowded, they must be taken out frequently, and the paper dried before
they are replaced. The great point to be attended to is, that the
process should meet with no check. Several vegetables are so tenacious
of their vital principle, that they will grow between papers; the
consequence of which is, a destruction of their proper habit and colors.
It is necessary to destroy the life of such, either by immersion in
boiling water or by the application of a hot iron, such as is used for
linen, after which they are easily dried. The practice of applying such
an iron, as some persons do, with great labor and perseverance, till the
plants are quite dry, and all their parts incorporated into a smooth
flat mass is not approved of. This renders them unfit for subsequent
examination, and destroys their natural habit, the most important thing
to be preserved. Even in spreading plants between papers, we should
refrain from that practice and artificial disposition of their branches,
leaves, and other parts, which takes away from their natural aspect,
except for the purpose of displaying the internal parts of some one or
two of their flowers, for ready observation. The most approved method of
pressing is by a box or frame, with a bottom of cloth or leather, like a
square sieve. In this, coarse sand or small shot may be placed; in any
quantity very little pressing is required in drying specimens; what is
found necessary should be applied equally to every part of the bundle
under the operation.
Hot-pressing, by means of steel net-work heated, and placed in alternate
layers with the papers, in the manner of hot pressing paper, and the
whole covered with the equalizing press, above described, would probably
be an improvement, but we have not heard of its being tried. At all
events, pressing by screw presses, or weighty non-elastic bodies, must
be avoided, as tending to bruise the stalks and other protuberant parts
of plants.
"After all we can do," Sir J.E. Smith observes, "plants dry very
variously. The blue colours of their flowers generally fade, nor are
reds always permanent. Yellows are much more so, but very few white
flowers retain their natural aspect. The snowdrop and parnassia, if well
dried, continue white. Some greens are much more permanent than others;
for there are some natural families whose leaves, as well as flowers,
turn almost black by drying, as melampyrum, bartsia, and their allies,
several willows, and most of the orchideae. The heaths and firs in
general cast off their leaves between papers, which appears to be an
effort of the living principle, for it is prevented by immersion of the
fresh specimen in boiling water."
The specimens being dried, are sometimes kept loose between leaves of
paper; at other times wholly gummed or glued to paper, but most
generally attached by one or more transverse slips of paper, glued on
one end and pinned at the other, so that such specimens can readily be
taken out, examined, and replaced. On account of the aptitude of the
leaves and other parts of dried plants to drop off, many glue them
entirely, and such seems to be the method adopted by Linnaeus, and
recommended by Sir J.E. Smith. "Dried specimens," the professor
observes, "are best preserved by being fastened, with weak carpenter's
glue, to paper, so that they may be turned over without damage. Thick
and heavy stalks require the additional support of a few transverse
strips of paper, to bind them more firmly down. A half sheet, of a
convenient folio size, should be allotted to each species, and all the
species of a genus may be placed in one or more whole sheets or folios.
On the latter outside should be written the name of the genus, while the
name of every species, with its place of growth, time of gathering, the
finder's name, or any other concise piece of information, may be
inscribed on its appropriate paper. This is the plan of the Linnaean
herbarium."--_Loudon_.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES.
[001] Some of the finest _Florists flowers_ have been reared by the
mechanics of Norwich and Manchester and by the Spitalfield's weavers.
The pitmen in the counties of Durham and Northumberland reside in long
rows of small houses, to each of which is attached a little garden,
which they cultivate with such care and success, that they frequently
bear away the prize at Floral Exhibitions.
[002] Of Rail-Road travelling the reality is quite different from the
idea that descriptions of it had left upon my mind. Unpoetical as this
sort of transit may seem to some minds, I confess I find it excite and
satisfy the imagination. The wondrous speed--the quick change of
scene--the perfect comfort--the life-like character of the power in
motion, the invisible, and mysterious, and mighty steam horse, urged,
and guided, and checked by the hand of Science--the cautionary, long,
shrill whistle--the beautiful grey vapor, the breath of the unseen animal,
floating over the fields by which we pass, sometimes hanging stationary
for a moment in the air, and then melting away like a vision--furnish
sufficiently congenial amusement for a period-minded observer.
[003] "That which peculiarly distinguishes the gardens of England," says
Repton, "is the beauty of English verdure: _the grass of the mown lawn_,
uniting with, the grass of the adjoining pastures, and presenting _that
permanent verdure_ which is the natural consequence of our soft and
humid clime, but unknown to the cold region of the North or the parching
temperature of the South. This it is impossible to enjoy in Portugal
where it would be as practicable to cover the general surface with the
snow of Lapland as with the verdure of England." It is much the same in
France. "There is everywhere in France," says Loudon, "a want _of close
green turf_, of ever-green bushes and of good adhesive gravel." Some
French admirers of English gardens do their best to imitate our lawns,
and it is said that they sometimes partially succeed with English grass
seed, rich manure, and constant irrigation. In Bengal there is a very
beautiful species of grass called Doob grass, (_Panicum Dactylon_,) but
it only flourishes on wide and exposed plains with few trees on them,
and on the sides of public roads, Shakespeare makes Falstaff say that
"the camomile the more it is trodden on the faster it grows" and, this
is the case with the Doob grass. The attempt to produce a permanent Doob
grass lawn is quite idle unless the ground is extensive and open, and
much trodden by men or sheep. A friend of mine tells me that he covered
a large lawn of the coarse Ooloo grass (_Saccharum cylindricum_) with
mats, which soon killed it, and on removing the mats, the finest Doob
grass sprang up in its place. But the Ooloo grass soon again over-grew
the Doob.
