THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 67 



useful species and varieties some are better than oj;hers, and the wise 

 mnn will, if possible, select the best and leave the rest to nature. 

 As for ugly plants — and there are such — they are generally rele- 

 gated to the botanists, which is a form of sarcasm founded on the 

 too often professed admiration of would-be botanists for things 

 that persons of taste find nothing in to admire. Far better than 

 collecting is selecting, and in this amusement we are constantly 

 endeavouring to assist our readers, by directing attention to the best 

 species and varieties in the several classes of plants that are adanted 

 for the embellishment of our gardens. Hardy plants would never 

 perhaps have been at a discount, as they have been for many vears 

 past, if cultivators of them had taken care to sift out the best and 

 toss the rest to limbo. No one, for example, amongst the unini- 

 tiated, would care to grow Michaelmas daisies, after having seen an 

 ordinary mixture of them in an old-fashioned border, for a con- 

 siderable proportion of the immense number of species entered in 

 the books are rubbish, their ragged weedy look is completely matched 

 by their miserable flowers ; so of many other families, yet the true 

 collector can pick out a few that perhaps are unparalleled for 

 beauty, and if amateurs would grow only what is good, they might 

 serve the cause of art in this direction ; for good herbaceous plants, 

 and indeed good shrubs, good bedders, recommend themselves when 

 seen, and bring into good repute the classes they belong to. Those 

 who grow ugly plants do harm to horticulture, and the very many 

 ugly things that have been tolerated and that are tolerated in English 

 gardens, make it appear to the passing crowd that in geraniums, 

 calceolarias, and verbenas alone are beauty and interest to be Ibund. 



S. H. 



SUB-TEOPICAL PLANTS FOR THE CHOICE GAEDEN. 



BY KAEL PKOSPEE. 





AYINGr brought under the notice of the reader selections 

 of noble habited plants that may be safely and expe- 

 ditiously raised from seed, I shall now direct attention 

 to a few others that cannot be so produced, or that it is 

 not desirable to seek or obtain seeds of. 



caladiu:m:. 



From this genus we obtain a selection of plants of most distinct 

 and noble aspect for the English gardens. In warm sheltered 

 districts in the south of England there can be no doubt that our 

 exhibition caladiums, those gorgeously-coloured plants that elicit 

 the astonishment of the spectator unused to beholding the wonders 

 of the vegetable kingdom — there can be no doubt that these might 

 be planted out and would thrive well. But let our test for all the 

 southern parts of England be the results obtained at Battersea 

 Park, where last summer CalacUum esculentum was largely planted, 

 and made some of the most remarkable beds ever seen. One bed, 

 45 feet long by 6 feet wide, was a mass of these noble leaves, some 



