THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 143 



boughs against the stone. That will give most people ten times a 

 better idea of rocka than if you lay the whole puny construction 

 of the affair open, with a dot of green here and there. 



The bare and doleful condition of some miles of little gardens 

 passed by during a walk in the northern suburbs the other day, has 

 induced me to write this paper, Ninety-nine out of every hundred 

 looked as bad as bad could be, particularly with regard to the central 

 bed, which in hundreds of cases contained nothing at all, and in 

 respectable instances exhibited a paralysed aucuba or some other 

 ailing evergreen. Now a host of people who love flowers but can- 

 not grow them much, are satisfied if they can preserve " a bit of 

 green ;" but I very much doubt if a smoky and half-dead " ever- 

 green " answers their purpose best, and from practical experience 

 know that some of the most pleasing "greens" known may be 

 readily grown in London, and are so grown in it. The central beds 

 in most of those gardens offer the very best situations for planting 

 them, particularly in cases where the spot is not much over-shadowed 

 by trees. In many terraces, etc., large growing trees are not planted 

 at all, and in such nothing can prevent the success of the low rock- 

 work system. 



My proposal is to slightly raise those beds and fill them with 

 evergreen alpine plants, which will look as well or better at Christ- 

 mas than at Midsummer, and form the most pleasant of all resting 

 places for the usually tired eyes of those who dwell around large 

 cities. The borders would afford sufficient space for flowers, if 

 green in various shades was not preferred all round, which it 

 might well be if flowers could not be decently grown in the garden 

 from smoke or other causes. 



To make a suitable home for these hardy and accommodating 

 subjects, would at first require a little careful labour, and some as 

 good soil as could be obtained, but it is not worth speaking of 

 when we consider that no further trouble would be required for 

 some years, and that an increasing progress would be observable in 

 the plants instead of the quick decay and cheerless winter aspect 

 of the common garden embellishments. It should be made some- 

 what as follows : — Excavate the bed, and if the soil is very wet or 

 clayey, or otherwise objectionable, throw it out and utilize it in 

 some way, and then place a few rustic slabs or burrs, as good as you 

 can get them for the purpose, around the edge of your bed (let us 

 suppose it is dug out at this juncture a foot below the level), and let 

 them lie in different easy positions along the edge of the bed, so that 

 the greater part of the stone may be buried when the bed is filled 

 up, and that the stones may serve to raise the bed a _ little — here 

 twelve inches, there five or six. Get as much simple diversity in it 

 as convenient. Have the soil light and sandy, if possible " gritty " 

 in some places, and fill up to about the level of the marginal stones. 

 The next movement depends altogether on the size of the bed. If 

 a large one it may be raised three or four feet in parts ; if small, 

 the best thing to do is to be satisfied with a rise of eighteen inches 

 or two feet, which will be sufficiently effected by merely half-plung- 

 ing a few slabs through the bed in addition to those that surround 