[004] I allude here chiefly to the ryots of wealthy Zemindars and to
other poor Hindu people in the service of their own countrymen. All the
subjects of the British Crown, even in India, are _politically free_,
but individually the poorer Hindus, (especially those who reside at a
distance from large towns,) are unconscious of their rights, and even
the wealthier classes have rarely indeed that proud and noble feeling of
personal independence which characterizes people of all classes and
conditions in England. The feeling with which even a Hindu of wealth and
rank approaches a man in power is very different indeed from that of the
poorest Englishman under similar circumstances. But national education
will soon communicate to the natives of India a larger measure of true
self-respect. It will not be long, I hope, before the Hindus will
understand our favorite maxim of English law, that "Every man's house is
his castle,"--a maxim so finely amplified by Lord Chatham: "_The poorest
man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It
may be frail--its roof may shake--the wind may blow through it--the
storm may enter--but the king of England cannot enter!--all his force
dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement_."
[005] _Literary Recreations_.
[006] I have in some moods preferred the paintings of our own
Gainsborough even to those of Claude--and for this single reason, that
the former gives a peculiar and more touching interest to his landscapes
by the introduction of sweet groups of children. These lovely little
figures are moreover so thoroughly English, and have such an out-of-doors
air, and seem so much a part of external nature, that an Englishman
who is a lover of rural scenery and a patriot, can hardly fail
to be enchanted with the style of his celebrated countryman.--_Literary
Recreations_.
[007] Had Evelyn only composed the great work of his 'Sylva, or a
Discourse of Forest Trees,' &c. his name would have excited the
gratitude of posterity. The voice of the patriot exults in his
dedication to Charles II, prefixed to one of the later editions:--'I
need not acquaint your Majesty, how many millions of timber-trees,
besides infinite others, have been propagated and planted throughout
your vast dominions, at the instigation and by the sole direction of
this work, because your Majesty has been pleased to own it publicly for
my encouragement.' And surely while Britain retains her awful situation
among the nations of Europe, the 'Sylva' of Evelyn will endure with her
triumphant oaks. It was a retired philosopher who aroused the genius of
the nation, and who casting a prophetic eye towards the age in which we
live, has contributed to secure our sovereignty of the seas. The present
navy of Great Britain has been constructed with the oaks which the
genius of Evelyn planted.--_D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature_.
[008] _Crisped knots_ are figures curled or twisted, or having waving
lines intersecting each other. They are sometimes planted in box.
Children, even in these days, indulge their fancy in sowing mustard and
cress, &c. in 'curious knots,' or in favorite names and sentences. I
have done it myself, "I know not how oft,"--and alas, how long ago! But
I still remember with what anxiety I watered and watched the ground, and
with what rapture I at last saw the surface gradually rising and
breaking on the light green heads of the delicate little new-born
plants, all exactly in their proper lines or stations, like a
well-drilled Lilliputian battalion.
Shakespeare makes mention of garden _knots_ in his _Richard the Second_,
where he compares an ill governed state to a neglected garden.
Why should we, in the compass of a pale,
Keep law, and form, and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm estate?
When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds; her finest flowers choked up,
Her fruit-trees all unpruned, her hedges ruined,
Her _knots_ disordered, and her wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars.
There is an allusion to garden _knots_ in _Holinshed's Chronicle_. In
1512 the Earl of Northumberland "had but one gardener who attended
hourly in the garden for setting of erbis and _chipping of knottis_ and
sweeping the said garden clean."
[009] Ovid, in his story of Pyramus and Thisbe, tells us that the black
Mulberry was originally white. The two lovers killed themselves under a
white Mulberry tree and the blood penetrating to the roots of the tree
mixed with the sap and gave its color to the fruit.
[010] _Revived Adonis_,--for, according to tradition he died every year
and revived again. _Alcinous, host of old Laertes' son_,--that is, of
Ulysses, whom he entertained on his return from Troy. _Or that, not
mystic_--not fabulous as the rest, but a real garden which Solomon made
for his wife, the daughter of Pharoah, king of Egypt--WARBURTON
"Divested of harmonious Greek and bewitching poetry," observes Horace
Walpole, "the garden of Alcinous was a small orchard and vineyard with
some beds of herbs and two fountains that watered them, inclosed within
a quickset hedge." Lord Kames, says, still more boldly, that it was
nothing but a kitchen garden. Certainly, gardening amongst the ancient
Greeks, was a very simple business. It is only within the present
century that it has been any where elevated into a fine art.
[011] "We are unwilling to diminish or lose the credit of Paradise, or
only pass it over with [the Hebrew word for] _Eden_, though the Greek be
of a later name. In this excepted, we know not whether the ancient
gardens do equal those of late times, or those at present in Europe. Of
the gardens of Hesperides, we know nothing singular, but some golden
apples. Of Alcinous his garden, we read nothing beyond figs, apples,
olives; if we allow it to be any more than a fiction of Homer, unhappily
placed in Corfu, where the sterility of the soil makes men believe there
was no such thing at all. The gardens of Adonis were so empty that they
afforded proverbial expression, and the principal part thereof was empty
spaces, with herbs and flowers in pots. I think we little understand the
pensile gardens of Semiramis, which made one of the wonders of it
[Babylon], wherein probably the structure exceeded the plants contained
in them. The excellency thereof was probably in the trees, and if the
descension of the roots be equal to the height of trees, it was not
[absurd] of Strebaeus to think the pillars were hollow that the roots
might shoot into them."--_Sir Thomas Browne.--Bohn's Edition of Sir
Thomas Browne's Works, vol. 2, page_ 498.
