THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



45 



culas and polyanthuses are shown, and then say if in the whole realm 

 of Flora, flooded as it is with beauty, there are to be found subjects 

 to surpass the more than velvet richness, the more than painted pre- 

 cision and delicacy, the more than graceful symmetry and contour of 

 the collections of auriculas, and the more than fairy-like filagree work 

 in refulgent gold upon grounds of deepest black, or intensest ma- 

 roon and purple, of the lovely polyanthuses. If the eye hungers for 

 gaiety of colour and exquisite designs turned with almost mathematical 

 precision, it may be gratified in carnations, picotees, pinks, andpansies, 

 and no wonder there is a new demand for all such things, aud a new 

 recognition of the true spirit of John Keats's famous commencement 

 of Eudyinion — 



" A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, 



Its loveliness increases, it will never 



Pass into nothingness, but still will keep 



A bower quiet lor us, and a sleep 



Pull of sweet dreams and healthful breathing. 



Therefore on every morrow are we wreathing 



A flowery baud to bind us to the earth." 



S. H. 



THE PLUNGING SYSTEM. 



This is the last paper I shall write 

 on the Plunging system, unless some- 

 thing occurs in practice of sufficient 

 importance to reader it necessary to 

 open the subject again. I present 

 you here with a skeich of the narrow 

 border which skirts the front of my 

 house ; a little border which 1 call 

 my own, to distinguish it from the 

 rest of the garden, which is also my 

 own. It is so distinguished because 

 I take especial pains to keep it always 

 gay, for my own pleasure and in- 

 struction, and for the instruction of 

 the rest of the world. Having 

 treated so fully of the first principles 

 of the plunging system, I may now 

 tell you of a diversion from routine 

 which I made last year, and which 

 was of a very experimental kind. 

 Having always a number of plants 

 laying in by the heels all the si inter, 

 it occurred to me that they might as 

 well be used for decoration, as be 

 packed away in the lower part of the 

 garden, waiting for opportunities to 

 be planted or potted. But here I 

 OUiiht to say, by way o 1 parenthesis, 

 that to leave plants laying in bv the 

 heels is very bad practice. With me 

 it is matter of compulsion, lor 1 



oftentimes buy in a quantity of trees 

 for some particular purpose, and 

 when that purpose is accomplished, 

 there will be some left for which 

 there will be no immediate use, and 

 the only safe way for me to act is to 

 lay them in trenches, aud cover their 

 roots with earth, and wait a bit to see 

 what happens. 1 may happen, a 

 month or so afterwards, to want a 

 dozen or two hollies, or laurels, or 

 box-trees, etc., etc., and " there they 

 are ;" and if I do not want them for 

 any particular purpose, they are just 

 potted or planted in the reserve 

 ground, in lime to catch the next 

 growing season ; and again " there 

 they are" till wanted, and they are 

 then larger and more valuable than 

 *hen they came first to hand. Well, 

 it occurred to me that, as I had a 

 good stock of Junipers, Abies, Piceas, 

 and other handsome trees, that it 

 would be impossible to plant in their 

 places until quite the commencement 

 of spring, I might as well turn them 

 to account for decoration. They 

 were used in various ways, but the 

 principle of the using was in all the 

 same. To make a short story of it, 

 they were temporarily planted in 



