THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 269 



strong sharp sticks aslant, all manner of ways. Next night as they 

 make a rush, their tender noses strike the pointed sticks, and they 

 howl and run away. It has long been a rule with me to surround 

 any plant I am very choice about with sticks put in aslant ; it is a 

 golden preventive of destruction. Another means of keeping the 

 place clear is to keep a sharp dog always loose, and train him to 

 respect your plants. This may be done most easily ; my dog never 

 steps across the box edging, or quits the proper path under any cir- 

 cumstances. Now and then, perhaps, the dog may give chase, and 

 make a splendid run amongst a lot of roses or verbenas, and cause 

 you to doubt if this preventive is not as bad as the disease. But in 

 the end, if the dog is kept in good training, the place will be pretty 

 safe against cats, for they do not care to meet a dog that has a 

 penchant for hunting them ; and, after all, a bad dog will never do 

 so much harm in a garden as the dozens of cats that might infest it 

 were the dog not there. Yet one more hint to lovers of flowers who 

 are plagued by cats. Suppose you have such a bed of geraniums 

 or of carnations as I could show you now ; the cats might assemble 

 and have a scrimmage in the midst of it, and scatter the plants all 

 over the place in the form of mincemeat any night in the season. I 

 render such a misfortune impossible. First, I enclose the bed with 

 a neat wire fence six inches high : though a cat could jump this easy 

 enough, nevertheless, it is very likely no cat ever will. But before I 

 plant the bed I stretch stout copper wire across it in five or six direc- 

 tions, making the wire fast to the boundary fence. I used to lose 

 a whole bed of pinks before adopting these measures, but have not 

 lost one since. Probably the fence keeps them oft', and the wire is 

 not wanted. Certainly a bed on grass looks exceedingly neat and 

 finished with only these low wire fences, so there is no wrong done 

 to the gardenesque by the procedure. Well, there is yet one more 

 mode of action, that of banishment, to be practised as follows : — 



[This, the concluding paragraph of the essay, must not appear; we could not 

 mar the pages of the Floral World by giving publicity to our correspondent's 

 system of poisoning cats. Supposing, even, that indiscriminate killing of these 

 animals were allowable (and of course it is not allowable, on grounds no less of 

 common honesty than of humanity), the practice of placing poison within their 

 reach might oftentimes lead to consequences of the most serious nature, such as 

 every one of our readers will, on the instant, apprehend.— Ed. F. W.] 



A FEW GOOD BEDDEKS, NEW AND OLD. 



BT JOHN WALSH. 



i AST year I was permitted, in these pages, to say a word 

 \ov two to my brother amateurs about the new bed- 

 ding plants brought into public notice during the 

 season. I have since heard from some of my friends 

 that the notes I then offered have been extremely use- 

 ful. Several of them request me to help them again in the same 

 manner, which shall be the endeavour of this article. 



The Zonate Pelargoniums have so many hues and shades of 