[012] The house and garden before Pope died were large enough for their
owner. He was more than satisfied with them. "As Pope advanced in
years," says Roscoe, "his love of gardening, and his attention to the
various occupations to which it leads, seem to have increased also. This
predilection was not confined to the ornamental part of this delightful
pursuit, in which he has given undoubted proofs of his proficiency, but
extended to the useful as well as the agreeable, as appears from several
passages in his poems; but he has entered more particularly into this
subject in a letter to Swift (March 25, 1736); "I wish you had any
motive to see this kingdom. I could keep you: for I am rich, that is,
have more than I want, I can afford room to yourself and two servants. I
have indeed room enough; nothing but myself at home. The kind and hearty
housewife is dead! The agreeable and instructive neighbour is gone! Yet
my house is enlarged, and the gardens extend and flourish, as knowing
nothing of the guests they have lost. I have more fruit trees and
kitchen garden than you have any thought of; and, I have good melons and
apples of my own growth. I am as much a better gardener, as I am a worse
poet, than when you saw me; but gardening is near akin to philosophy,
for Tully says, _Agricultura proxima sapientiae_. For God's sake, why
should not you, (that are a step higher than a philosopher, a divine,
yet have too much grace and wit than to be a bishop) even give all you
have to the poor of Ireland (for whom you have already done every thing
else,) so quit the place, and live and die with me? And let _tales anima
concordes_ be our motto and our epitaph."
[013] The leaves of the willow, though green above, are hoar below.
Shakespeare's knowledge of the fact is alluded to by Hazlitt as one of
the numberless evidences of the poet's minute observation of external
nature.
[014] See Mr. Loudon's most interesting and valuable work entitled
_Arboretum et Fruticetum Britanicum_.
[015] All the rules of gardening are reducible to three heads: the
contrasts, the management of surprises and the concealment of the
bounds. "Pray, what is it you mean by the contrasts?" "The disposition
of the lights and shades."--"'Tis the colouring then?"--"Just
that."--"Should not variety be one of the rules?"--"Certainly, one of
the chief; but that is included mostly in the contrasts." I have
expressed them all in two verses[140] (after my manner, in very little
compass), which are in imitation of Horace's--_Omne tulit punctum.
Pope.--Spence's Anecdotes_.
[016] In laying out a garden, the chief thing to be considered is the
genius of the place. Thus at Tiskins, for example, Lord Bathurst should
have raised two or three mounts, because his situation is _all_ plain,
and nothing can please without variety. _Pope--Spence's Anecdotes_.
[017] The seat and gardens of the Lord Viscount Cobham, in
Buckinghamshire. Pope concludes the first Epistle of his Moral Essays
with a compliment to the patriotism of this nobleman.
And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath
Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death:
Such in those moments as in all the past
"Oh, save my country, Heaven!" shall be your last.
[018] Two hundred acres and two hundred millions of francs were made
over to Le Notre by Louis XIV. to complete these geometrical gardens.
One author tells us that in 1816 the ordinary cost of putting a certain
portion of the waterworks in play was at the rate of 200 L. per hour,
and another still later authority states that when the whole were set in
motion once a year on some Royal fete, the cost of the half hour during
which the main part of the exhibition lasted was not less than 3,000 L.
This is surely a most senseless expenditure. It seems, indeed, almost
incredible. I take the statements from _Loudon's_ excellent
_Encyclopaedia of Gardening_. The name of one of the original reporters
is Neill; the name of the other is not given. The gardens formerly were
and perhaps still are full of the vilest specimens of verdant sculpture
in every variety of form. Lord Kames gives a ludicrous account of the
vomiting stone statues there;--"A lifeless statue of an animal pouring
out water may be endured" he observes, "without much disgust: but here
the lions and wolves are put in violent action; each has seized its
prey, a deer or a lamb, in act to devour; and yet, as by hocus-pocus,
the whole is converted into a different scene: the lion, forgetting his
prey, pours out water plentifully; and the deer, forgetting its danger,
performs the same work: a representation no less absurd than that in the
opera, where Alexander the Great, after mounting the wall of a town
besieged, turns his back to the enemy, and entertains his army with a
song."
[019] Broome though a writer of no great genius (if any), had yet the
honor to be associated with Pope in the translation of the Odyssey. He
translated the 2nd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 16th, 18th, and 23rd books. Henley
(Orator Henley) sneered at Pope, in the following couplet, for receiving
so much assistance:
Pope came clean off with Homer, but they say,
Broome went before, and kindly swept the way.
Fenton was another of Pope's auxiliaries. He translated the 1st, 4th,
19th and 20th books (of the Odyssey). Pope himself translated the rest.
[020] Stowe
[021] The late Humphrey Repton, one of the best landscape-gardeners
that England has produced, and who was for many years employed on
alterations and improvements in the house and grounds at Cobham, in
Kent, the seat of the Earl of Darnley, seemed to think that Stowe ought
not to monopolize applause and admiration, "Whether," he said, "we
consider its extent, its magnificence or its comfort, there are few
places that can vie with Cobham." Repton died in 1817, and his patron
and friend the Earl of Darnley put up at Cobham an inscription to his
memory.
The park at Cobham extends over an area of no less than 1,800 acres,
diversified with thick groves and finely scattered single trees and
gentle slopes and broad smooth lawns. Some of the trees are singularly
beautiful and of great age and size. A chestnut tree, named the Four
Sisters, is five and twenty feet in girth. The mansion, of which, the
central part was built by Inigo Jones, is a very noble one. George the
Fourth pronounced the music room the finest room in England. The walls
are of polished white marble with pilasters of sienna marble. The
picture gallery is enriched with valuable specimens of the genius of
Titian and Guido and Salvator Rosa and Sir Joshua Reynolds. There is
another famous estate in Kent, Knole, the seat of
Dorset, the grace of courts, the Muse's pride.
The Earl of Dorset, though but a poetaster himself, knew how to
appreciate the higher genius of others. He loved to be surrounded by the
finest spirits of his time. There is a pleasant anecdote of the company
at his table agreeing to see which amongst them could produce the best
impromptu. Dryden was appointed arbitrator. Dorset handed a slip of
paper to Dryden, and when all the attempts were collected, Dryden
decided without hesitation that Dorset's was the best. It ran thus: "_I
promise to pay Mr. John Dryden, on demand, the sum of L500. Dorset_."
[022] This is generally put into the mouth of Pope, but if we are to
believe Spence, who is the only authority for the anecdote, it was
addressed to himself.
