The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-05-27 00:00:00

A STROLL THROUGH 'WALTON NURSERY.

Amongst the rural walks available in the immediate
neighbourhood of our bustling town, we know of none
that will afford greater gratification to those who are bo-
tanically inclined, than a stroll through Walton Nursery ;
the great extent of which, and its prolific variety—espe-
cially in forest trees, decorative shrubs and plants, and
valuable experimental farm productions—entitle it to rank
as the first establishment of the kind in the North of
England.
The nursery, which is intersected by the main northern
road, occupies upwards of 100 statute acres, and is divided
into numerous" pieces" or plots, by thick and lofty hedges,
which afford a congenial shelter to those foreign plants
which would otherwise ill withstand the occasional rigours
of our climate, particularly in a locality so much exposed,
by its rather elevated situation near the mouth of our
estuary, to wintry gales from the seaward. The land was
originally by no means of a kindly quality, though part of
it, on the east side of the high road, had been occupied as
a farm before it was, many years ago, converted into a
nursery. A great portion of that on the west of the road
was, but a few years back, a comparatively arid surface
of obdurate clay, with here and there an unseemly pit ;
but good management, and no inconsiderable outlay in
draining and tillage, have imparted to the whole a degree
of fertility scarcely to be surpassed in the most favoured
spots,—furnishing an encouraging example to cultivators
of what may be accomplished by a combination of skill
and perseverance.
Entering by the Lodge on the Walton-road, we found
the venerable avenue leading to Spella Hall, (the ancient
ivy-clad farm-house, and now the residence of Mr. Skir-
ving, the proprietor of the nursery,) apparently as luxu-
rient and shady as it was many years ago. The lofty
sycamore trees forming it still put forth their leafy
honours, though they are said to have withstood the
wintry hlast for upwards of two centuries, and have long
since shown, in a few blighted branches, symptoms of slow
but inevitable decay from old age. Passing into the nur-
sery on the north, which, with its 'numerous walks lined
with plants and flowers, and its interesting hedges, trees,
and shrubs, forms quite a pleasure ground, we noticed
immense pieces of rhododendrons,upwards of 40,000 plants
of all yet known kinds, Nepaul, European, Mediterra-
nean, American, &c. Some of these, from sunnier
climes, have suffered slightly from the long and cold
winter, but the European kinds scarcely showed a brawn
leaf. A new and fine variety of the Barberry may here
be seen, the Mahonia, introduced from Tierra del Fuego,
the southern point of South America. On one piece was
an immense crop of young larches, probably some milli-
ons. Within a warm enclosure numerous beds of tulips
in full bloom, chiefly of the celebrated Haarlem kinds,
met the eye, also a large miscelleous bed of the same
flower equally gay. Although the tulip mania has long
since died away, many of the Dutch sorts here are yet
much in requisition, and are of high price. We observed
a fine specimen of the Yucca Gloriosa, the long pointed
leaves of which yield a fibre which from its great strength
might be used, if it were sufficiently abundant, in lieu of
hemp. One large compartment is entirely filled with
standard roses, most of them of new kinds, including the
hybrid perpetual, Chinese, French, Damask, &c. The
" American ground " (further south) contains in one
compartment a splendid show of azalies, or rather a spe-
cies of rhododendron, in full flower :resembling the honey-
suckle in form,] and of innumerable delicate and vivid
hues. We noticed from the numbering of these plants
that there were upwards of 100 varieties. Many com-
partments, enclosed with hedges except on the south side,
are thickly stocked with varieties of the genus pinus, or
pine-tree tribe, including the Cedrus Deodor, or Deodora,
the sacred cedar of Hindostan, resembling the larch but
with graceful drooping branches, and which, in its native
country, attains a great height ;—the Cephalonica, or
silver fir from Cephalonia, which arrives at great magni-
tude in girth ; the pinus excelsa, the Weymouth pine,
from the Hymalaya mountains ; the pines principe, from
Spain ; the pinus morinda (a spruce) with its rich white
tufts or trssels ; the pinus Canadensis (white pine of
Canada) ; the Corsican pine, with straggling leaves, and
which will withstand the severest sea breezes; the pinus
pinea, the seed of which within the cone is contained in a
hard shell like a nut, and is served at the dessert table in
Italy ; Menzies' Californian spruce ; the pines paluia,
from Mexico; the Siberian dwarf pine, of the bush kind
and remarkably hardy ; the cedar of Lebanon, the auri-

