which it forms a part. In all cases the bottom, if not naturally retentive, must be rendered so by a stratum of tempered (or puddled) clay (a); the sides should be formed in terraces, or steps descending towards the centre (b), to hold pots of plants which grow in shallow water, while those that require deep water, as the bull-rush, typha, &c. may be planted in the ground, or in large tubs placed in deep water. The margin of the aquarium may either be finished with regular masonry or brickwork, or what, in some situations, has a better effect, with rough stones, conglomerated vitrified bricks, or flints (c), in the interstices of which marsh plants will thrive exceedingly. The whole may be surrounded by a drain and gravel walk (d), raised a few inches above the level of the water. Many of the aquatic plants, as nymphea, nuphar, menyanthes, villarsia, butomus, and hottonia, &c. are highly beautiful, and, considering that some exotic species, as amaryllis, lobelia, crinum, &c. (see 1636.) will thrive in water in our climate, the aquarium ought not to be wanting in any flower-garden. Propagation and Culture. They are propagated by seeds or dividing the root: the seeds being sown and placed under water. In other respects they require the same general treatment as other herbaceous plants. Some useful remarks on the treatment of the more rare nymphæas and nuphars by N. Kent, will be found in the Horticultural Transactions, vol. iii. p. 24. 1670. Marsh Plants. Potamogeton perfoliatum lacustris Some of these have been given as border-flowers, and will grow in almost any situation; but others, as the acorus, comarum, littorella, &c. will not grow vigorously and flower unless their roots are in soil constantly saturated with water. MARSH PLANTS WITH SHOWY FLOWERS. — MAY AND JUNE. Propagation and Culture. The same as for herbaceous plants, taking into consideration the difference in the soil and site. SUBSECT. 5. Flowers for ornamenting Rocks, or Aggregations of Stones, Flints, Seoria formed in imitation of Rocky Surfaces, &c. 1671. The ground-plan and figure of the elevation of the rock-work must, as in the case of the aquarium, be made to harmonize with surrounding objects. Simple outlines and surfaces, not too much broken, show the plants to most advantage, and are not so liable to ridicule as imitations of hills or mountains, or high narrow cones, or peaks of scoria in the Chinese manner, which are to be seen in some places. A ground-plan, in the form of a crescent, or of any wavy figure widest towards the middle part of its length, and with the surface not steeper than forty-five degrees (fig. 459.) will be found well suited to the less durable materials, such as bricks, pudding-stone, scoriæ, &c. which are found in flat countries. Sometimes one side of such rock-works may be nearly perpendicular, in which case, if facing the north, it affords an excellent situation for ferns and mosses. In countries abounding with stone, massy and extensive pieces of rock-work may be formed, and shrubs introduced as well as plants, so as to produce a scene of considerable beauty and interest. Its base, and such parts as are near the eye, may be formed of masses of granite or bassalt; selecting such for the shady side as are already covered with mosses and lichens, especially the lichen atra-flavus, geographicus, ventosus, stellaris, &c. These vegetables will not grow on sand-stone, and but seldom on limestone therefore stones of these earths should be kept as much as possible in the more distant parts, where they will be partially covered with shrubs and plants, rooted in proper soil, introduced in the crevices. When works of this kind are extensive, a winding walk or stair may be led over them, and wells, or small reservoirs of water, introduced in some places for mountain-bog plants and aquatics, and for keeping the whole mass moist and cool. In strict propriety, mountain or rock plants only, should be introduced on artificial rock-work; but natural mountains and rocks are always moist and cool, and the plants зт which have their habitations there would not always thrive on dry ridges of earth and stones. On a small scale, therefore, choice is generally made of such plants as are not tall and rampant, and as grow naturally in a dry soil. In the following list, as in the others, the most ornamental of them are distinguished by a letter (s), and those which flower the greater part of the summer by a figure (3), &c. Perennials. Achillea alpina 3, montana, Ajuga alpina, pyramidalis 3, Alchemilla alpina, pentaphylla, Alyssum montanum, murale, saxatile, Anemone alpina, apennina, haldensis, pulsatil la 3, p. major 3, Anthemis montana, Anthyllis montana, Antirrhinum alpinum, Aquilegia alpina, Arabis alpina 3, bellidifolia 3, lucida 3, sibirica 3, Arenaria montana 3, saxatilis 3, Arnica montana 3, Artemisia rupes. tris, Astragalus alpinus, hypoglottis, montanus s, uralensis 3, Athamanta libanotis, Bartsia alpina 3, Betonica alopecurus, Campanula carpatica 3, collina 3, rapunculoides 3, rotundi folia, saxatilis 3 s, Cardamine petræa 3, Centaurea montana, Cerastium dioicum, Cheiranthus helveticus 3, Cherleria sedoides, Chrysanthemum montanum, Cochlearia saxatilis, Cucubalus behen, Dianthus collinus, SUBSECT. 