opened, the plants lose half their interest. The plan now recommended to those who wish to enjoy the pleasure of seeing plants thrive in their living-rooms, is to have a large glass case (see fig. 1), placed in front of a window, and projecting into the room,

Fig. 2.

with a door opening into it, so that it could be entered from the room. The floor of this greenhouse, or plant-cabinet, should be made of wood, a little higher than the floor of the room; so that, if it should be wished, it could be removed without injuring the house. The whole of the upper part of the case, projecting into the room, should be glazed, but

to the height of about two feet it should be of wainscot, to correspond with the panelling round the room. This panelling is lined within the cabinet with leaden troughs, communicating with each other, and having a slight declination towards another trough lower than the rest, and near the balcony outside the window, and so contrived that any water, draining from the pots or boxes containing the plants, may run off into the lower trough, which should not have any flowerpots in it, unless they contain aquatic or marsh plants. In these troughs should be placed wooden or slate boxes, filled with earth, in which climbing plants are placed, alternately with camellias, orange-trees, or other flowering shrubs, so as to be seen from the room. The lower half of the window, behind the glass case, should be taken out of its frame, and the balcony covered with glass as shewn in fig. 2; and this glass should open in several places, so that fresh air may be admitted at pleasure; and the glass-door of the cabinet in the room should be made to fit closely, so that the dry air from the living-room may be excluded when necessary.

The mode of arranging the plants in a plant-cabinet of this kind must depend upon the taste of its possessor. A very pretty effect is produced by training the small-leaved ivy up a slight trellis placed just within the glass that projects into the room, and having plants with showy-coloured flowers placed at intervals, so as to be seen from the room among the ivy, the light from the window behind giving the plants placed close to the glass the effect of transparency.

There are many places in this country where a little sparkling stream runs through a deep romantic glen, and where a bridge of brick and mortar, or even stone, would look wretchedly out of place; and yet where it is almost necessary to have some mode of passing from one rock to another. In such situations, nothing can be

VOL. I.

more appropriate than a rustic bridge, such as that shewn on next page, which can be made by any village carpenter who can contrive to put wooden planks firmly together, while the materials for the decorative part will be found in the woods on the estate.

The principal thing to be attended to in making a bridge of this kind is, to make it,

H H

IN

N the gardens here under my charge, a very good plant of the Yucca gloriosa superba began to send up a flower stem in the month of June last, and was in fine flower in July and beginning of August. The plant was foliaged close to the ground, and the stem, which measured about 8 feet in height, was densely covered with flowers. This plant was by no means the best in the gardens. About the middle of August two more began to send up flower stems, which are now upwards of 9 feet in height, and shewing flowers on their side branches, but are by no means near their full stature. A week later two more plants of the same species began shewing their stems, and are following the other two very rapidly, being now 6 feet high; and about a fortnight since a fifth one commenced to shoot up, so that if the weather be favourable for them flowering, they will be a splendid sight in a few weeks, and will be worthy of having a protection raised about them to shelter them from autumnal blasts of wind, rain, and cold nights. The first four of these have dark brownish stems and branch sheaths, while those of the fifth, which I take to be the

true Y. gloriosa, are creamy-white. There is also a plant of Yucca glaucescens sending up its flower stem, but this species does not appear to attain to near the size of the others; and its stem is of a light red colour, quite different in appearance from them. Five of these plants will be in flower about the same time, for although two be a little further in advance, they will not be near done flowering when the others have commenced. The plants are all very strong except the last mentioned, which is of less size. I have had long experience in growing Yuccas, and find that they require very rich soil, with plenty of manure to grow robust, handsome plants. The only winter protection requisite is to gather and tie the leaves close up to prevent snow or sleet freezing in the heart of the plants and rotting them. After flowering they will send suckers from their roots or sides, which may be carefully removed, and if well cultivated they may flower in a few years afterwards. Independent of the flowering, they are magnificent looking plants for conspicuous places in a flower or kitchen garden.-P. Loney, Fingask Castle, Perth.

