The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-26 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL BOTANIC GARDEN.

The love of rural scenery,—the green fields, the shady
woods, and above'all, the delightful variety presented by the
spacious and well-cultivated garden. in which fruits, and
flowers, and arbours redolent of sweets and sacred to retire-
ment, combine to furnish an idea of the abode of our first
parents,—is perhaps no where so strongly interwoven with
the feelings and habits of the people as in England. In no
country, though many are much more favoured in soil and
climate, is the blameless taste for the beauties of the.vege-
table creation carried to a greater extent. The frequent
severity of our winters, the proverbial fickleness of our
clime, the natural sterility of much of our land, in place of
discouraging, has tended to stimulate the labours of the cul-
tivators of the soil; what nature has denied, or dealt with
but stinted hand, their skill, industry, and perseverance have
supplied ; the before unprofitable waste is converted into a
corn field ; even the rugged mountain is clothed with un-
wonted verdure, and a grateful triumph is obtained over
materials the most unpromising. These successful efforts
have spread luxuriance over the general face of the country,
and strengthened the innate national love of the beautiful
and the picturesque in nature. To possess an estate, or a
country residence with a few fields and a garden, is the
earliest ambition of our successful and plodding citizens, and
this many of them find the means to gratify long before
they retire from active life. To others, of more. moderate
circumstances, the little villa, or the cottage, is amongst the
perspective enjoyments to which they look, amidst the toils
of trade, as a tranquil retreat in the autumn of life. Our
labouring population evince a similar love of the country ; of,
indeed, whatever it produces, in trees, in plants, and in
flowers.. This fact is evinced in every street, lane, or alley,
in our crowded towns, to which the sun can dart even but a
sickly ray through the smoke-encumbered atmosphere, by
the appearance on window ledges, and other available spots
of geraniums, roses, or myrtles ; or the simpler annual, in-
cluding the odrous mignionette, carefully tended and proudly
regarded, though they but flourish to a moderate extent.
We honour this feeling of our humble countrymen; would
that all their enjoyments were equally innocent—equally
tending, we may add, by the contemplation which it induces
to elevate the mind, and to shut out grovelling passions !
We never see a poor man's window thus adorned, but we
cherish a hope that he may yet have a garden of his own.
On summer holidays, too, with what avidity do not
all classes rush from the town with their children, re-
latives, or friends, to enjoy rural scenery, rural sports, or
rural quiet—and that invigorating air, and freedom of thought
and, limb, which the crowded city, with all its improvements,
cannot supply ! The country is not only interesting from its
intrinsic beauty, and the objects which it presents to gratify
the eye and the ear,—laill and dale in sweet variety, stately
mansion, thriving farmstead, and humble cottage,—the low
of cattle, the song of birds, the hum of insects ;—but it de-
rives additional interest from association of its purposes and
inestimable value to mankind. is from the soil that we de-.
rive our food and our raiment—the necessaries and the de-
licacies of life ; the pursuit of its improvement involves
the double gratification of its increased beauty and its in-
creased productiveness : and the bard of. piety and freedom,
the amiable Cowper, well and emphatically exclaimed, when
he contrasted rural with city life,
" God made the country, and man made the town."
The formation of railroads, the application of steam to na-
vigation, and the numerous economical means of transit
which large towns now furnish within a considerable. circuit
round them, have done much to gratify the existing taste for
rural scenes and enjoyments. Parties from the centre of
business, in our town, may now be set down in the opposite
county in a few minutes ; or, in a comparatively short space
of time, step out of a coach or omnibus at any point on the
the numerous roads in the vicinity, comprising a distance of
some miles. With this facility of speedy and cheap travelling
has commenced what may be called a new era in building and
enclosing. Villas and cottages, with their gardens and shrub-
beries, have sprung up with amazing rapidity, in every direc-
tion, many of them already embosomed in plantations, cover-
ing sites where before only grew the bramble and the furze.