c :ria imbricata of the Andes mountains, with hard prickly
leaves enveloping the branches—a comparatively new and
superb ornament for the lawn, and one of which has al-
ready attained a considerable height in these grounds,
where abundance of the plant is now raised.
After luxuriating amongst the beauties of this quarter
of the grounds, amidst all sorts of beautiful plants and
flowers, including many thousands in pots, we strolled
into the western nursery on the other side of the high
road, which is for the most part employed in the rearing
of immense pieces of forest and fruit trees. Here we
noticed a fine field of Italian rye-grass, much of it already
two feet, or two feet and a half, in height. It will attain
a height of three to four feet, and is a beautiful thick crop.
About ten acres of the land, at the top of the hill, is set
apart for agricultural experiments, and for the keeping
up of the breed of Mr. Skirving's own and highly-valued
turnip, new kinds of potatoes, &c. Various sorts of tur-
nips have been sown and marked out, and large breadths
of some kinds already show thick aboveground. The
drills are 30 inches apart. W e also observed two large
patches of rye, one of them common English, now in
many places three feet, and the other Belgian, four feet
in height. A large portion of the land here was two years
ago in a rough and unprofitable state, but it was all
trenched by the spade, and the site of unseemly ponds is
now converted into good arable land. We observed, be-
sides almost every variety of common forest trees (some
millions in number), large pieces of the service-tree
worked on the mountain-ash ; young poplars ; apple-
trees, of approved kinds, in full bloom ; budded and
engrafted pear-trees; common thorns, with scarlet and
double flowers engrafted upon them. What is called " a
quarter," or piece of land between the hedges in this part
of the nursery, contains between 75,000 and 80,000 forest
trees ; and it would be a curious speculation to endeavour
to conjecture how many thousand acres of woodland the
whole of the trees planted on these grounds are destined
to cover in many surrounding counties, as well as in
Scotland and Ireland, and to what a variety of uses the
timber at its maturity will be applied.
We visited the Greenhouses, in which there are some
fine specimens. We observed a splendid Stalks Arbo-
retil. a tree variety of the sea-pink ; a beautiful Aurica-
ria Excelsa, a large and graceful species of fir ; many
choice specimens of the cactus in brilliant bloom ; a
stately clematis azureas grandiflora, a Himalayan rhodo-
dendron campunalatum, with a flower gaping like a fox-
glove, and dark green shining leaves backed with a bright
cynamon brown hue ; a fuchsia, 12 feet in height, en-
riched with pendant clusters of large flowers; a fine New
Holland acacia, &c. There is here also a large and beau-
tiful assortment of the heath or erica tribe, in almost end-
less variety of plant and flower.

In the hot house we saw a new species of holly, the
Ilex Latifolia, a lar,2e kind, with a flat broad leaf slightly
serrated—all young plants, and placed there for propaga-
tion by ingrafting on the common holly stock. They are
said to be hardy, and if found to withstand our climate,
will become a great acquisition ; the glosineas, in many
varieties, and all handsome, especially the maxims ; the
Cliva Nobills, (brought from India by Lord Clive,) bear-
ing a tube-shaped flower ; and the new and beautiful
Thunbergia Chrpops, a sender spreading plant, lately
introduced by the Earl of Derby, and bearing a purple
flower with a golden eye. This specimen will, when full
grown, cover a space of 20 to 25 souare feet, on an
upright trellis.
In the laboratory, or propagating-house there is a fine
stove climber, the Ipomea Horsfallii, introduced by our
townsman, Mr. Horsfall, of Netherfield-road. Though
not quite new, this plant has not yet been excelled of its
kind. In this apartment, which is kept at a pretty sultry
warmth, the heat accompanied by moisture is effected by
hot-water pipes, placed in spouts or gutters under the soil
beds, on what is called the tank principle, and the effect
produced in the rapid striking and growth of the plants is
astonishing.
There is another large and interesting piece of nursery
ground south of the hall, and some warm compartments
for American and other foreign plants and flowers, of
eleven to twelve acres, but we have not space for further
detail.

Besides some new buildings recently erected in ad-
dition to the previous farm and nursery building, a
house has just been erected for a steam-engine, to pump
water from a deep well sunk below, to insure a full sup-
ply not only for general purposes, but for watering the
nursery in times of drought. The engine will also be
used for cutting chaff for the horses, working a saw to
cut timber, &c. A tank is provided that will hold 4000
gallons of water. We may add, in conclusion, that about
160 men and boys were employed on the grounds during
the spring.