14 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



vent accidents let common care and prudence be exercised, nothing 

 more is required. 



Though the plant is one of the hardiest in our gardens, I am no 

 advocate for exposing it at any time to the full influence of the weather 

 in this climate. One good heavy rain may induce canker in the 

 greater part of a collection, and in dry weather our atmosphere is 

 too arid for them, whereas when in frames there is always a certain 

 degree of atmospheric humidity to assist them. I jJtlvise, therefore, 

 to keep them in frames the whole year round, giving always plenty 

 of air; they are then fully under our control, and if we are wise and 

 watchful we shall have no losses. Mr. Hibberd, in his " Garden 

 Pavourites," has recommended putting them out on a hard bottom 

 immediately after blooming; I should like to know if he follows that 

 plan still, and if he has the same amount of confidence in it as ever. 

 So careful a cultivator must, I am sure, see the superiority of the 

 covered system of treating these plants, provided it is followed out 

 with every other needful consideration for their welfare. 



SUB-TEOPICAL PLANTS THAT MAY BE GEOWN FROM 



SEEDS. 



BY KAEL PEOSPEE. 



IJONTINUING my notes for " The Choice Garden," I 

 would now direct attention to the surest and simplest way 

 of raising a number of the most remarkable plants of 

 those kinds which in England are termed "sub-tropicals," 

 which do indeed come from warmer climates, and which 

 are valued for their noble characters and great distinctness from every- 

 thing that we possess amongst old-fashioned plants. The English gar- 

 deners give to Mr. Gibson, of Battersea Park, great praise for the ad- 

 mirable series of experiments he has conducted during several years 

 past, to test the possibilities of the English climate in the out-door 

 cultivation of such subjects as the indiarubber tree, the brilliant Ei\y- 

 tlirina crista-galli, the Aralia papyrifera, and A. Sieholdii, the Solanum 

 of many species, the palms, ferns, and grasses of the comparatively- 

 temperate parts bordering on the tropics, I have seen Mr. Gibson's 

 work, and I must say that in the latter part of the summer the 

 " sub-tropical garden" at Battersea Park presents such a gorgeous 

 spectacle as there is nothing else to equal in all the great gardens I 

 have visited since I have resided in this country, and I should add 

 that I have seen nearly all the celebrated gardens both here and on 

 the Continent. And because I have seen I will make bold to say 

 that the French are the real authors of this practice. The French 

 have elaborated the system, and Paris has been annually the scene 

 of such wonderful displays of luxuriant vegetation of kinds very dis- 

 tinct from the established round of greenhouse and stove plants, that 



