148 



THE FLOKAL WOELD AKD GAKDEN GUIDE. 



there is nothing in the way of varie- 

 gated plants to surpass them. 



Agalhea celcstis variegata. — This 

 has been puffed mto notoriety to such 

 an extent, that people who have not 

 seen it may very well imagine it to 

 be the greatest wonder of the nine- 

 teenth century . Now there is nothing 

 wonderful about it, and, so far as 

 variegation is concerned, we have 

 many plants of the same habit and 

 tint that far surpass it in general ex- 

 cellence. We have it planted out 

 now sufficiently near variegated arabis 

 to show that the latter is the brighter 

 of the two, and that the tone of grey 

 is much the* same, as there is just 

 enough yellow in the leaf to give to 

 a mass of it the effect of a pale wash 

 of buff colour. We are not condemn- 

 ing it ; its merits are many ; it grows 

 close and neat, and flowers freely ; 

 and as flie flowers are blue, that must 

 be thought of in using it as an 

 edging. 



Bellis perentiis, the variety gene- 

 rally distributed in the trade, called 

 " aucubifolia," is one of the prettiest 

 bedding plants in existence. The 

 leaves are of a rich gold yellow, netted 

 with green veins, and the flowers 

 crimson, double, and plentifully pro- 

 duced. Whoever is in need of some- 

 thing new for a front line, or for 

 filling narrow beds on a terrace, 

 should obtain this pretty daisy, and 

 propagate it from offsets all the sum- 

 mer long, and keep the whole stock 

 in pots through the winter. It is 

 quite hardy, but too delicate a plant 

 to be left to fight the battle with the 

 weather. Those who know it, and 

 wculd like to use it in quantity at 

 once, can obtain a supply of any of 

 the leading nurseries at six shillings 

 per dczen. For its intrinsic merit it 

 is worth five times that price, and 

 was bought up as fast as it could be 

 propagated, a few years ago, at five 

 shillings each. 



EOCKEEIES.— 1XAEDY FE&N& 



SAXIFRAGA ICELANDICA. 



Go into your garden in the sultry 

 noon of July, and how soon do you 

 tire of the blinding glare of the bed- 

 ding plants. You turn in vain for 

 relief to the ragged burnt-up turf. 

 Oh, for a broad, cool depth of dewy 

 green-sward ! Sighing for rain, and 

 shading your eyes with your hands, 

 you look aloft, but not the shadow of 

 a cloud obscures the bright expanse 

 of blue. 13ut before you return to 

 the house, come with me to that 

 corner at the bottom, which you say 

 is too shady to grow anything where 

 nature is indeed unadorned, and so 

 well repays your neglect with such 

 plentiful crops of weeds and stones. 

 There will we smoke the pipe of 

 peace beneath the shadow of that 

 ugly scene. I will tell you how, by 

 the aid of no magician's wand, but 

 simply by the outlay of a few shil- 

 lings and a little labour, I have trans- 

 formed such a spot into one on which 

 the eye delights to linger, and whose 

 beauty winter's icy fingers cannot all 

 efface. 



On my rockery I have a constant 

 succession of flowers for above eleven 

 months in the year, commencing with 

 the winter aconite in January, soon 

 hid in the blooms of the snowdrops, 

 crocuses, and daffodils, at the edge 

 where they have remained for years 

 undisturbed by the summer plants. 

 These are succeeded by the earliest 

 single tulips, replaced by the glorious 

 double, and these again by the tall, 

 graceful single, including gesneriana 

 and the parrot tulips. Amongst them 

 come," veiled in a cloud of fragrance," 

 hyacinth and narrissi, intermixed 

 with " pale primroses that die unmar- 

 ried," violets, lilies, rhododendrons, 

 and various herbaceous plants. The 

 purchase of a few bedding plants in 

 bloom carries on the succession till 

 the large old geraniums come into 

 bloom. Before the eddying gusts of 

 autumn scatter their richly-dyed 

 petals, the gladoli burst out in 

 beauty, the Tritomas lift up their 

 flambeaux of living fire, and the chry- 

 santhemums, with Heileborus niger, 