6. hyssopifolius, plumarius, virginicus, naica, Veronica montana, saxatilis, Bulbs. Alliam carinatum, Fritillaria Evergreen-leaved Flowers, or such as are adapted for preserving an Appearance of Vegetation on Beds and Borders during the Winter Months. 1672. A due proportion of this description of flowers is very necessary for enlivening borders in the winter time, and more especially dug compartments on a surface of turf, which, without some evergreen plants, look dreary by contrast with the verdant surface. Perennials. Achillea millefolium, m. flo. rubro, Alchemilla alpina, penta. phylla, vulgaris,v. pubescens,Anthemis nobilis, n. flo. pleno, Bellis perennia, hortensis, h. variegata, h. alba, h. fistulosa, h. prolifera, Campanula pumila 3s, Dianthus barbatus, b. atro-rubcus, hortensis, Gentiana acaulis 3, verna 3, Gnaphalium dioicum 3, Lychnis floscuculi, f. flo. pleno, f. flo. albo, viscaria, v. flo. pleno, v. flo. albo, Melissa officinalis, Melittis melissophyllum, SUBSECT. 7. Primula acaulis, auricula, veris, v. Flowers for Edgings to Beds or Borders. 1673. The principal plants for this purpose, next to the dwarf-box, are the statice armeria, bellis perennis, gentiana acaulis, saxifraga umbrosa, oppositifolia, hypnoides, festuca ovina, and other low-growing evergreens; but all the following sorts may be used in extensive concerns requiring edgings of flowers. Perennials. Achillea millefolium, m. flo. rubro, Alchemilla alpina, pentaphylla vulgaris, v. pubescens Anthemis nobilis, n. tlo, pleno, Bellis perennis, hortensis, h. variegata, h. alba, h. fistulosa, h. prolifera, Campanula pumila 38, Dianthus barbat., b. atro-rubeus, hortensis, Gentiana acaulis 3, verna 3, Gnaphalium dioicum 3, Lychnis flos. cuculi, f. flo. pleno, f. flo. albo, viscaria, v. flo. pleno, v. flo. alho, Melissa officinalis, Melittis melissophyllum, Primula acaulis, auricula, veris, v. no cœr. 3, o. flo, albo 3, e fio pieno albo 3, o. flo. pl. parp, 3. Annuals. Briza maxima, Calendula officinalis, o. flo, pleno, Cheiranthos m nuus rub. maritimus, m. flo ah., Derphinium ajacis, Dianthus pro-fer 3, Iberis amara, a. major, umbells th u. purpurea, u. rubra, Reseda od. rata, Silene armeria rub. a. flo, alb. rubelit. Viola tricolor, t. mac. major, 1. mar. minor. SUBSECT. 8. Highly odoriferous Flowers. 1674. So little has hitherto been done in the nomenclature and classification of veget able odours, whether fixed or volatile, that we can hardly submit any thing satisfactory on the subject. No small part, however, of the pleasure derived from flowers depends on their odours; and that these are very different, every one must have remarked bo has walked in a wood or a garden after a warm shower, or in a dewy summer's evening. Perhaps the best mode to arrange the odours of plants in our present imperfect state of knowledge on the subject, would be to fix on some generally known smells, as those of the rose, lilly, thyme, &c. and group the others under these in the way of natural orders; and thus we should have rosodoreæ, lilliodoreæ, thymodoreæ, &c.; but in default of some such, or any system, we shall here bring together a few names under commonly received distinctions. 1675. Other selections will readily occur to the florist who is conversant with the ample store of plants at his command; such as double flowers, flowers that continue in bloom the greater part of the year, flowers for peat soils, &c. all which he may select from the indications in the tables already given. He may also select, according to the Linnæan or natural orders, by referring to the tables (277. and 278.), in which the genera are so arranged; or according to the native habitation, native country, year of introduction, or rarity, which circumstances he will find noted in the excellent catalogues of Sweet and Page. SUBSECT. 9. Botanical and other Assemblages of Plants. Dial Plants. Parasites, Ferns, and Mosses, Alpines; and a Selection for a small Garden. 