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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



its favour that real Australian gold in j 

 nuggets would not -win them away 

 from it. We can do without Golden 

 Fleece and Gold Leaf, but Cloth of 

 Gold in a bed on its own merits, 

 edged with Blue Lobelia, is about as 

 rich and perfect a thing as can be 

 imagined. 



We can generally trust pretty 

 safely to the index of trade for an 

 index of merit. The good things sell 

 in greatest quantity, and no amount 

 of puffing will long serve to keep a 

 bad or middling good article in de- 

 mand. But with one noted varie- 

 gated geranium the degree of the 

 demand is not in strict agreement 

 with its merits. Flower of the Day 

 sells more largely than any of the 

 creamy or silver-leaved geraniums, 

 and yet it is now one of the worst. 

 The reason of the large sale is the 

 fame it has, but while its fame was 

 culminating, a host of better things 

 were in progress, and former pages of 

 this work testify of the value of 

 Alma. Annie, Countess of Warwick, 

 and Bijou, and now, taking all points 

 into consideration. Bijou is certainly 

 the best for all general purposes, and 

 for use on a large scale. Beside 

 Bijou, the foliage of Flower of the 

 Day has quite a dull and dirty look, 

 and as to flowers. Bijou is equal to [ 

 any of the good, plain-leaved scarlets, 1 

 as Alma is also, and both are good j 

 growers. One great advantage in I 

 Bijou beside the sparkling whiteness j 

 of the edge, is that the leaves are 

 concave, so that the green part is 

 hidden by the white, and in a mass it 

 has a most chaste and silvery look. 

 Of course Lady Plymouth, Dandy, 

 Manglesii, Mountain of Light, and 

 Mountain of Snow will keep their 

 places and be used for edgings more 

 and more largely every year, the first 

 three being the best. 



This last item brings us naturally 

 to edging plants, and let me tell you 

 first that the new silver-edged ivy 

 makes the most solid glittering edge 

 conceivable, and is good all the win- 

 ter, as hardy as the green ivy of the 

 woods, and always true in a firm, 

 loamy soil, or on chalk or sand, or 

 anywhere except in ground rank with 

 manure. The most fashionable of the 



silvery edgings is Gnaphalium lana- 

 tum, a woolly leaved composite plant 

 requiring rather careful protection all 

 the winter, and to be pegged down 

 and nipped back all the summer, for 

 when put out it grows most vigo- 

 rously. Stachys lanata is a poor 

 man's plant, as hardy as chickweed, 

 and the colour a clear gray ; it makes 

 a fine edge to geraniums, and does 

 not need to be taken up for the winter. 

 Cerastium Biebersteinii is consider- 

 ably more effective than C. tomento- 

 sum, and may be managed the same 

 way with Golden Balm and Variegated 

 Mint for instantaneous bedding on 

 the plan described in the " Garden 

 Oracle" for 1863, and which every- 

 body should read before they conclude 

 their purchases of plants, with the 

 view of saving at least twenty-five 

 per cent, of their money. Cineraria 

 maritima makes a fine silvery edging 

 if from seeds. 



As we have got among these 

 "foliage" plants once more, I shall 

 add, to wind up, that one of the most 

 valuable plants ever seen or heard of 

 for amateurs who are not made of 

 money is the Golden Balm just re- 

 ferred to. The leaves are consider- 

 ably larger than those of the common 

 variegated mint, and instead of being 

 variously blotched, edged, or wholly 

 white or wholly green, as in that plant, 

 those of the Golden Balm are richly 

 and uniformly painted a deep orange 

 yellow with a narrow stripe of deep 

 green up the centre. Seen in a mass 

 it is so fine that if I were to use the 

 word " gorgeous " I should scarcely 

 exaggerate. It appears to be scarce, 

 I have never seen it anywhere but in 

 my own garden, and I have now only 

 just enough to keep in case of needing 

 a quantity at any time, as I may do 

 this season. It has this further good 

 quality, that if left in the ground 

 where originally planted it comes up 

 the next year amazingly strong and as 

 true as from cuttings, which is not the 

 case with the famous variegated mint. 

 I would match it against Golden Chain 

 any day for effect, and I advise every 

 reader of this to begin boring the 

 nurserymen for it till it is as freely 

 distributed as the variegated mint. 



S. H. 



