A'cer creticum.-If any doubt exists in the mind of any person, that this species is the same as A. heterophyllum, they may satisfy it at this moment at Syon, and also at Croome. At the former place, the large tree, perhaps the largest and the best grown in the world, has all the leaves on its branches lobed, and those on the suckers rising from the collar of the tree all oblong lanceolate. At Croome the tree has been clipped, and on the upper part of it the leaves are lobed, while, on all the places most cut with the shears, they are oblong, twice or thrice the length of the lobed leaves, and without the least appearance of lobes.-W. Clarke. Croome Park, Oct. 12. 1839.

Trees and Shrubs in Croome Park which suffered by the winter of 1837-8. -Ptèlea trifoliàta, Méspilus canariénsis [?], Shephérdia canadensis, Elæágnus argentea, Mòrus papyrífera, several rhododendrons, azaleas, and andromedas. Arbutus Andráchne much hurt. Ligustrum chinénse, 15 ft. high, killed. Eriobotrya japónica, against a wall in a warm situation, killed. Many common and Portugal laurels and laurustinuses killed to the ground, and many alive and doing well. All the large cypresses that you so much admired are alive, and looking well. - Id.

Heracleum asperrimum.— About two years ago I received from Mr. William Christy three seeds of Heracleum asperrimum, which I immediately sowed, and have now a most gigantic plant of it growing in my nursery grounds. Its height is 10 ft.; the flower stem, which supports several lateral shoots, is 16 in. in circumference, producing 36 umbels of beautiful white flowers, which are now beginning to set their seed. The circumference of the plant at the extremity of its leaves is 60 ft. The whole together forms a magnificent coup d'œil, and is strikingly grand. If you think this worth publishing in your valuable Magazine, it is at your service, or if you should wish any of the seeds, I shall be most happy to send you a quantity as soon as they are ripe.. Bernard Saunders. Sept. 1839.

We have had H. aspérrimum 12 ft. high, and it has grown 14 ft. high in a moist situation at Bromley Hill.—Cond.

New Annuals raised in the Clapton Nursery. Eupatorium odoratíssimum Graham, raised from seeds received from Mr. Morrison, Real del Monte in Mexico, along with seeds of Sálvia pàtens, Péntstemon gentianöides coccinea, and many other good-looking plants, which have not yet flowered. A new Trachymène [Didíscus], and a new and curious Lobèlia, both raised from seeds sent direct to us from the Swan River by Mr. Drummond. The Trachymène is a very beautiful plant, only differing from T. cærulea in its colour, which is pink; and if sown early in the spring on a slight hot-bed, and planted out in May, it will make a fine addition to our border annuals. H. L. Clapton Nursery, Nov. 23. 1839.

Rhodanthe Manglèsii. — A specimen was presented to us by Captain Mangles, about 18 in. high by 14 in. broad, with above a 1000 flowers expanded, and twice as many in the bud. The plant was brought to this extraordinary size by Mr. Goode, foreman to Mr. Henderson, of the Pine-apple Nursery, Edgware Road. The seeds were sown April 5. in peat, with a little loam, in pots. In May, the plants were transplanted, while in the seed-leaf, and they were subsequently shifted six different times till about the middle of August: they were in No. 16 pots (6 in. across), and in the degree of perfection mentioned. The Rhodanthe Manglèsi has a great tendency to grow upwards without extending in breadth, but this is counteracted by frequent transplanting, so as never to allow the roots completely to fill the pot. (See Ladies' Flow. Gard., p.199.) Roses in November.—A correspondent informs us that one of the best shows of roses which he has ever seen in autumn was this year growing in Messrs. Lane's Nursery, at Great Berkhampstead, where they continued producing their flowers contemporaneously with dahlias, till they were destroyed by frost. We ourselves saw nearly 50 varieties of roses from the above nursery, ex'hibited at the Horticultural Society's rooms in Regent Street on November 3.; many of them were large and showy, the colours chiefly red and scarlet, or red and purple, and some of them were very fragrant. — Cond.