[023] It has been said that in laying out the grounds at Hagley, Lord
Lyttelton received some valuable hints from the author of _The Seasons_,
who was for some time his Lordship's guest. The poet has commemorated
the beauties of Hagley Park in a description that is familiar to all
lovers of English poetry. I must make room for a few of the concluding
lines.
Meantime you gain the height, from whose fair brow,
The bursting prospect spreads immense around:
And snatched o'er hill, and dale, and wood, and lawn,
And verdant field, and darkening heath between,
And villages embosomed soft in trees,
And spiry towns by surging columns marked,
Of household smoke, your eye excursive roams;
Wide stretching from the hall, in whose kind haunt
The hospitable genius lingers still,
To where the broken landscape, by degrees,
Ascending, roughens into rigid hills;
O'er which the Cambrian mountains, like far clouds,
That skirt the blue horizon, dusky rise.
It certainly does not look as if there had been any want of kindly
feeling towards Shenstone on the part of Lyttelton when we find the
following inscription in Hagley Park.
To the memory of
William Shenstone, Esquire,
In whose verse
Were all the natural graces.
And in whose manners
Was all the amiable simplicity
Of pastoral poetry,
With the sweet tenderness
Of the elegiac.
There is also at Hagley a complimentary inscription on an urn to
Alexander Pope; and, on an octagonal building called _Thomson's Seat_,
there is an inscription to the author of _The Seasons_. Hagley is kept
up with great care and is still in possession of the descendants of the
founder. But a late visitor (Mr. George Dodd) expresses a doubt whether
the Leasowes, even in its comparative decay, is not a finer bit of
landscape, a more delightful place to lose one-self in, than even its
larger and better preserved neighbour.
[024] Coleridge is reported to have said--"There is in Crabbe an
absolute defect of high imagination; he gives me little pleasure. Yet no
doubt he has much power of a certain kind, and it is good to cultivate,
even at some pains, a catholic taste in literature." Walter Savage
Landor, in his "Imaginary Conversations," makes Porson say--"Crabbe
wrote with a two-penny nail and scratched rough truths and rogues' facts
on mud walls." Horace Smith represents Crabbe, as "Pope in worsted
stockings." That there is merit of some sort or other, and that of no
ordinary kind, in Crabbe's poems, is what no one will deny. They
relieved the languor of the last days of two great men, of very
different characters--Sir Walter Scott and Charles James Fox.
[025] The poet had a cottage and garden in Kew-foot-Lane at or near
Richmond. In the alcove in the garden is a small table made of the wood
of the walnut tree. There is a drawer to the table which in all
probability often received charge of the poet's effusions hot from the
brain. On a brass tablet inserted in the top of the table is this
inscription--"_This table was the property of James Thomson, and always
stood in this seat._"
[026] Shene or Sheen: the old name of Richmond, signifying in Saxon
_shining_ or _splendour_.
[027] Highgate and Hamstead.
[028] In his last sickness
[029] On looking back at page 36 I find that I have said in the foot
note that it is only within _the present century_ that gardening has
been elevated into _a fine art_. I did not mean within the 55 years of
this 19th century, but _within a hundred years_. Even this, however, was
an inadvertency. We may go a little further back. Kent and Pope lived to
see Landscape-Gardening considered a fine art. Before their time there
were many good practical gardeners, but the poetry of the art was not
then much regarded except by a very few individuals of more than
ordinary refinement.
[030] Catherine the Second grossly disgraced herself as a woman--partly
driven into misconduct herself by the behaviour of her husband--but as a
sovereign it cannot be denied that she exhibited a penetrating sagacity
and great munificence; and perhaps the lovers of literature and science
should treat her memory with a little consideration. When Diderot was in
distress and advertized his library for sale, the Empress sent him an
order on a banker at Paris for the amount demanded, namely fifteen
thousand livres, on condition that the library was to be left as a
deposit with the owner, and that he was to accept a gratuity of one
thousand livres annually for taking charge of the books, until the
Empress should require them. This was indeed a delicate and ingenious
kindness. Lord Brougham makes D'Alembert and not Diderot the subject of
this anecdote. It is a mistake. See the Correspondence of Baron de Gumm
and Diderot with the Duke of Saxe-Gotha.
Many of the Russian nobles keep up to this day the taste in gardening
introduced by Catherine the Second, and have still many gardens laid out
in the English style. They have often had in their employ both English
and Scottish gardeners. There is an anecdote of a Scotch gardener in the
Crimea in one of the public journals:--
"Our readers"--says the _Banffshire Journal_--"will recollect that when
the Allies made a brief expedition to Yalto, in the south of the Crimea,
they were somewhat surprised and gratified by the sight of some splendid
gardens around a seat of Prince Woronzow. Little did our countrymen
think that these gardens were the work of a Scotchman, and a Moray loon;
yet such was the case." The history of the personage in question is a
somewhat singular one: "Jamie Sinclair, the garden boy, had a natural
genius, and played the violin. Lady Cumming had this boy educated by the
family tutor, and sent him to London, where he was well known in
1836-7-8, for his skill in drawing and colouring. Mr. Knight, of the
Exotic Nursery, for whom he used to draw orchids and new plants, sent
him to the Crimea, to Prince Woronzow, where he practised for thirteen
years. He had laid out these beautiful gardens which the allies the
other day so much admired; had the care of 10,000 acres of vineyards
belonging to the prince; was well known to the Czar, who often consulted
him about improvements, and gave him a "medal of merit" and a diploma or
passport, by which he was free to pass from one end of the empire to the
other, and also through Austria and Prussia, I have seen these
instruments. He returned to London in 1851, and was just engaged with a
London publisher for a three years' job, when Menschikoff found the
Turks too hot for him last April twelve-month; the Russians then made up
for blows, and Mr. Sinclair was more dangerous for them in London than
Lord Aberdeen. He was the only foreigner who was ever allowed to see all
that was done in and out of Sebastopol, and over all the Crimea. The
Czar, however, took care that Sinclair could not join the allies; but
where he is and what he is about I must not tell, until the war is
over--except that he is not in Russia, and that he will never play first
fiddle again in Morayshire."
