282 THE FLORAI. WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



kinds like pulchellum, eiimium, longiflorum, and tenuiflorum, a large circular or 

 oval bed might be made on tbe grass, in some isolated spot, which, for the highest 

 beauties of colour, form, and fragrance — for, in fact, almost every quality by which 

 vegetable beauty endears itself to us— could not be equalled by any arrangement 

 of indoor or outdoor plaxits that we can call to mind. The only precaution we need 

 mention is, that to grow lilies well they should have three feet, or nearly that, of 

 free loamy earth, with a good dash of vegetable mould in it. Even now such kinds 

 as L. tigrinum, longifloruru, caTididum, croceum, bulbiferum, etc., are ).o be had 

 pretty cheap— although the cluef thing that gardeners have been doing with the 

 hardy Lilies for some time past has been to throw them on the i-ubbish heap,' to 

 make way for such glorious stuff as the yellow Calceolaria and the red Geranium. 



No. 4. A mixed bed, cartjfuUy arranged as to height, and tastefully as to the 

 quality and disposition of the contents. In this kind of bed we should, of course, 

 have no band or circle whatever, but simply a careful following of the old mixed 

 principle. We doubt if we could find a better centre for this type of bed than a 

 good kind of Perpetual Rose, grown upon its own roots, or worked very low, or 

 trained as a pyramidal bush — say four feet high, more or less, according to taste — 

 and the subjects to be grouped in the bed. No weedy subject should occur in a 

 bed of this kind, but, on the contrary, everything of the most distinct beauty. You 

 may employ in such a bed anything, from a tuft of Campanula carpatica bieolor on 

 its outer edge, to the choicest pink Phlox or Picotee, the newest Delphinium, or 

 the oldest spring flower. To specify a few choice things for such a bed, we will 

 name — for the middle parts and around the central subject, Platycodon autumnale, 

 or P. grandiflonim, Delphiniums (some of the newer and better varieties), Aconitum 

 variegatum, Achillea filipendula, Pnloxes, Campanula persicifolia alba and C. coro- 

 nata. Iris jacquesiana, palliia, and De Bergii, with a host of others equally good. 

 For the middle region of the bed such plants as Dielytra spectabilis, Trollius napel- 

 lifolius, Armeria cephalotes, Hoteia japonica, Pent^teraon in its best forms, double 

 Wallflowers, Achillea ptarmica, fl. pi., would do charmingly; while near the margin 

 such dwarf beauties as Cheiranthus alpinus, Ranunculus amplexicaulis, Achillea 

 aurea, the Iberises, the dwarf Phloxes, a few of the better Sedums and Semper- 

 vivums, an odd neat variegated or silvery plant, and even little tinv shrubs like the 

 charming Gaultheria procumbens, will prove quite attractive. This kind of bed 

 admits of infinite variety and lasting interest. 



Next we come to No. 5. A bed of beautiful hardy foliage plants, interspersed 

 with good bulbs or other spring-growing flowering things, which will show 

 above the foliage and amongst it. In this way we may have two distinct styles 

 — one of dwarf, neat objects; and one of tall or strong-growing ones. In the 

 centre of the first, which need not be more than six feet wide or so, we would not 

 put anything higher than a plant of Acanthus spinosissimus or Arundo donax versi- 

 color in the centre. This Arundo is fine when it is strong enough to make six or 

 seven shoots, and has been protected through the winter by a little pile of cocoa 

 fibre, or something of the sort. It only pushes between two and three feet high, 

 in consequence of its variegition, and therefore is very suitable for the style of bed 

 we are now discussing. Around it we should place either a complete line of some 

 pretty green-leaved plant-like specimens of Rhus glabra laciniata, a little shrub 

 with elegant leaves, or the Achillea with silvery leaves, or both mixed, with the 

 flowers pinched off the Achillea ; or say a mixed line of the two Santolinas, viridis 

 and chamaecyparissus, mixed plant for plant ; variegated Jacob's Ladder — the 

 flowers and stems of this last to be pinched oS as soon as they show themselves, 

 or rather to be nipped out altogether — and with it mixed the fern-like Thalictruni 

 minus. There are dozens of both silvery-leaved and other plants which would 

 edge such an arrangement charmingly — from young plants of the fine Salvia 

 argentea to Alyssum spinosum, or Antennaria tomentosa ; if, indeed, it would not 

 be better to have a mixed planting of dvvarf and elegant little plants all round. In 

 most of the interspaces of such a bed the judicious cultivator might, if he chose, 

 plant bulbs, etc. — say a sprinkling of Gladioli towards the centre, a few Tulips 

 about the middle distance, and any choice and delicate spring bulbs about the 

 margin. These would in most cases come up and flower ere the foliage plants were 

 vigorous. Where they do not do so, as in the case of the Gladioli, the result is 

 nothing to be alarmed about, inasmuch as the effect of these magnificently-coloured 

 flowers among the rich and elegant foliage will prove simply superb. — The Field, 



