THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 27 



Alyssum saxatile. The latter plant was omitted from my 100 because tlie list was 

 up before I came upon it. The variety compacta of this plant is charming. If the 

 omission of the commou sort saxatile it a cause of having the laugh turned against 

 me, all I can say is that 1 have omitted better things, andean with all good humour 

 laugh back again. J. Williams. 



Bath Lodge, Ormskirk. 



HAEDT HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 



THE O'SHAXE TO ME. WILLIAMS, OP OEMSKIEK. 



51 ITH my final list of herbaceous plants, prepared for the '^ Gardener's 

 Magazine," there certainly was more pains taken than with any selec- 

 tion of plants ever given in the literature of horticulture. Tlierefore, 

 since Mr. Williams thinks fit to slight it, we may as well inquire upon 

 what grounds ? If, by putting cultivator in italics, Mr. W. means to 

 msinuate that I am not a cultivator of herbaceous plants, it may be satisfactory to 

 him to learn that I have grown many thousands, and seen more growing than any 

 other horticulturist in existence I My experience of them in various soils and dis- 

 tricts induced me to reject many things of the highest beauty and rarity, because I 

 knew that they could not be depended upon to flower and grow freely in every soil. 

 Mr. W. begins by objecting to a four-feet phlox, and says a three-feet one would be 

 barely tolerated. I don't know what Mr. W.'s ideas of a mixed border may be, but 

 it seems from this that they are very narrow. It is usually so when an adviser 

 seeks to apply to the British islands generally conclusions derived from data, 

 gathered on a spot on which, perhaps, he has passed his life. If a phlox four feet 

 high be too high for an herbaceous border, what is to become of the Galegas, of the 

 magnificent tall Delphiniums, of the taller Campanulas which grow higher than 

 four feet when well done, of several splendid asters, of one fine autumnal flowering 

 Dracocephalum, and of the Tritomas, one of which presumes to send up a flower 

 stem near seven feet high, and as thick at the base as a rake handle ? 



A good herbaceous border should have many plants over four or even five feet 

 high, and so much as six or even seven feet, and it should be gradually worked to the 

 front margin till a finish is made with the silvery saxifragas and like plants, Cam- 

 panula coronata is a duplex variety of C. persici folia, very good, but not sur- 

 passing many named, But as the species is named, it may reasonably be inferred 

 that all its varieties will do. As the list was limited, the species only could be 

 named, and it was thought better to recommend real distinction than enumerate 

 varieties nearly allied to each other. Diclytra is not the proper ivay to spell 

 Dielytra, though so good a man as Mr. Thompson, of Ipswich, has said it is. Spircea 

 Japonica is a lovely plant, but it possesses the failings, for gardens generally, that 

 made me exclude dozens of fine plants, probably to the surprise of those Avho live 

 in places where they do well : in cold stifl' soil it might live for a century, but 

 never flower in a noticeable way or make even a decent head of foliage. There 

 are soils and gardens where it does beautifully. But even at its best (and that is 

 when grown well in pots, and gently forced for house decoration), it is not half so 

 beautiful as the plant to which Mr, W. compares it —Dielytra spectalilis, which 

 does well everywhere, and is one of the most beautiful things in existence, both for 

 colour, form, and the graceful disposition of its blossoms. Of course nobody said 

 bulbs were herbaceous plants, but no good herbaceous border should be without 

 them. " Herbaceous border" is a bad name for what should contain hard}' plants 

 of fine foliage, alpines, grasses, bulbs, herbaceous plants, etc., and which indeed 

 would be of little interest and beauty unless it represented the several sections. We 

 were endeavouring to find out the best plants for the herbaceous border, and not 

 engaged in the unprofitable fiddling of defining what were and what were not 

 " true herbaceous plants." Would Mr. Williams say if Narcissus trianclrus is 

 superior to odorus^poeticus, and maximus for gardens generally ? I think not, and 

 I have grown all the tribe that are obtainable in the botanic gardens of the United 

 Kingdom. Bocconia cordata is a good thing, but one of many scores rejected 



