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THE FLOEAL WORLD AND aARDEN GUIDE. 



hitherto accomplished or described. Thus 

 •we gain a row without touching the breadth 

 of the border, and we come to line tlie 

 second, whicli is Peril la Nankinensis, 

 planted thick, in four rows, the plants not 

 more than five inches apart, and the line 

 measuring eighteen inches wide. In front 

 of these is anotlier of the commonest of 

 plants, Antennaria margaritacea, which, if 

 left alone, grows two and a- half feet high, 

 and produces dirty yellow blossoms, of the 

 gnaphallum class. The beauty of this is 

 its silvery foliage, and neat, upright, close 

 habit, in which it far surpasses Cineraria 

 argentea, and may be propagated a hundred 

 times as fast ; in fact, spreads naturally, 

 and may be divided again and again. It 

 is one of the hardiest of herbaceous plants in 

 our gardens, and will grow in the poorest 

 soil, and never ask for a drop of water. 

 This is in four close rows, fifteen inches 

 "wide in all, and will be kept topped to just 

 the height required to make it range with 

 the rest. Purposing last year to use this 

 as a ribbon plant, I dibbled in odd pieces 

 of it in various places along the mixed 

 borders, having only one stool then to start 

 with. As I wanted over two thousand dis- 

 tinct rooted pieces of it, I found myself 

 close pinched when it was taken up and 

 divided for planting. But I made the rows 

 good right through, put the plants at 

 double their proper distances, then chopped 

 up tlie remaining fragments, topped a few 

 of the strongest-rooted plants, dibbled all 

 thesa Duraps into five-inch pots, and, as fast 

 as they made roots, removed them to 

 thicken the rows with. Thus from the 

 first, though with insufficient plants, this 

 line was complete, thougli thin. It is now 

 as thick as need he to allow for growth to 

 the end of the season. In front of this 

 silvery line is a close band of purple orach, 

 twelve inches wide. This is too tall a plant 

 for a second row, hut I could hit upon no- 

 thing else to give just the colour I wanted, 

 and it will be kept to a low growth by con- 

 stant topping, which will cause it to throw 

 out side-shoots, and give its fullest possible 

 amount of purple crimson, which it will 

 not do if allowed to run up and form its 

 chenopodium heads of seed. The front 

 line of all, next the stone edging, is the 

 variegated arabis, eight inches wide, the 

 flowers of which are picked off as fost as 

 they appear, as unnecessary, and inter- 

 fering with the scheme. 



It was expressly to afford a lesson on 

 the uses of foliage, and the production of a 

 good effect by the simplest and cheapest 

 of materials, that I planned and planted 

 that ribbon, else it might have been as 

 gay with geraniums as any similar narrow 



line could be ; for I have all the best bed- 

 ding kinds, and could take up the ribbon 

 and plant for scarlet flowers at the mere 

 cost of labour for the change. It is to be 

 observed, that a mile or two of such ribbon 

 might be planted almost for nothing. You 

 need not even manure the ground, for if 

 sweet, and sandy in texture, all these 

 plants will grow with vigour. The purple 

 orach has been topped twice already, and 

 the tops put in for a supply of plants in 

 case a hot summer should make the second 

 row too strong for the place, in which case 

 they could be removed, and the line re- 

 planted with young plants, with short legs 

 and less vigour than their predecessors, for 

 my orachs were sown on the first of March, 

 in pans, and the first of May is the best 

 time for people who have but little time for 

 pricking out and nursing, and then they 

 may be sown in the open ground, where 

 they are to remain. This arrangement, 

 then, is all that could be desired of its kind. 

 It is gay enough for me, and I quite enjoy 

 its quiet, chaste contrasts, so different to 

 the profusion of yellow and scarlet every- 

 where else to be seen. Only the gardeners 

 guess of what it is made, and some of them 

 are obliged to "pop the question ;" people 

 take it for a display of rare, curious, and 

 novel tropical plants, though if the same 

 things were sprinkled about in tufts along 

 a mixed border they would not heed them. 

 I said last year I hoped to use some of 

 the dwarf high-coloured beets, for a back 

 row to such a ribbon. I have sown a col- 

 lection of beets in my kitchen garden, ex- 

 pressly to determine if any of them will suit 

 the purpose ; at present my mind runs on 

 Myatt's crimson ; but I will not now say 

 if a beet of any kind is really good enough. 

 As many of our readers have expressed a 

 wish to know how to get up such a line, I 

 will offer a few observations. Unless all 

 the sorts are at hand in sufficient quantity, 

 it had better be deferred till next year, be- 

 cause it must be densely planted to do jus- 

 tice to the idea. As mine is arranged, the 

 border is nearly six feet wide, because the 

 back row of Phalaris is planted into the row 

 of shrubs ; therefore we may consider six 

 feet as the proper breadth for it. Get, then, 

 a stock of three kinds this season, and carry 

 the plan into effect next year. If you have 

 the ribbon grass, divide it at once into as 

 many fairly rooted clumps as it will make, 

 and plant these on banks and rockeries. It 

 does best lifted up high and dry, and will 

 grow in any soil. Divide a row of Anten- 

 naria margaritacea if you have it, and plant 

 the pieces in the borders wherever a tuft of 

 silver will look well. If you do not possess 

 it, beg, borrow, or buy a tuft at once, and 