[031] Brown succeeded to the popularity of Kent. He was nicknamed,
_Capability Brown_, because when he had to examine grounds previous to
proposed alterations and improvements he talked much of their
_capabilities_. One of the works which are said to do his memory most
honor, is the Park of Nuneham, the seat of Lord Harcourt. The grounds
extend to 1,200 acres. Horace Walpole said that they contained scenes
worthy of the bold pencil of Rubens, and subjects for the tranquil
sunshine of Claude de Lorraine. The following inscription is placed over
the entrance to the gardens.
Here universal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Leads on the eternal Spring.
It is said that the _gardens_ at Nuneham were laid out by Mason, the
poet.
[032] Mrs. Stowe visited the Jardin Mabille in the Champs Elysees, a
sort of French Vauxhall, where small jets of gas were so arranged as to
imitate "flowers of the softest tints and the most perfect shape."
[033] Napoleon, it is said, once conceived the plan of roofing with
glass the gardens of the Tuileries, so that they might be used as a
winter promenade.
[034] Addison in the 477th number of the _Spectator_ in alluding to
Kensington Gardens, observes; "I think there are as many kinds of
gardening as poetry; our makers of parterres and flower gardens are
epigrammatists and sonnetteers in the art; contrivers of bowers and
grottos, treillages and cascades, are romance writers. Wise and London
are our heroic poets; and if I may single out any passage of their works
to commend I shall take notice of that part in the upper garden at
Kensington, which was at first nothing but a gravel pit. It must have
been a fine genius for gardening that could have thought of forming such
an unsightly hollow unto so beautiful an area and to have hit the eye
with so uncommon and agreeable a scene as that which it is now wrought
into."
[035] Lord Bathurst, says London, informed Daines Barrington, that _he_
(Lord Bathurst) was the first who deviated from the straight line in
sheets of water by following the lines in a valley in widening a brook
at Ryskins, near Colnbrook; and Lord Strafford, thinking that it was
done from poverty or economy asked him to own fairly how little more it
would have cost him to have made it straight. In these days no possessor
of a park or garden has the water on his grounds either straight or
square if he can make it resemble the Thames as described by Wordsworth:
The river wanders at its own sweet will.
Horace Walpole in his lively and pleasant little work on Modern
Gardening almost anticipates this thought. In commending Kent's style of
landscape-gardening he observes: "_The gentle stream was taught to
serpentize at its pleasure."_
[036] This Palm-house, "the glory of the gardens," occupies an area of
362 ft. in length; the centre is an hundred ft. in width and 66 ft. in
height.
It must charm a Native of the East on a visit to our country, to behold
such carefully cultured specimens, in a great glass-case in England, of
the trees called by Linnaeus "the Princes of the vegetable kingdom," and
which grow so wildly and in such abundance in every corner of Hindustan.
In this conservatory also are the banana and plantain. The people of
England are in these days acquainted, by touch and sight, with almost
all the trees that grow in the several quarters of the world. Our
artists can now take sketches of foreign plants without crossing the
seas. An allusion to the Palm tree recals some criticisms on
Shakespeare's botanical knowledge.
"Look here," says _Rosalind_, "what I found on a palm tree." "A palm
tree in the forest of Arden," remarks Steevens, "is as much out of place
as a lioness in the subsequent scene." Collier tries to get rid of the
difficulty by suggesting that Shakespeare may have written _plane tree_.
"Both the remark and the suggestion," observes Miss Baker, "might have
been spared if those gentlemen had been aware that in the counties
bordering on the Forest of Arden, the name of an exotic tree is
transferred to an indigenous one." The _salix caprea_, or goat-willow,
is popularly known as the "palm" in Northamptonshire, no doubt from
having been used for the decoration of churches on Palm Sunday--its
graceful yellow blossoms, appearing at a time when few other trees have
put forth a leaf, having won for it that distinction. Clare so calls
it:--
"Ye leaning palms, that seem to look
Pleased o'er your image in the brook."
That Shakespeare included the willow in his forest scenery is certain,
from another passage in the same play:--
"West of this place, down in the neighbour bottom.
The _rank of osiers_ by the murmuring stream,
Left on your right hand brings you to the place."
The customs and amusements of Northamptonshire, which are frequently
noticed in these volumes, were identical with those of the neighbouring
county of Warwick, and, in like manner illustrate very clearly many
passages in the great dramatist.--_Miss Baker's "Glossary of
Northamptonshire Words." (Quoted by the London Athenaeum_.)
[037] Mrs. Hemans once took up her abode for some weeks with Wordsworth
at Rydal Mount, and was so charmed with the country around, that she was
induced to take a cottage called _Dove's Nest_, which over-looked the
lake of Windermere. But tourists and idlers so haunted her retreat and
so worried her for autographs and Album contributions, that she was
obliged to make her escape. Her little cottage and garden in the village
of Wavertree, near Liverpool, seem to have met the fate which has
befallen so many of the residences of the poets. "Mrs. Hemans's little
flower-garden" (says a late visitor) "was no more--but rank grass and
weeds sprang up luxuriously; many of the windows were broken; the
entrance gate was off its hinges: the vine in front of the house trailed
along the ground, and a board, with '_This house to let_' upon it, was
nailed on the door. I entered the deserted garden and looked into the
little parlour--once so full of taste and elegance; it was gloomy and
cheerless. The paper was spotted with damp, and spiders had built their
webs in the corner. As I mused on the uncertainty of human life, I
exclaimed with the eloquent Burke,--'What shadows we are, and what
shadows we pursue!'"