1676. In many private establishments, there is a taste for scientific botany; in which case all the hardy plants of the vegetable kingdom, as far as they are introduced into this country, are arranged according to some system; and either in narrow beds, in which one species follows another; or in groups, on lawn, or gravel, in which the species most nearly allied according to the system adopted, are placed together, each group containing an order (figs. 430, 431.), and all the orders of a class forming a constellation of groups, connected at one point with the preceding order, and at another with that which follows. Sometimes a different arrangement is adopted, and all the plants that can be considered as ornamental, are assembled in beds or borders, and all those that are merely curious, as the ferns, mosses, fungi, &c.; or useful in agriculture or the arts, as the grasses, garden plants, plants used in dyeing, tanning, &c., are arranged in beds or groups in compartments by themselves. This is in general the most suitable mode for a private garden. With respect to the species to be introduced in these groups, the gardener will have recourse to the tables already referred to, in which, in the Jussieuean table (277.), under Gramineæ, Cyperaceæ, Junceæ, Restiaceæ, he will find all the grasses; under Filices, all the ferns; under Lycopodina, the plant mosses; under Equisetaceæ, the equisetums, &c. The economical plants he will find under general heads in our view of the distribution of the British Flora (527.), and the species he will find enumerated, and to a certain extent classed, in Page's Prodromus and W. Salisbury's Botanist's Companion. 1677. Among curious collections, it may sometimes be desired to assemble the dial plants, or such as indicate the hours of the day. An ample list of these has been given by Linnæus in the Philosophica Botanica; but the following, being plants generally known and easily procured, may be deemed sufficient to complete a florist's dial in Britain. 1678. In botanical collections, some peculiarities of culture may be required for parasites, ferns, mosses, fungi, and marine vegetables. The only hardy herbaceous parasite is the cuscuta, or dodder, a twining plant found in hedges, and on hops, furze, thistles, and many weeds, with thread-like reddish stems, a few small membranaceous scales, and balls of white or purplish flowers, which appear in July and August. They propagate themselves by seed, which germinates in the soil, and at first draws its nourishment from thence; but the original root withers away as soon as the young stem has twined round any other plant. In cultivating the cuscuta, it is easy to imitate nature by sowing the seeds at the root of a thistle or whin. In raising ferns and mosses from seed, these being very small, should be sown on the surface of peat-earth, ground to the finest powder; the seed need not be covered, but the pots should be placed in the shade, or in a vault; and a moist close atmosphere produced by covering with a bell-glass, rendered semi-opaque by a wash of mud. When they come up, they may be transplanted into pots of the smallest size, and placed in situations formed in imitation of their natural sites. The more hardy ferns and mosses, and also some of the fungi, will come up very well, if the entire plants, covered with ripe seed, are strewed over a bed or border of peat soil, completely shaded from the sun. The parent vegetables in rotting will afford shelter, and congenial nourishment to their infant offspring. Some of the Fungi, Hepatica, Alge, and Lichenes (277.) may be sown in pots of fine earth, like the mosses; but many require to be sown on pieces of decaying bark or wood, or on stones or pieces of lime, or on walls, &c. Portions of these, or of whatever substances are requisite, should be procured and neatly fitted to pots of six or eight inches diameter; the seed should be sown immediately when gathered, one sort in a pot, and the pots set in a vault; some kept damp and close by means of other pots If it whelmed over them; and others allowed more air, according to their natures. is wished to multiply specimens, it may be done, after they come up, by dividing the masses on which they grow. The culture of hardy marine productions, or submersed algæ, may be attempted by forming a cistern or basin of salt-water with shelves or terraces within, in the manner of the common aquarium (fig. 458.) Their pots or receptacles, in the form of rough cones or square blocks, may be formed from bassalt or compact