Α'

LMOST every year the cabbage caterpillar (P. pieris) causes considerable loss to gardeners and cultivators by eating a great part of the cabbages. I have even seen whole beds of this precious vegetable entirely lost. People who have described this insect have set forth in journals many ways, more or less excellent, of destroying the butterfly and its caterpillars; but I think that to attain that end there are no means more efficacious and more simple than that which the housekeepers of my locality have used for several years. They plant the cabbages in the proximity of a hemp-field, or rather sow some feet with hemp at little distances in the midst of the cabbages. The butterfly seems to have such an aversion to the strong odour of this plant that it leaves the garden, and never lays its eggs but at a distance from the hemp. If this plant is scattered in every corner of the garden, one will never see a caterpillar on the cabbages.

This proceeding, of which the efficiency is well tried, is a discovery owing to chance. A cultivator had remarked that there never were any caterpillars on a cabbage when it was planted near a field of hemp, while the pot herbs situated elsewhere were perfectly ravaged. Hence the idea of sowing hemp seeds at stated distances in the gardens, and which has had most excellent results. The odour of the broom affects the cabbage butterfly in a similar manner, and one can preserve cabbages and vegetables in a similar manner from their attacks, by placing green branches of the broom in the kitchen garden; but these branches dry rapidly and soon lose all smell: it is then necessary to replace them by fresh ones. Hemp, on the contrary, exhales its scent all the summer, and the few feet sown in a garden does not in the least injure the vegetables, but themselves become enormous, and give into the bargain their produce in seeds and hemp, which constitutes another advantage.-X. Thiriat.

THE

HIS modern baronial residence covers quite an acre in extent. From its elevated position, and the natural acclivity of the ground, it is well adapted for terracing; at least the two sides of the square, where picturesque beauty is and ought to be, the principal object in view. Where convenience is the most cardinal point to be considered, seeing that the principal entrance and the kitchen and kindred apartments are situated in proper positions in the corresponding sides of the square, the ground is level. Purely architectural display, without a proper regard for fitness, convenience, and comfort towards domestic arrangements is very objectionable indeed. Here both points have evidently been carefully studied, and if there be any thing at all which the captious critic would pick at it is in the deficiency of breadth of the platform of these terraces. A little more scope, on either side of the spacious gravel walks that runs parallel with the building would very much enhance the general effect, the more particularly when we look to the circular and parallelogram beds that are introduced, with a due regard to geometrical rules, in the grassy ground work. These masses of colour, filled as they were with parterre plants, lightened up the green sward, and an admirable reinforcement was called into play into some of the more spacious panels in the shape of great rustic baskets, about 14 feet in diameter, with corresponding arched bows, clothed with moss and climbers of sorts, adorning them with gay flowers and elegant foliage, while plants of parti-coloured foliage, and others with flowers, decked the interior. Looking to the immediate foreground, there is an

eye

to

ample field of beauty for an ambitious dwell upon; for there is first the rich and formal style of decorative gardening, as represented by three sets of terraces, then a liberal infusion of choice conifers, then delightful park scenery on a level of some 60 or 70 feet lower ; and in the background there is that beauful classical scenery, sufficiently touched upon in a former chapter; only we are reminded that we failed to notice Inch Calliaich, which, when translated, signifies the "island of old women," situated at the base of the Lomond hills.

Wending our way towards the garden, we pass through a coniferous grove, in which Picea pinsapo, P. Cephalonica, quite 14 feet high, with great bristling laterals, abound, indicative of much luxuriance. Wellingtonias also thrive here, so do the Cupressus Nutkaensis, a splendid species, the C. Lawsoniana, along with many of the common cypresses, in single file, which seem to have found a home on this estate peculiarly agreeable to them. Nor must we omit to note the growing qualities and the decorative value of Picea grandis and P. nobilis. Both are of that majestic habit that claim for them a place in any demesne, and both seem less fickle than many of their compeers. Associated with these, to give variety and attraction throughout the season, are various of the berberries. Mahonia aquifolium is not the least important, looking to the profusion and beauty of its fruit, and the glossy fine ornamental character of its foliage. When to this we have to add the Japanese Aucubas, which, beautiful at all times, have, now that their wedded position has been restored, the additional