The beautiful grounds of the late Professor Wilson at Elleray, we are
told by Mr. Howitt in his interesting "_Homes and Haunts of the British
Poets_" have also been sadly changed. "Steam," he says, "as little as
time, has respected the sanctity of the poet's home, but has drawn its
roaring iron steeds opposite to its gate and has menaced to rush through
it and lay waste its charmed solitude. In plain words, I saw the stages
of a projected railway running in an ominous line across the very lawn
and before the windows of Elleray." I believe the whole place has been
purchased by a Railway Company.
[038] In Churton's _Rail Book of England_, published about three years
ago, Pope's Villa is thus noticed--"Not only was this temple of the
Muses--this abode of genius--the resort of the learned and the wittiest
of the land--levelled to the earth, but all that the earth produced to
remind posterity of its illustrious owner, and identify the dead with
the living strains he has bequeathed to us, was plucked up by the roots
and scattered to the wind." On the authority of William Hewitt I have
stated on an earlier page that some splendid Spanish chesnut trees and
some elms and cedars planted by Pope at Twickenham were still in
existence. But Churton is a later authority. Howitt's book was published
in 1847.
[039] _One would have thought &c._ See the garden of Armida, as
described by Tasso, C. xvi. 9, &c.
"In lieto aspetto il bel giardin s'aperse &c."
Here was all that variety, which constitutes the nature of beauty: hill
and dale, lawns and crystal rivers, &c.
"And, that which all faire works doth most aggrace,
"The art, which all that wrought, appeared in no place."
Which is literally from Tasso, C, xvi 9.
"E quel, che'l bello, e'l caro accresce a l'opre,
"L'arte, che tutto fa, nulla si scopre."
The next stanza is likewise translated from Tasso, C. xvi 10. And, if
the reader likes the comparing of the copy with the original, he may see
many other beauties borrowed from the Italian poet. The fountain, and
the two bathing damsels, are taken from Tasso, C. xv, st. 55, &c. which
he calls, _Il fonte del riso_. UPTON.
[040] Cowper was evidently here thinking rather of Milton than of Homer.
_Flowers of all hue_, and without thorns the rose.
_Paradise Lost_.
Pope translates the passage thus;
Beds of all various _herbs_, for ever green,
In beauteous order terminate the scene.
Homer referred to pot-herbs, not to flowers of all hues. Cowper is
generally more faithful than Pope, but he is less so in this instance.
In the above description we have Homer's highest conception of a
princely garden:--in five acres were included an orchard, a vineyard,
and some beds of pot-herbs. Not a single flower is mentioned, by the
original author, though his translator has been pleased to steal some
from the garden of Eden and place them on "the verge extreme" of the
four acres. Homer of course meant to attach to a Royal residence as
Royal a garden; but as Bacon says, "men begin to build stately sooner
than to garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection." The
mansion of Alcinous was of brazen walls with golden columns; and the
Greeks and Romans had houses that were models of architecture when their
gardens exhibited no traces whatever of the hand of taste.
[041]
_And over him, art stryving to compayre
With nature, did an arber greene dispied_
This whole episode is taken from Tasso, C. 16, where Rinaldo is
described in dalliance with Armida. The bower of bliss is her garden
"Stimi (si misto il culto e col negletto)
"Sol naturali e gli ornamenti e i siti,
"Di natura arte par, che per diletto
"L'imitatrice sua scherzando imiti."
See also Ovid, _Met_ iii. 157
"Cujus in extremo est antrum nemorale necessu,
"Arte laboratum nulla, simulaverat artem
"Ingenio natura fuo nam pumice vivo,
"Et lenibus tophis nativum duxerat arcum
"Fons sonat a dextra, tenui perlucidas unda
"Margine gramineo patulos incinctus hiatus"
UPTON
If this passage may be compared with Tasso's elegant description of
Armida's garden, Milton's _pleasant grove_ may vie with both.[141] He
is, however, under obligations to the sylvan scene of Spenser before us.
Mr. J.C. Walker, to whom the literature of Ireland and of Italy is highly
indebted, has mentioned to me his surprise that the writers on modern
gardening should have overlooked the beautiful pastoral description in
this and the two following stanzas.[142] It is worthy a place, he adds,
in the Eden of Milton. Spenser, on this occasion, lost sight of the
"trim gardens" of Italy and England, and drew from the treasures of his
own rich imagination. TODD.
_And fast beside these trickled softly downe.
A gentle stream, &c._
Compare the following stanza in the continuation of the _Orlando
Innamorato_, by Nilcolo degli Agostinti, Lib. iv, C. 9.
"Ivi e un mormorio assai soave, e basso,
Che ogniun che l'ode lo fa addornientare,
L'acqua, ch'io dissi gia per entro un sasso
E parea che dicesse nel sonare.
Vatti riposa, ormai sei stanco, e lasso,
E gli augeletti, che s'udian cantare,
Ne la dolce armonia par che ogn'un dica,
Deh vien, e dormi ne la piaggia, aprica,"
Spenser's obligations to this poem seem to have escaped the notice of
his commentators. J.C. WALKER.
[042] The oak was dedicated to Jupiter, and the poplar to Hercules.
[043] _Sicker_, surely; Chaucer spells it _siker_.
[044] _Yode_, went.
[045] _Tabreret_, a tabourer.
[046] _Tho_, then
[047] _Attone_, at once--with him.
[048] Cato being present on one occasion at the floral games, the people
out of respect to him, forbore to call for the usual exposures; when
informed of this he withdrew, that the spectators might not be deprived
of their usual entertainment.
[049] What is the reason that an easterly wind is every where
unwholesome and disagreeable? I am not sufficiently scientific to answer
this question. Pope takes care to notice the fitness of the easterly
wind for the _Cave of Spleen_.
No cheerful breeze this sullen region knows,
The dreaded east is all the wind that blows.
_Rape of the Lock_.
[050] One sweet scene of early pleasures in my native land I have
commemorated in the following sonnet:--
NETLEY ABBEY.