limestone, and a specimen of the sea-weed in which the seeds are supposed to be ripe, attached to each receptacle; or some of the receptacles may be placed in the sea near the fuci, which it is desired to introduce to the marine aquarium; and when the young fuci appear, the stones may be removed to the cistern, and placed on a higher or lower terrace, according to the depth of water supposed to be requisite. It has not been proved, that the motion and alternate immersion and exposure to air produced by the tides is essential to the growth of marine vegetables; but if it is, these circumstances can be imitated by pumping the marine aquarium dry once a day into a cistern above its level, and then allowing the water to return gradually; or the same thing might be effected without the labour of pumping, by two moderate sized cisterns fixed like scales on the ends of a moving beam, for weights, &c. The lichenes of fresh water are of easy cultivation. 1679. A very general assemblage of plants is formed by gardeners under the title of alpines. These ought properly to consist only of such plants as grow on high mourtains; but the gardener adds to them all very dwarf small plants that are difficult to preserve in a state of cultivation. Some of these, instead of being alpine, are arenarious, sea-side, or bog plants. Alpine plants are universally very low, bushy, and evergreen. In their native sites, they are covered by snow great part of the year, and consequently never experience either violent cold, violent heat, or intense light. The atmosphere which surrounds them is of light or thin air, almost always highly charged with vaper, and the soil in which they grow is generally soft, black, and peat-like, forming a thin stratum on rock, or filling up the chinks of rocks or stones, and always moist. Art imitates these circumstances, by putting such plants in small pots of peat or bog-earth, well drained by gravel, or scarcely drained at all, or mixed with stones, or with saud, according to the habitation to be imitated. The pots are kept, during winter, under glass in frames, in a situation exposed only to the morning sun; and in summier they are removed to a full northern exposure, or screens placed so as to produce this effect in their winter situation. Care is taken to water three or four times a-day during summer, and to keep the ground around the pots constantly moist; and in winter to protect by mats, in addition to the glass, when the cold is likely to be greater than 25° or 30. Perhaps an improvement in the management of alpine plants would be to set the pots, in the summer season, on a grating or frame of cast-iron, placed a few inches distance above a cistern or pond of water, by which means a constant evaporation would take place, and a moist cool atmosphere be produced. In winter they might remain in the same situation, protected by frames; or they might be removed to their usual site; or the pots might be arranged in beds, and a pipe, finely pierced with holes, in Loddige's manner, might pass along the centre of each bed, at such a distance above it as that the shower would just cover the bed. A shower might thus be applied at pleasure, and the plants kept moist by prolonged and gentle rains, instead of being deluged by sudden and heavy rains from the watering-pot. Whatever plan be adopted, it is essential that the site be open to the morning sun only during winter, and to only Professor hour's sun during summer, and that it should not be shaded by trees. Thouin arranged a bank for alpine plants in the Paris garden, and has given an account of it, accompanied by some very judicious reasoning, in the Annales de Musée, (see a translation in Hort. Trans. vol. i. App.); but experience shows, that plants of this description never thrive long on beds or banks of any kind; those planted by Professor Thouin never did much good, and in the course of two years, as we were informed on the spot, many of them died off, and the rest became too luxuriant for the situation. Potting is by far the best mode, as each individual plant may then be examined at the root as well as the top, and its soil or situation changed at pleasure. one or two From the rarity of this class of plants, the difficulty of keeping them, their vivid green, neat shapes, small size, and many of them flowering early in spring, they are much prized, and collections made in most flower-gardens of note; we shall, therefore, give a list of the leading species of alpines, most of which will be found in a former table, (1654.), as plants for the front row of the border. |