The Bokhara Clover.- Mr. Gorrie, jun., took a specimen to the Highland and Agricultural Society's show, at Inverness, from plants grown by his father, raised from the seeds we sent him. The specimen, Mr. Gorrie, sen., informs us, was about 5 ft. high, with numerous branches of from 18 in. to 2 ft. in length; the plant having grown unsurrounded by others. It was just coming into flower about the 20th of September. It had numerous thick, strong, white, stringy roots, apparently perennial; leaves longer and narrower, and of a lighter pea-green colour than those of Melilotus officinalis. Pods racemose, orbicular, small, 2-seeded. Style persistent; flowers small, white. Stipules lanceolate. From the plant flowering the first year, Mr. Gorrie thinks it cannot be the M. arborea. It possesses, he says, an estimable property not common to other melilots; viz., that cattle eat it freely. Should it turn out a perennial, or even a biennial, Mr. Gorrie thinks it may prove useful in alternate husbandry. A patch of plants were eaten readily by cows in the beginning of August, and the second cutting on September 23. was 2 ft. high.- Cond.

The Caper is so rare in England, that I cannot help taking notice of it in a particular manner, having myself brought it to perfection in England without the trouble of hot-beds or green-houses, and I believe I was the first that has made the caper familiar to our climate. It is now about four years since my friend Mr. Balle, of Camden House, received some caper seeds from Italy, which I then sowed in the scaffold holes of his garden walls, to imitate, as near as possible, the method of their growth about Toulon, and at the same time put several of the seeds into a hot-bed; the consequence was, that those which were sown in the wall rubbish shot near 6 in. the same summer, and the few that came up in the hot-bed were scarce 3 in. high the first year, although they were housed with the tenderest exotic plants, and those in the walls stood the winter without shelter. The second year those plants in the walls made shoots of a foot in length, while those in the pots hardly added 2 in. to their height. The third year, in April, I cut the shoots of the foregoing summer from the plants that were abroad, leaving only a bud or two of each near the original stem, which, the same summer, made shoots nearly 3 ft. long, to the number of about forty upon each plant, and put out buds for blossoms; but the plants in the pots did not advance above 2 in. In short, the last year, one single plant in the wall had not less than a quart of blossom buds upon it fit to pickle, and the plant perfected some of its fruit. Thus, if the plant be headed down in the spring like a willow, it will every summer make a beautiful bush, and afford as good capers as grow in Italy. (Bradley's Works of Nature, 1721, p. 36.)

ART. IV. Mr. Smith of Monkwood, Ayrshire.

MR. SMITH is one of the most enthusiastic practical botanists that Scotland can boast of; and, being now 80 years of age, has through unavoidable circumstances been reduced to a state which claims the sympathy of all his friends. Whoever is personally acquainted with the man, will not require another word said in his behalf. To those who are not, we submit the following brief notice, drawn up from a private letter of his friend and neighbour, Mr. Skinner, and from personal knowledge. Mr. Smith is a native of Ayrshire, in which country, after going through the regular routine of an apprentice and journeyman gardener, he went to England in pursuit of professional improvement, and worked at Stow, Syon House, and in several metropolitan nurseries. He was some years superintendant of the London Botanic Gardens, under the celebrated Mr. Curtis, founder and author of the Botanical Magazine and Flora Londinensis, from whose kindness, when he returned to Ayr in 1784 to commence business as a nurseryman, he received 700 species of hardy plants, which formed the foundation of the first public collection of any note made in Scotland. In 1786, Messrs. Dickson of the Leith Walk Nurseries, Edinburgh, purchased 400 species from him; and many