Even moors, the rocky acclivities of hills, quarries, and marl
pits, have been put in requisition, and rendered highly orna-
mental in the landscape ; and much taste has been displayed
in the structure of country residences, and the laying out of
gardens and pleasure grounds.
It is somewhat remarkable and anomalous, that amidst
this demonstration of a praiseworthy and growing taste for
the country, one of our noblest institutions for the encou-
ragement and promotion of the culture of whatever can adorn
the flower-garden or the parterre, and from a frequent visit
to which the florist may derive much valuable knowledge as
well as gratification, is left without that general support of
which it is so eminently worthy, and must, we fear, without
the early and liberal aid of our townsmen in its behalf, be
abandoned, and the benefits which it holds forth to the gene-
ral community be for ever lost. Such, however, is the la-
mentable fact. We allude to the Botanic Garden. It is to
be presumed, however, that the apathy hitherto shown as
regards this valuable institution, is attributable solely to its
utility and the delightful retreat which it offers to visitors,
not being generally known, and consequently not appreci-
ated; and that an appeal to that good taste and liberality
which characterise the Liverpool public in their support of
numerous institutions for the promotion of arts and sciences,
will not be made in vain in behalf of an establishment which
is intrinsically second to none of them in affording innocent
gratification, combined with valuable demonstration in the
interesting economy of vegetable life. With a population of
upwards of 200,000, we trust it will not much longer be a
reproach to us, that while Manchester liberally supports a
fine Botanic Garden, which it points to with honourable
pride, we, with all our acknowledged wealth, leave our own,
though replete with a fine collection, to fall into decay. We
shall not pause to inquire into the causes that have produced
a defalcation in the funds requisite for the adequate support
of the establishment, but shall proceed to furnish a brief
sketch of its origin (by way of reminiscence), and of its present
condition as a garden, so that its claims to public patronage
may be better understood. We shall conclude by submitting
some suggestions which w.e consider would, if adopted, con-
duce to its greater popularity and future prosperity.

THE GARDEN.

The Liverpool Botanic Garden was established by public
subscription, and was opened in 1803. The original site,
from which it was removed between three and four years ago,
was at the top of Oxford-street, near Edge-hill. The land
was held by renewable lease, granted on liberal conditions by
the Corporation of the town. The original conservatory was
240 feet in length,- and the central division 24 feet in height.
In an interesting octavo volume, entitled " Liverpool, its
Commerce, Statistics, and Institutions, by Henry Smithers,
1825," we find it is stated of this garden :—" The proprietors
already possess upwards of three thousand specimens of dried
plants, collected by the late Dr. Forster, in his voyages to
the South Seas, together with many valuable manuscripts
and correspondences. Mr. John Shepherd, the present
curator, is a most indefatigable assistant, whose attentions,
from the very commencement of the institution to the pre-
sent time, have contributed greatly to its welfare. The plants
in the ornamental parts of the garden are classed according
to the Linntean system. A catalogue of them was published
in 1808, and the number of shares, at that period, limited to
four hundred and fifty."

The specimens here noticed, as well as others, are still
preserved. Mr. Shepherd, a gentleman of great botanical
research, is still curator of the establishment, and his valua-
ble knowledge of the numerous plants and flowers of which
he has the care, is readily and politely communicated to en-
quiring visiters. The following additional remarks by Mr.
Smithers are, we regret to say, but too applicable to the pre-
sent condition of the establishment :—" I regret to add, that
this valuable institution is not patronized as it ought to be.
In spring, in the summer, and even in the autumn of the
year, the rich variety of beauteous blossoms which, from day
to day, expand and charge the air with odours, one would
think would be sufficient to induce all that is lovely in youth
and estimable in age to crowd its mazy paths and watch the
opening buds, inhaling health whilst deriving amusement."
