TEE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 189 



flower garden ; unfortunately a severe winter kills or injures it, though 

 for beauty it is unique and unsurpassed. Another of this series is Arundo 

 conspicua, which is not thoroughly hardy, except in the south of Eng- 

 land ; and the same may he said of Arundo clonax, which, in a warm. 

 climate and a deep rich soil, will throw up its noble plumes to a height 

 of ten feet — a plant of such majesty and so rarely grown, that it is a 

 most strange thing that it is never seen forming a gigantic tuft on the 

 lawn of some one amongst our many amateur cultivators. Of Brizas, 

 Stipas, Emyrostis elegans, and Agrosiis nebulosa, which are amongst the 

 loveliest of the smaller grasses, we say nothing ; it is sufficient to have 

 named four giants of the family that are the very models of the things 

 we need to redeem our gardens from their monotonous appearance. 



Among flowering plants of remarkable aspect, one of the grandest 

 is Tritoma uvaria, the " red-hot poker plant.". "What decisiveness of 

 form and depth of colour are there in its huge grass-like leaves, what 

 uniqueness of character in its splendid spikes of red and orange flowers ! 

 And yet how seldom we see it, except in public parks and great gardens, 

 though to plant a group in the first instance would cost no more than 

 to plant a group of geraniums of the same extent, and once planted, 

 the stock will increase continually without the help of glass and fuel. 

 Then there are the cannas, with their ample leafage veined with bronze or 

 purple, and their gaudy spikes of crimson, scarlet, and orange flowers, 

 massive and characteristic, yet rarely seen. At Battersea Park, Mr. 

 Gibson deals with cannas as some cottagers deal with fuchsias — that is 

 to say, he leaves them in the ground all winter, and heaps two feet of 

 straw over the beds to keep the frost out. The consequence is that 

 with this care they flourish like indigenous plants, and instead of 

 making three or four feet of growth in a season, and even then pre- 

 senting a remarkably fine appearance, they tower up to a height of 

 eight, nine, or ten feet, and flower in June instead of in August. What 

 is there to prevent the humblest of our amateurs doing the same ? Tet 

 there does not seem to be anywhere the spirit to deviate from beaten 

 tracks. In this category we must place the gladiolus, which but few 

 amateurs have yet done justice to, though O. Brenclileyensis might be 

 supposed to have colour enough to satisfy the most sensation-loving of 

 gardeners. In the gladiolus we have exquisite grace, nobility, delicacy 

 of colour, and points of interest, all combined, and for first-class pro- 

 menade and parterre planting there are few finer subjects. The best of 

 the old-established kinds are cheap, and they rarely i'ail to give satisfac- 

 tion if planted early. It is late planting that causes them to fail ; 

 therefore we advise that they be planted in February or March, and be 

 covered with cones of coal-ashes or cocoa-nut dust to keep them safe 

 from frost, till the season is sufficiently advanced to allow of the removal 

 of the covering. 



Lastly, in this series we must name an almost unknown but quite 

 hardy and exquisitely beautiful plant, called THryngivm ametliystinum, 

 which grows like a thistle, to a height of four or five feet, and produces 

 thistle-like heads of flowers, which, with the stems on which they are 

 placed, are of a most peculiar metallic blue, just the colour, in fact, of 

 blue steel — a most unusual though beautiful hue among plants. 



Of less importance to our friends who have short purses, though good 



