The plants in the conservatory are chiefly orange trees, which are particularly appropriate to this kind of building: they are not, generally, in tubs, but planted in the free soil; and they looked far better than could have been expected from plants kept perpetually under an opaque roof. In common with the holly, the box, and the common laurel, when grown under the shade of trees, their leaves, though flaccid, were of a dark shining green. There are two other conservatories, of a modern character, with glass roofs: the plants they contain have for many years been too large for them, so that they are annually obliged to be cut down. When these conservatories were built, the idea of such immense glazed structures as are now erected had not entered into the minds of either gardeners or architects. There is a wall on which various half-hardy plants are trained, and, among others, that singular New Zealand tree, Edwardsia grandiflora. (fig. 33.) The Chinese garden here is unique of its kind. It is not large, but contains a conservatory, a sort of low pagoda, and other ornamental buildings, and a great quantity of valuable Chinese porcelain, of Chinese figures, monsters, mandarins, the god Joss, dragons, &c., and paintings, fountains, gold fish, jets, &c. In the conservatory are all the sorts of camellias that could be procured when it was planted; very large plants of green and black tea, because at that time it was not known that the green tea is nearly as hardy as the sweet bay (Laurus nobilis), and will, in a few years, be a common evergreen in our shrubberies in the south of England. Among the hardy plants is a fine specimen of Abies Clanbrasiliana, above 20 years old, and forming a tuft not above a foot high, and a foot in diameter. It is now (1836) 2 ft. 3 in. high, the diameter of the trunk 2.5 in., and that of the head 3 ft. 6 in. Such a dwarf is peculiarly appropriate to a Chinese garden. We observed in other parts of the pleasure-ground various plants of the Pinus Cembra [the largest was 20 feet high, in 1836] (fig. 34.), which is the aphernousli tree of the Tyrol, so much recommended by Harte for cultivation in this country, and noticed by Lord Byron as the tree found at a greater elevation on the Alps than any other of the pine and fir tribe. " But, from their nature, will the tannen grow Loftiest on loftiest and least sheltered rocks." It is a very slow-growing tree, but attains a considerable size, and, when full grown, the timber is of excellent quality. The height of this tree in England, according to our Return Papers received in 1835, varies from 40 ft. to 50 ft. The largest specimens are in the park of Wolcot Hall, in Shropshire. [In 1836, there were at , the hemlock spruce (Abies canadensis), 28 ft. high; the cedar of Lebanon, some plants of which, only 30 years planted, have attained the height of 35 ft.; tulip trees, 20 years planted, which have attained the height of 30 ft.; Virgilia lutea, 19 ft. high; Gymnocladus canadensis (an idea of which tree may be formed from fig. 36., which is a portrait of a full-grown tree of that species at Syon); Photinï¾µ serrulata, 20 ft. high, against a wall; Catalpa syringï¾µfolia, 21 ft. high; a purple beech, 15 ft. high; an Irish yew, 11 ft. high (fig. 35.); Juniperus virginiana, 34 ft. high (fig. 38.); and a fine old white mulberry, 25 ft. high, with a trunk 32 in. in diameter.] We could say a great deal more about these grounds; but the truth is, we were so much charmed with them, that we have not a sufficiently definite recollection of what we saw; and doubt not that inaccuracies, and, of course, omissions, will be found in what we have said. A fine effect on the mind is produced where, in passing from one garden to another, two large granite balls attract the eye. A copperplate inscription informs us that they were shot from the castle of Abydos, in the Dardanelles, and fell on a ship under the command of a brother of Lord Essex, in the squadron of Admiral Duckworth, and killed or wounded 15 men. They weigh 7 cwt. each. The unexpected occurrence of objects of this sort recall the mind from what it is engaged in, and relieve it by raising up a new train of ideas, and transporting the imagination to distant and very different scenes. Such episodical effects are very desirable, when they can be introduced in garden scenery without appearing ridiculous or affected.