Romantic ruin! who could gaze on thee
Untouched by tender thoughts, and glimmering dreams
Of long-departed years? Lo! nature seems
Accordant with thy silent majesty!
The far blue hills--the smooth reposing sea--
The lonely forest--the meandering streams--
The farewell summer sun, whose mellowed beams
Illume thine ivied halls, and tinge each tree,
Whose green arms round thee cling--the balmy air--
The stainless vault above, that cloud or storm
'Tis hard to deem will ever more deform--
The season's countless graces,--all appear
To thy calm glory ministrant, and form
A scene to peace and meditation dear!
D.L.R.
[051] "I was ever more disposed," says Hume, "to see the favourable than
the unfavourable side of things; _a turn of mind which it is more happy
to possess, than to be born to an estate of ten thousand a year_."
[052] So called, because the grounds were laid out in a tasteful style,
under the direction of Lord Auckland's sister, the Honorable Miss Eden.
[053] _Songs of the East by Mrs. W.S. Carshore. D'Rozario & Co,
Calcutta_ 1854.
[054] The lines form a portion of a poem published in _Literary Leaves_
in the year 1840.
[055] Perhaps some formal or fashionable wiseacres may pronounce such
simple ceremonies _vulgar_. And such is the advance of civilization that
even the very chimney-sweepers themselves begin to look upon their old
May-day merry-makings as beneath the dignity of their profession.
"Suppose now" said Mr. Jonas Hanway to a sooty little urchin, "I were to
give you a shilling." "Lord Almighty bless your honor, and thank you."
"And what if I were to give you a fine tie-wig to wear on May-day?" "Ah!
bless your honor, my master wont let me go out on May-day," "Why not?"
"Because, he says, _it's low life_." And yet the merrie makings on
May-day which are now deemed _ungenteel_ by chimney-sweepers were once the
delight of Princes:--
Forth goth all the court, both most and least,
To fetch the flowres fresh, and branch and blome,
And namely hawthorn brought both page and grome,
And then rejoicing in their great delite
Eke ech at others threw the flowres bright,
The primrose, violet, and the gold
With fresh garlants party blue and white.
_Chaucer_.
[056] The May-pole was usually decorated with the flowers of the
hawthorn, a plant as emblematical of the spring as the holly is of
Christmas. Goldsmith has made its name familiar even to the people of
Bengal, for almost every student in the upper classes of the Government
Colleges has the following couplet by heart.
The _hawthorn bush_, with seats beneath the shade,
For talking age and whispering lovers made.
The hawthorn was amongst Burns's floral pets. "I have," says he, "some
favorite flowers in spring, among which are, the mountain daisy, the
harebell, the fox-glove, the wild-briar rose, the budding birch and the
hoary hawthorn, that I view and hang over with particular delight."
L.E.L. speaks of the hawthorn hedge on which "the sweet May has showered
its white luxuriance," and the Rev. George Croly has a patriotic
allusion to this English plant, suggested by a landscape in France.
'Tis a rich scene, and yet the richest charm
That e'er clothed earth in beauty, lives not here.
Winds no green fence around the cultured farm
_No blossomed hawthorn shields the cottage dear_:
The land is bright; and yet to thine how drear,
Unrivalled England! Well the thought may pine
For those sweet fields where, each a little sphere,
In shaded, sacred fruitfulness doth shine,
And the heart higher beats that says; 'This spot is mine.'
[057] On May-day, the Ancient Romans used to go in procession to the
grotto of Egeria.
[058] See what is said of palms in a note on page 81.
[059] Phillips's _Flora Historica_.
[060] The word primrose is supposed to be a compound of _prime_ and
_rose_, and Spenser spells it prime rose
The pride and prime rose of the rest
Made by the maker's self to be admired
The Rev. George Croly characterizes Bengal as a mountainous country--
There's glory on thy _mountains_, proud Bengal--
and Dr. Johnson in his _Journey of a day_, (Rambler No. 65) charms the
traveller in Hindustan with a sight of the primrose and the oak.
"As he passed along, his ears were delighted with the morning song of
the bird of paradise; he was fanned by the last flutters of the sinking
breeze, and sprinkled with dew by groves of spices, he sometimes
contemplated the towering height of the oak, monarch of the hills; and
sometimes caught the gentle fragrance of the primrose, eldest daughter
of the spring."
In some book of travels, I forget which, the writer states, that he had
seen the primrose in Mysore and in the recesses of the Pyrenees. There
is a flower sold by the Bengallee gardeners for the primrose, though it
bears but small resemblance to the English flower of that name. On
turning to Mr. Piddington's Index to the Plants of India I find under
the head of _Primula_--Primula denticula--Stuartii--rotundifolia--with
the names in the Mawar or Nepaulese dialect.
[061] In strewing their graves the Romans affected the rose; the Greeks
amaranthus and myrtle: the funeral pyre consisted of sweet fuel,
cypress, fir, larix, yew, and trees perpetually verdant lay silent
expressions of their surviving hopes. _Sir Thomas Browne_.
[062] The allusion to the cowslip in Shakespeare's description of
Imogene must not be passed over here.--
On her left breast
A mole cinque-spotted, like the crimson drop
I' the bottom of the cowslip.
[063] The Guelder rose--This elegant plant is a native of Britain, and
when in flower, has at first sight, the appearance of a little maple
tree that has been pelted with snow balls, and we almost fear to see
them melt away in the warm sunshine--_Glenny_.
[064] In a greenhouse
[065] Some flowers have always been made to a certain degree
emblematical of sentiment in England as elsewhere, but it was the Turks
who substituted flowers for words to such an extent as to entitle
themselves to be regarded as the inventors of the floral language.
[066] The floral or vegetable language is not always the language of
love or compliment. It is sometimes severe and scornful. A gentleman
sent a lady a rose as a declaration of his passion and a slip of paper
attached, with the inscription--"If not accepted, I am off to the war."
