The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-07 00:00:00

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with flowering plants. In the first place, shelter
was indispensible, so a mound was thrown up and
planted with shrubs and trees, to serve as a screen
and a defence against the nipping under-currents
which, even in an English summer, often strike death
to the tender exotic. All the beds were raised, and
a bottom of dry brick rubbish was given to each to
promote drainage and increase warmth. Then the
mould was placed above, composed of loam, sand,
and decayed leaves, which satisfies the wants of most
of the plants, though occasionally a stimulus is ne-
cessary in the shape of a little well-rotted manure
applied to the surface, so that when rain falls, or
water applied,the washings are conveyed to the roots
The choice tropical plants are stored during the
winter, and as the warm weather approaches they
undergo a gradual process of hardening. First they
are not trusted except under glass ; then they are
allowed to breathe the outer air when the sun is
most powerful ; then they are placed under canvas ;
and finally, when summer has really come, they
are suffered not to run but to grow alone without
further housing. Soon, in the sheltered recesses
and nooks and on the sloping banks provided for
them, they become, with hardly an exception,
thoroughly at home, and remain perfectly healthy.
Here is a bed of caladium esculentum, from the
West Indies, with big leaves not to be matched in
England, and a root which, when no better food
can be had, is said to make good eating. Austra.
lien tree ferns are throwing out their graceful
leaves as luxuriantly as though they were still
under glass. By-and-by they will be Bft. or 10ft.
high. For convenience of moving, each is now in
a sunk pot or tab, so that it can be taken easily
back to its winter quarters. Shade to some plants
is as essential as sunlight to others, so the ferns are
shaded by willow trees which droop down with
something like affection to meet them. The India.
rubber plant is growing in great profusion. So is
the Banana and the curious Indian shot plant.
Further on we come to the variegated Croton, and
the beautiful scarlet foliage of the Dragon's-blood
tree from South America. Here is a tropical plant,
the Canna limbata, which deserves recognition for
bravely contending with the rigours of an Eng-
lish winter. As an experiment it was left out all
the year with a simple covering of dry litter, and
it was a great reward to Mr Gibson, the superin-
tendent of the park, to find it afterwards even more
healthy than plants of the same species which had
been taken up from the ground and nursed through
the winter.

Leaving the foliage plants for a moment the eye
is caught by a fanciful bed of flowers divided into
diamonds by cross belts of a hardy Alpine plant, the
opposite-leaved cedum, while in the diamonds are
gay geraniums of varied hues, with lobelias, the
scarlet amaranthus, a recent Japanese inaporta•
tion, and a central group composed of the silvery-
leafed centuria. In this and other beds geraniums
are kept shorn of their flowers, their chief glory
being in the leaf, which contains three colours at
least, yellow predominating, and forms a rich con-
trast to the flowers and shrubs around. More
foliage plants of tropical origin now claim notice,
and especially the Ferdinandia eminens, which here
in its adopted country, and standing now in the open
air, has increased its height by six or seven feet in
a single season. Gardeners of skill have, we believe,
declared this to be an impossibility ; but there is the
plant, growing apparently as though to spite them.
Here is a fine bed cf Wygandia, which lives, when
at home, in Caraccas, and is remarkable for the
stinging properties of its leaves and the great weight
of its delicately-marked foliage, which renders ne-
cessary some artificial support for the stem. This
plant bears the rough weather up to November
without taking harm. The Canna discolor is grouped
effectively with a background of caster oil plants,
which grow vigorously in the open air and produce
immense leaves till the seed which is now beginning
to set checks their growth. The English insects
highly appreciate the flavour of the new corners,
especially that most pertinacious of our garden in-
sects—the earwig—which grows as fat upon its new
food as an alderman upon unlimited turtle. The
Wygandia, however, appears to have brought its
own caterpillar, or to have developed a new one,
which commits considerable ravages on the very
succulent leaf of this plant. There are many more
varieties than we can enumerate, but these will
hardly escape notice—the large leaved tobacco
plant; a new variety of the sugarcane from Japan ;
the coral tree, with its beautiful and suggestive
flower; the Dracteaa nutans, a most graceful com-
bination of drooping with upright leaves; a Southern
emblem, the Palmetto palm; the Date palm; the
Rice-paper plant of China; the Papyrus plant of
Egypt, and the veritable Bulrush of the Nile.
To Mr. Gibson belongs the great merit of having
carried to success and upon a large scale an experi•
ment which proves either that tropical plants
are more hardy or the English climate is less
harsh and uugenial than is generally believed.
Constant vigilance, however, is needed. On the
night of August 23, for example, there was a pretty
sharp frost, and the night watchmen had to protect
one or two of the most delicate plants with cover.
ings. Oua bed of coleus got slightly nipped, but
the fact that the many ottier strangers from the
tropics suffered no injury on that occasion seems to
show that they have not hitherto had sufficient
credit for strength of constitution, and that they
have been, in short, unnecessarily coddled. In
another part of the park is a rosary, the soil of
which is well suited to the production of the queen
of the English garden.
The reports from all the parks as to the behaviour
of the visitors are equally gratifying. Cases of
flower picking are very rare, and the beds are
hardly ever trampled on. On Sundays 40,000
people may often be found in Battersea Park. They
come from all parts of southern London, and the
pleasure they take in the dowers and the minute
attention which many give to the different varieties,
both of flowers and plants, are proofs that a judi-
cious combination of garden with park, of flowers
with trees, is greatly appreciated by poor and rich,
A. cheap descriptive catalogue, kept on sale at the
lodges, would add greatly to the interest of visitors,
and enable those who felt so disposed to make
themselves acquainted with the varieties and quali.
ties of the plants. In Manchester and some other
northern towns the working men have a field-
naturalists' society of their own, and on holidays
scour the country far and near for specimens. There
are many among the London artisans who have the
same tastes, though they have not the same oppor-
tunities, and who, not being able to collect wild
varieties of home growth, would gladly study the
contents of the " sub-tropical" at Battersea or of
other park-gardens.
Poor people in London can't go to flower shows,
and few can even see the bouquets in Covent-garden.
This new feature in the parks is their only opportu-
nity of " considering the lilies, how they grow,"
and the testimony of park-keeper and superinten-
dent is that such an opportunity is very welcome
to the poor, and often wins both sexes from gross
amusements.—Times.