THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 65 



EMBROIDERY BEDDING. 



{With a Coloured Illustration.) 



IT is so common for critics of horticultural affairs to cry 

 for novelties, that we must offer them enthusiastic con- 

 gratulations on the inauguration of a new idea in 

 bedding, the tone and purpose of which are fairly repre- 

 sented in the accompanying illustration. They have 

 travelled from Dan to Beersheba, to find the land barren of ideas, 

 though fruitful enough in geraniums, verbenas, and petunias, all 

 disposed in accordance with the several degrees of good and bad 

 taste that have prevailed for half-a-century. At last, after an in- 

 finity of grumbling, the accustomed flowers are superseded by 

 leaves ; and, in place of dots of colour of the primary class, with 

 gaps of unclothed ground between, we have sheets of colour of the 

 secondary and tertiary classes quite covering the ground, and bear- 

 ing such a general resemblance to embroidery as to justify the name 

 by which this system is to be henceforth known. Hitherto the best 

 examples of the new system have been developed in the vicinity of 

 the metropolis. The displays of embroidery in the "Subtropical 

 Garden " at Battersea Park last season were remarkably rich and 

 tasteful, and as meritorious for originality of design as for the splen- 

 dour of the effect produced. A much less extensive, but, as regards 

 colouring, equally artistic and effective, display was made in the 

 nursery of Mr. John Fraser, Lea Bridge Road — the planting aud 

 general effect of which are faithfully reproduced in the illustration. 

 So many subjects press for attention now, that we must beg per- 

 mission to deal with this subject more briefly than its importance 

 deserves. Fortunately, however, there are but two important points 

 that imperatively demand notice in connection with its leading 

 features. The first of these is, that leaf-colours only are admissible 

 — if flowering plants are employed, their heads of flower-buds must 

 be nipped out as soon as they appear ; for flowers of any kind, 

 unless they happen to be quite inconspicuous, or are so profusely 

 produced as to entirely hide their green leaves, only mar instead of 

 heightening the harmony of the effect, which depends on breadths 

 of solid unmixed colour, which flowering plants are quite incapable 

 of producing. Thus, if we were to plant verbenas in one of the 

 compartments of a scheme intended for embroidery, we should first 

 have a thin field of green leaves, then dottings of colour upon it ; 

 and there is no possibility of ordering the matter otherwise — a 

 mixed effect must be the result. On the other hand, by employing 

 leaf-colours only, we secure oneness of effect in every line or block, 

 and the colouring is the same from first to last, except as to inten- 

 sity ; and of course the utmost intensity occurs coincidently with 

 the complete development of the plants. In other words, the affair 

 is in its best trim when the materials of Avhich it is composed have 

 acquired a free growth, and have quite covered the ground, and are 

 still fresh and bright with health and their initial vigour. Another 



VOL. VI. — NO. III. 5 