other British collections are indebted to him for plants which he received from London, or obtained from other sources. A more enthusiastic and disinterested botanist never existed. The sight of a new plant had the power of enchantment over him, and so completely engrossed every feeling of his heart, that pecuniary matters never entered his thoughts. He was unwearied in his instruction and assistance to young gardeners; and, in order to induce the youth of his native country to cultivate the study of botany, he offered in 1828, by advertisement in the Ayr newspapers, to supply any parochial school in Ayrshire with a collection of plants scientifically arranged, to illustrate the Linnæan System of Botany, free of expense. This offer, he often regrets, was not accepted or acknowledged, even in a single instance. With all this, the retired habits and extreme modesty and amiability of his character, joined with great cheerfulness, and a degree of enthusiasm that nothing can surpass, endeared him to all with whom he was personally acquainted. We shall never forget the reception which he gave us at Ayr, and at Monkwood, in 1831. Mr. Smith's offer to supply collections of plants to parochial schools, at a time when the idea of having school gardens was quite new in this country, is alone sufficient to hand down his name to posterity, not only as an enlightened, liberal, and most benevolent man, but as one in advance of the age in which he lived. That such a man should suffer in the decline of life, and at the age of 80 years, for want of encouragement, is a most lamentable circumstance, though by no means uncommon. Happily there are men who can sympathise with his condition, and we hope to see a practical proof of this, in such a liberal subscription as will put Mr. Smith and his family, for his future days, beyond the reach of want. The names of subscribers will be received by Mr. Skinner, Ayr; and we know the liberality and kindness of nurserymen sufficiently well, to foresee that they will not only subscribe, but promote the scheme of the committee by every means in their power. Let it be recollected that, in conformity with the advertisement, every subscriber will receive a collection of plants, according to the sum he may subscribe.—Cond.

ART. V. Retrospective Criticism.

MR. RIVERS's Roses. In noticing (p. 10.) that the collection of trees and shrubs for the Derby Arboretum was supplied by Messrs. Whitley and Osborn of Fulham and Mr. Masters of Canterbury, we inadvertently omitted to state that we ordered a miscellaneous collection of roses from Mr. Rivers of Sawbridgeworth, amounting to 100 kinds. These roses form no part of the scientific collection, the genus Ròsa in that collection being entirely supplied from the Fulham Nursery, but are merely for the purpose of adding to the variety of a miscellaneous border of trees and shrubs, which forms the boundary to the Arboretum, and which is intended to shut out the surrounding buildings. We think this notice due to Mr. Rivers; because, though we shall oppose his Popular Catalogue of Trees and Shrubs by every means in our power, we shall, as heretofore, recommend his Catalogue of Roses as the best that we know of among the rose catalogues of English nurserymen. Cond.

Storing Carrots for Winter Use. -In Vol. XV. p. 605., Mr. A. Forsyth recommends that carrots should be stowed away for winter use with about an inch of top to each; I beg to say that I have practised the reverse of this mode for a number of years with complete success. Instead of leaving 1 in. of top to each carrot, I have the whole crown cut off, or, as the men term it, cut in to the quick. This prevents the carrots from vegetating in the spring, and thus preserves the saccharine matter, as well as the pure flavour of the carrot, till June, or longer; properties that render carrots, when preserved in this manner, far superior to carrots that are either sown in hot-beds during the spring, or those that have stood out during the winter; neither of which kinds do I ever grow, except in case of a short supply of the others.

I have recommended the same plan to be adopted in stowing Swedish turnips that are intended for spring consumption; and this plan is very much approved of in this neighbourhood; as, when they are brought out of the store in March and April, they will be found to possess all the feeding qualities that they did when stowed away. The only, but very important, thing to be guarded against is, not to allow them to be put too thick together; as in that case they would heat and spoil.

The north side of barns or other buildings is the best situation; as, if even the heaps are exposed to a few sunny days in spring, their sloping sides would absorb sufficient heat to cause the interior mass to commence heating, particularly where the soil is of a dark colour. John Pearson. Kinlet, Nov. 5. 1839.

