354- THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



A. vulgaris, and the variegated leaved variety of the last. Now that 

 we have touched on bad plants it may be well to refer to them 

 occasionally, especially to point out in lists of herbaceous plants 

 such as are unwortby the attention, and therefore the money, of 

 those who prefer flowers to weeds, and object to grow second-clats 

 plants until they have exhausted the lists of first-class kinds. 



S. H. 



HERBACEOUS PLANTS EOE LAWN CLUMPS. 



HILE penning the foregoing notice of Messrs. Grigor's 

 columbine, it has occurred to me to suggest tbat a few 

 very distinct and handsome herbaceous plants are admi- 

 rably adapted for planting in clumps on the lawn, not as 

 bedding plants, but to afford grace of form as well as a 

 display of colour, and to make a change thereby from the customary 

 mode of procedure. And the suggestion may appear the more proper, 

 because of the inherent demerits of many of the methods adopted 

 for the enrichment of the lawn. A tasteful display of coniferous 

 trees is usually the best possible furniture for breaking the flatness, 

 and giving dignity to a fine breadth of grass ; but coniferous trees 

 do not thrive everywhere alike, they are not in favour with all 

 amateurs alike, and they are somewhat expensive if good sorts are 

 selected and properly planted. The " popular " style of enriching 

 the lawn consists in forming a number of small round beds ("pin- 

 cushion beds " they are called) and planting standard roses in them, 

 with bedding plants during the spring and summer. Having ex- 

 pressed my opinion on this style pretty freely, I shall not now 

 weary the reader by pronouncing an elaborate condemnation of pin- 

 cushion beds and standard roses. It is sufficient to say that standard 

 roses are hideously ugly during at least nine months out of the twelve, 

 and that they are usually so badly treated when in pincushion beds 

 that they never present large, handsome hfads to make amends for 

 their ugliness of contour. We shall probably never succeed in 

 " writing down " pincushion beds and standard roses, and, indeed, 

 feel rather inclined to conceal than to express our views on that sub- 

 ject, because of the evident pleasure tens of thousands of people 

 derive from standard roses that starve on grass plots within view of 

 all the windows. Let us enlarge the area of selection of subjects for 

 lawns by proposing that a lew first-class herbaceous plants should 

 be adopted. They must be peculiarly distinct and handsome, the 

 least wiediness of character will be fatal to them. They must be 

 such as will arrest attention, and justify by their beauty the im- 

 portant place assigned them. Strange to say, suital - ^ ants, 

 according to our view of the requirements of the case, are extu . 

 few in number. We have carelully looked through Ware's catalogue 

 of herbaceous plants and selected the following. When we com- 

 menced the search we expected to find full twice as many as in the 

 end we marked for the purpose. 



Ayapanthus umbellatus, w hich is generally grown in pots, and 



