66 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



point of importance is, that schemes of this kind require the neatest 

 finishing ; and for that reason difficult curves and angles should be 

 avoided, because of the risk that the summer's growth may destroy 

 their proper contour. It is not absolutely necessary to finish the 

 boundaries with raised edges planted with echeverias or semper- 

 vivums, as for the most part has hitherto been done ; but it is un- 

 questionably a most artistic mode of procedure, and those who can 

 do it should adopt the plan until they, or other fortunate people, 

 shall discover something better. In the example before us, the edge 

 of the embroidery stands up square and firm above the general sur- 

 face of the ground, and is planted with two plants of the house-leek 

 family, the result being a sharp line of glaucous-tinted rosettes, 

 which no other edging hitherto tried can equal for beauty and com- 

 pleteness. The sharp edge is obtained by setting up planks on edge 

 to mark the boundary, and forming against the inner side of the 

 planks a brick-like line of earth by the process known to gardeners 

 under the designation of " slopping in." We may be the better 

 understood, perhaps, if we say that the edge of the bed is moulded 

 to a firm, straight, square line by soaking the soil with water, and 

 then pressing it in the form of mud against the board. When the 

 work has acquired consistency, the planks are removed, and the edge 

 is planted by scooping out holes for the plants, and inserting them 

 just as they are taken out of small pots, without breaking the ball 

 of soil. 



As remarked above, the principal furniture for an embroidery 

 scheme must be of leaf colours. Perhaps a few such plants as the 

 " pumila" section of Lobelias might be used ; but our advice to all 

 is, to employ no flowering-plant at all for a display until it has been 

 first tried in some obscure, out-of-the-way place experimentally. 

 The colourist who will be content to begin with a few of the most 

 easily-managed and strikingly characteristic of leaf plants will find 

 it quite an easy task to produce a sumptuous display on this system. 

 It is, in fact, a far easier matter to produce a successful result by 

 leaf colours than with flowering-plants, for all the plants are 

 amenable to the simplest treatment, and they produce their proper 

 effect of colour (though, of course, not in proper intensity) on the 

 very day that they are planted ; whereas with flowering-plants the 

 proper effect must be waited for, and if the season is unfavourable it 

 may never be produced. Moreover, as the majority of the very best 

 plants for the purpose are nearly hardy, and can be quickly raised 

 from seed, this is a comparatively inexpensive system, and therefore 

 makes a double claim for attention and appreciation on all who are 

 in any way concerned about the colouring of the parterre. Amongst 

 the more useful plants for leaf-colouring in embroidery, we may 

 mention Amaranthuses, Alternantheras, Perillas, Centaureas, Cine- 

 rarias, the Golden Feather Pyrethrum, Cerastiums, Coleus, Iresines, 

 Sempervivums, and Echeverias. The scheme represented in the 

 illustration requires a border of about seven feet, and should be 

 elevated about six inches above the level of the grass verge. The 

 outside edging on the face of the raised edge was formed of Semper- 

 vivum californicum, and above it, on the edge of the flat, was a row 