The lady forwarded in return a mango (man, go!)
[067] No part of the creation supposed to be insentient, exhibits to an
imaginative observer such an aspect of spiritual life and such an
apparent sympathy with other living things as flowers, shrubs and trees.
A tree of the genus Mimosa, according to Niebuhr, bends its branches
downward as if in hospitable salutation when any one approaches near to
it. The Arabs, are on this account so fond of the "courteous tree" that
the injuring or cutting of it down is strictly prohibited.
[068] It has been observed that the defense is supplied in the following
line--_want of sense_--a stupidity that "errs in ignorance and not in
cunning."
[069] There is apparently so much doubt and confusion is to the identity
of the true Hyacinth, and the proper application of its several names
that I shall here give a few extracts from other writers on this
subject.
Some authors suppose the Red Martagon Lily to be the poetical Hyacinth
of the ancients, but this is evidently a mistaken opinion, as the azure
blue color alone would decide and Pliny describes the Hyacinth as having
a sword grass and the smell of the grape flower, which agrees with the
Hyacinth, but not with the Martagon. Again, Homer mentions it with
fragrant flowers of the same season of the Hyacinth. The poets also
notice the hyacinth under different colours, and every body knows that
the hyacinth flowers with sapphire colored purple, crimson, flesh and
white bells, but a blue martagon will be sought for in vain. _Phillips'
Flora Historica_.
A doubt hangs over the poetical history of the modern, as well as of the
ancient flower, owing to the appellation _Harebell_ being,
indiscriminately applied both to _Scilla_ wild Hyacinth, and also to
_Campanula rotundifolia, Blue Bell_. Though the Southern bards have
occasionally misapplied the word _Harebell_ it will facilitate our
understanding which flower is meant if we bear in mind as a general rule
that that name is applied differently in various parts of the island,
thus the Harebell of Scottish writers is the _Campanula_, and the
Bluebell, so celebrated in Scottish song, is the wild Hyacinth or
_Scilla_ while in England the same names are used conversely, the
_Campanula_ being the Bluebell and the wild Hyacinth the Harebell. _Eden
Warwick_.
The Hyacinth of the ancient fabulists appears to have been the
corn-flag, (_Gladiolus communis_ of botanists) but the name was applied
vaguely and had been early applied to the great larkspur (Delphinium
Ajacis) on account of the similar spots on the petals, supposed to
represent the Greek exclamation of grief _Ai Ai_, and to the hyacinth of
modern times.
Our wild hyacinth, which contributes so much to the beauty of our
woodland scenery during the spring, may be regarded as a transition
species between scilla and hyacinthus, the form and drooping habit of
its flower connecting it with the latter, while the six pieces that form
the two outer circles, being separate to the base, give it the technical
character of the former. It is still called _Hyacinthus non-scriptus_--but
as the true hyacinth equally wants the inscription, the name is
singularly inappropriate. The botanical name of the hyacinth is
_Hyacinthus orientalis_ which applies equally to all the varieties of
colour, size and fulness.--_W. Hinks_.
[070] Old Gerard calls it Blew Harebel or English _Jacint_, from the
French _Jacinthe_.
[071] Inhabitants of the Island of Chios
[072] Supposed by some to be Delphinium Ajacis or Larkspur. But no one
can discover any letters on the Larkspur.
[073] Some _savants_ say that it was not the _sunflower_ into which the
lovelorn lass was transformed, but the _Heliotrope_ with its sweet odour
of vanilla. Heliotrope signifies _I turn towards the sun_. It could not
have been the sun flower, according to some authors because that came
from Peru and Peru was not known to Ovid. But it is difficult to settle
this grave question. As all flowers turn towards the sun, we cannot fix
on any one that is particularly entitled to notice on that account.
[074] Zephyrus.
[075] "A remarkably intelligent young botanist of our acquaintance
asserts it as his firm conviction that many a young lady who would
shrink from being kissed under the mistletoe would not have the same
objection to that ceremony if performed _under the rose_."--_Punch_.
[076] Mary Howitt mentions that amongst the private cultivators of roses
in the neighbourhood of London, the well-known publisher Mr. Henry S.
Bohn is particularly distinguished. In his garden at Twickenham one
thousand varieties of the rose are brought to great perfection. He gives
a sort of floral fete to his friends in the height of the rose season.
[077] The learned dry the flower of the Forget me not and flatten it
down in their herbals, and call it, _Myosotis Scorpioides--Scorpion
shaped mouse's ear_! They have been reproached for this by a brother
savant, Charles Nodier, who was not a learned man only but a man of wit
and sense.--_Alphonse Karr_.
[078] The Abbe Molina in his History of Chili mentions a species of
basil which he calls _ocymum salinum_: he says it resembles the common
basil, except that the stalk is round and jointed; and that though it
grows sixty miles from the sea, yet every morning it is covered with
saline globules, which are hard and splendid, appearing at a distance
like dew; and that each plant furnishes about an ounce of fine salt
every day, which the peasants collect and use as common salt, but esteem
it superior in flavour.--_Notes to Darwin's Loves of the Plants_.
[079] The Dutch are a strange people and of the most heterogeneous
composition. They have an odd mixture in their nature of the coldest
utilitarianism and the most extravagant romance. A curious illustration
of this is furnished in their tulipomania, in which there was a struggle
between the love of the substantial and the love of the beautiful. One
of their authors enumerates the following articles as equivalent in
money value to the price of one tulip root--"two lasts of wheat--four
lasts of rye--four fat oxen--eight fat swine--twelve fat sheep--two
hogsheads of wine--four tons of butter--one thousand pounds of cheese--a
complete bed--a suit of clothes--and a silver drinking cup."
[080] _Maun_, must
[081] _Stoure_, dust
[082] _Weet_, wetness, rain
[083] _Glinted_, peeped
[084] _Wa's_, walls.
[085] _Bield_, shelter
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