The town having gradually advanced from Mount-pleasant
and .Hope-street upon the original garden in Oxford-street on
the west, and the works of the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway, at the termination of one of the tunnels; on the south
east—it became necessary, in order to avoidthe smoke of ap-
proximating streets, to look out for a site a little further dis-
tant from the town, and an appropriate one was found
in Edge-lane, eastward of the northern part of Edge-hill,
and only a short distance front it. The ground, which
extends from Edge-lane:southward towards Plumbe's Hall,
in Wavertree-lane, is nearly level, -'and though considera-
bly elevated above the level of the river Mersey, is shel-
tered in some degree by the rising ground on which
Edge-hill stands on the west, and the corresponding ele-
vated meadow land or park in front of the house of Mr.
John Shaw Leigh, on the east. A row of handsome houses,
called Falkner terrace, on the north side of the lane, and
some detached buillings surrounded by trees afford it pro-
tection from the wind in that direction. The terrace (in its
upper stories) overlooks the grounds, and forms a pleasing
object from the gardens, whence the prospect, as seen over
the walls, is pretty extensive—Edgehill on the west, the high
trees and rookery of Plumbe's hall, at some distance on the
south, and the high land before noticed, and for the most
part bounded by wood, on the east. The sun and air have
uninterrupted access, and we know of no attainable spot
more eligible in the immediate neighbourhood of the town.
The original garden in Oxford-Street comprised about five
statute acres. The present one occupies eleven acres, and
it is laid out in a proportionate scale of magnitude, in an
oblong square, from north to south. After the fatigues of a
day devoted to the cares, toils, and confinement of business,
we know of nothing more calculated to recruit the physical,
and to soothe and refresh the moral powers, than a stroll
through this delightful retreat. The walks are of great width;
some of them straight, and some winding; on each side of
them Is thick short grass, which may be said to form the
groundwork of the whole, in which there are numerous
clumps or divisions, in a variety of forms, of flowering and
decorative shrubs and flowers. At the bottom or south end,
there is an oval pond, edged with stones, and on each side
are large rockeries, with appropriate mosses and other creep-
ing plants. Here, too, are the numerous species of grasses.
On each side the garden, at some distance from and parallel
with the respective walls,- runs a straight walk throughout
its whole length. The garden is yet comparatively new, and
being nearly level, with a gentle inclination to the south, has
an appearance of flatness, but the shrubs are making rapid
progress, and will, in a few years, do away with the same-
ness of the ground, arising from the want of undulation.
There is a tilled border under the walls, in which blos-
som many choice perennials, and other plants and flowers.
Many fine specimens are also trained against the walls, in-
cluding climbing roses and magnolias. The border under
the north wall, which has the full advantage of the sun, is
peculiarly rich in this respect. Near it we observed a rare
and curious plant of the fir tribe resembling at a short dis-
tance a small spruce tree, but thicker and darker-coloured
in the stem and branches. This is the Araucaria imbicata,
from South America. It is covered all over with dark-green
thick, pointed leaves, standing nearly straight out from the
stem and branches, and so strong and sharp that they seem
as if cut out of metal. The tops of the branches are turned
upwards, and terminate in hard tufts, not unlike an unripe
'thistle. Like that plant, too, it is not harshly tangible with
impunity ; and the Scottish motto might with equal propri-
ety be written under it—" Nemo me inzpune lascessit."
This is becoming a favourite decorative plant amongst the
nobility, and obtains high prices. The Duke of Devon-
shire has several fine varieties of it, and there is one in the
Royal Gardens at Kew of a rare kind, of which the leaves
are more flat or prostrate. The Araucaria is found at high
and inhospitable altitudes on the mountains of the Southern
American continent, where it is seen spreading its dark
branches over the rocky and broken surface. Exposed to
frequent and tremendous storms, it rears its hardy head
" Where Andes, giant of the western world,
With meteor standard to the winds unfurled,
Looks from his throne of clouds o'er half the world."
The whole of the garden is kept in the best possible order,
and everything is in a most thriving and promising condition.
The present number of subscribers is about 520.