Mr. Gorrie's Horse-hoe. In our notice of the Highland Society's transactions at Inverness, as copied from a newspaper (Vol. XV. p. 531.), Mr. Gorrie is said to have received a medal for having invented a new horse-shoe; but that gentleman informs us, that it was not a horse-shoe, but the model of a horse-hoe, for which he received the medal.-A. G. Sept. 24. 1839.

ART. VI. Queries and Answers.

SYON House Gardens. From your having, in the Arboretum Britannicum, given figures and descriptions of so many trees growing at Syon, you must necessarily be well acquainted with the gardens and grounds of that celebrated place; and, as these are not shown to the public, I, in common with a number of your readers, should feel greatly obliged if you would publish some account of them in your Magazine. By some who have seen them, they are described as a model of good taste and high keeping; and by others, the trees are said to be crowded together, and the more rare kinds greatly injured by the commoner sorts. The rockwork, also, is much talked of; but above all the magnificent conservatories. We should all much like, and probably we should be greatly instructed by, your opinions on these matters; for though we cannot see Syon, there is no reason that I know of, why we should not hear of it, and profit from what we hear whether it be good or bad.—James Allen. London, Dec. 6. 1839.

-

Roughead's Swedish Turnip. Mr. Roughead, seedsman, Haddington, informs us, that he has paid great attention to the selection of his variety of Swedish turnip for the last ten years, and been always successful in preserving the variety pure, till lately; when a ninth part of the plants showed the appearance of rape in their foliage; the bulb not swelling as in that variety. He wishes to be informed of the probable cause of the degeneracy, seeing that he bestowed the usual care in selecting the roots for the seed, and in planting them at what he found, from experience, to be a sufficient distance from all other plants of the Brássica tribe.-D. R. Haddington, September

11. 1839.

ART. VII. Obituary.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, the colonial botanist at Sydney, died there on the 27th of June. His death was in consequence of a series of colds caught during the rainy season, in his last unfortunate travels in New Zealand. A biographical notice of Mr. Cunningham will be found in the Athenæum of Dec. 14., and a short notice in the Literary Gazette of the same date; but a much more complete biography will shortly be prepared, which it will be our melancholy duty to lay before our readers. Cond.

THE

GARDENER'S MAGAZINE,

FEBRUARY, 1840.

ART. I.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

Descriptive Notices of select Suburban Residences, with Remarks on each; intended to illustrate the Principles and Practice of Landscape-Gardening. By the CONDUCTOR.

No. 14. FORTIS GREEN, MUSWELL HILL, THE VILLA OF
W. A. NESFIELD, Esq.

"A happy rural seat, of various view.". Milton.

MR. NESFIELD has long been well known as a landscapepainter of eminence, and as connected with the Society of Painters in Water-Colours. He has lately directed his attention to landscape-gardening, and that with so much success, that his opinion is now sought for by gentlemen of taste in every part of the country. His own villa at Finchley is in a singularly rural peaceful situation, rarely to be met with so near London: it is laid out with appropriate taste, and the grass field, forming part of it, is managed in such a manner as actually to be a source of profit. We were so much gratified with the appearance of this villa, and with Mr. Nesfield's sheep-farming, that we prevailed upon him to favour us with a plan and some sketches of the former, and with an account of his mode of managing the latter, which he has very kindly done, and we now lay these before our readers. [This article was prepared, and set up in type, for our Suburban Gardener, in the summer of 1838, but the engravings were not ready in time to admit of its publication in that work.]

Fig. 13. in p. 56. is a view of the entrance-front of this villa, the ground occupied by which consists of two portions, represented in figs. 8. and 9. The narrow portion, next the public road, shown in fig. 8., contains the approach, the house, the kitchen-garden, and the flower-garden; and the wider portion (fig. 9.) shows the paddock, or sheep pasture. The whole lies on a gentle declivity, facing the south; the farther extremity of the field being probably 50 ft. below the level of the road, at the entrance-gate at 1, in fig. 8.

In fig. 8., the ground plan of the narrow part of Mr. Nesfield's grounds, are the following details, furnished by Mr. Nesfield:

1840. FEB.

E