192 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



near the edge, and they would also fall over. We had almost forgotten two gems 

 of rare value, though as common as ill-tempers ; they are Tormentilla reptans, the 

 common yellow- flowered tormentil, and Linaria cymbalaria, the common toad flax. 

 These will form beards of leaf and flower on the face of the stonework. 



Shrubs for a Hot Dry Border. — Vindicator will be thankful to have the 

 names of a few flowering shrubs suitable to plant on a very hot dry border where 

 evergreens have a starved appearance. For a hot dry position, the Cistus family 

 are admirably adapted. The following are the best : C. albidus, cvispus, incanus, 

 ladaniferus, lusitanicus, pnrpureus, roseus, and salvifolius. These average three 

 feet high, with the exception of ladaniferus, which grows to a height of five feet. 

 Another fine shrub for such a position is the well-known and much-admired Althea 

 frutex, of which there are at least a dozen varieties in cultivation, and from which 

 you could select according to your wants, bearing in mind that they are all good, 

 and that they bloom superbly in autumn. Calycanthus floridus, the American all- 

 spice, would suit you. Cercis siliquastrum, the Judas tree, may be kept down by 

 pruning, to the dimensions of a shrub, and is very beautiful when in flower in May; 

 but if allowed to get up, forms a tree twenty feet high. The pretty Weigelia rosea 

 is quite indispensable, and will be quite at home where you want the trees. Pyrus 

 Japonica makes a fine flowering shrub, and any soil or situation suits it. Forsythia 

 viridissima would be a valuable shrub for spring flowers. The crimson, pink, and 

 white double-flowering peach and several other varieties of peaches grown for deco- 

 rative purposes, would answer admirably in the form of bushes. Lastly, it is a first- 

 rate position for the Pomegranate, of which there are half a dozen fine varieties. 

 You must not attempt to grow roses or rhododendrons in such a . s] 



Rose ^Garland. — P. C. — Messrs. Major and Son, nurserymen, Knosthorpe, near 

 Leeds, can supply you with a book of patterns for flower- beds. We do not know 

 the price, but they will tell you all about it if you write to them. 



Country Bee-Master will oblige by forwarding his name and address. 

 M. A. H. — Let us have a sketch of the bed, with measurement. 

 Packing of Bulbs for Export.— Can you aid an amateur at a distance and 

 a disciple at your feet, by naming some nurseryman in the old country, with not 

 too much business, who would not be unwilling to help a customer at the antipodes 

 in the development of an interesting experiment. I am a great grower of bulbs of 

 all kinds suited to a hot climate, and like to import direct for myself, so as each 

 year to have something new and interesting which my neighbours have not. The 

 enormous expense, however, of importing packages as articles of freight by the mail 

 steamer, as well as the distance of Brisbane from the port of arrival, are serious 

 obstacles in rry way. I have, theiefore, lately been trying the parcel post as a means 

 of transmission, but have hitherto signally failed. Whether the leading nurserymen 

 with whom I have dealt have not taken pains with my orders on account of their 

 apparent insignificance I cannot tell ; but this I know, that package after package 

 has failed, and that they were not put up according to my instructions. If the 

 parcel post can be made an effective menns of transmitting bulbs, much service may 

 he rendered to the Queensland horticulturalist, because the same method would doubt- 

 less answer for vegetable and other seeds ; and in the name of the amateurs of this 

 distant part of the world, I invite your readers to give us the benefit of their expe- 

 rience, and shall feel favoured by seeing in the first number of the Floral World 

 published after receipt of this an answer to the question put at its commencement 

 by a Queensland Subscriber. [The writer of the foregoing is engaged in a great 

 scientific undertaking which has already benefited the colony of Queensland to an 

 immense extent, and promises to be yet tenfold more beneficial in the future. We 

 beg of any of our readers who have had experience in the transmission of seeds and 

 bulbs to distant parts, to communicate with us on the subject, if they can add any- 

 thing to the following note kindly furnished by Messrs. Cutbush and Son, nursery- 

 men, of Highgate, near London.] "Seeds will go well to the colonies by parcels 

 post if packed in oiled silk bags, and, being transparent, the contents can be seen 

 through by the Post-office authorities. We have never failed in the safe transmission 

 of bulbs when packed dry in charcoal dust, provided the proper season is selected, 

 but they have always been despatched by the quickest route, and the box containing 

 them lined with tin and hermetically closed up. We should much like to hear from 

 jour correspondent what he wishes to have sent out, and would endeavour to n cet 

 his views, and contend against any of the mishaps which he appears to have pre- 

 viously met with. — Cutbush a>d Son." 



