302 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



was divided from another by an old privet hedge, determined to 

 plant a collection of the best herbaceous subjects. He knew tbe 

 hedge was inhabited by thousands of snails, and he thought that by 

 vigilance he would gain the mastery over them, and save his plants. 

 So perhaps he might have done, if the hedge bad been all that he 

 had to deal with. He forgot that the next garden received but little 

 attention, was almost run wild, and was in fact a great nursery for 

 snails, slugs, earwigs, woodlice, and every other plague tbat brings 

 death to choice plants. He planted his collection on a border, to 

 which the dividing hedge served as a background ; the vermin found 

 out his treasures, they poured in and devoured nearly one half of 

 the collection, which comprised several hundred cboice species and 

 varieties. Such things as Fraxinella, Saponaria, Delphinium, Antirr- 

 hinum, Lychnis, Pentstemon, and Phlox are devoured at once and 

 lost for the season, and when those are gone less palatable things 

 suffer. In such a spot, however, many charming things can be 

 grown. Snails and woodlice care very little about primroses, so 

 that a collection of the choicest double kinds may be planted in the 

 midst of hungry vermin. Lily of the Valley, Solomon's Seal, 

 Anemone Japonica, Callirhoe digitata, Ranunculuses of many kinds, 

 and a hundred other good things that I hope to name as 1 go on, 

 will not be harmed by snails, and are therefore useful in gardens 

 unhappily circumstanced in respect of vermin. An open, sunny 

 spot, removed from the shade of trees, and exposed to all the winds 

 of heaven, is that which will best suit the majority of the plants, 

 and in such a spot there will be less vermin of all kinds than near 

 walls, fences, rockeries, rooteries, and other such harbours for 

 marauders. 



I presume I may say a last word as to effect. There are many 

 subjects adapted for bold clumps, and, if well managed, produce a 

 splendid effect. A dry, sandy, simny bank covered with clumps of 

 Sempervivnms, Sedums, and Antirrhinums would make a beautiful 

 change as an interruption to the formality of beds and borders. But 

 in planting a long border for effect I should proceed in this way. 

 I should first determine how many and what kinds to have of showy 

 phloxes, delphiniums, pseonies, pentstemons, lilies, tritomas, and 

 other plants that are distinct and striking, and mark off places on 

 the border in order to repeat them all through. Por example, if I 

 have a border a hundred feet long, I would plant ten clumps of 

 white Lilies at ten feet apart ; midway between them ten clumps of 

 Phloxes ten feet apart, these to be nearly the same heiglit, and 

 selected for colour rather than form ; midway between these, clumps 

 of Delphiniums and Aconites of tall growth, and so on, filling in 

 with all sorts of odd things of the same or nearly the same height. 

 So in a line in advance of those I would have ten clumps of her- 

 baceous Pteonies at ten feet apart ; midway between them ten clumps 

 of Dielytras, and so on again, filling with odd things, of which one 

 or two specimens were sufiicient. These repetitions would have a 

 fine effect in the season of flowering of each kind, and hard for- 

 mality would be prevented by the admixture of all sorts of things 

 with them ; patches of scarlet Lychnis, dark red Fraxinella, yellow 



