THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



101 



promotes a growth of mosses, liverworts, lichens, and fungi everywhere, 

 and brings Dame Nature into our closest proximity, so that we can better 

 understand the pictures of the poets and sympathize with those who talk 

 of "bearded oaks and hemlocks," with a proper zest and enthusiasm, and 

 that is something gained among the enjoyments of life. 



I tremble now to think that I have only touched this subject after all ; 

 I have fo)-gotten my lovely ivies, of all shapes and colours ; my double 

 primroses ; procumbent yews, that grow down as flat as ivy left to trail on 

 the ground ; my spiky specimens of Juniperus Phoenicia, with their spar- 

 kling cones ; my golden yews, and my grand background of conifers, with 

 Pinus monticolor, ^nobilis, J^ordmanniana, cembra, Austriaca, excelsa, 

 Picea pinsapo, Abies, Khutrow, and a whole lot of them ; but as they are 

 all doomed to depart, for they have grown too big for me, they will excuse 

 my brevity, and for other matters I hope the gentle reader will be equally 

 indulgent till an opportunity comes again to gossip on these subjects. 



Shieley Hibberd. 



BEDDING AND BEDDEES. 



OrK summary of the recent exhibition 

 wdl show which way the wind blows 

 in ornamental gardening. Literally 

 it has been blowing from the wrong 

 quarter lately, and a hot sun and an 

 east wind have made the tops of the 

 roses shrivel, and there are plenty of 

 those leaf-rolling caterpillars, collec- 

 tively known as " blight," amongst 

 them ; but the metaphorical wind 

 is from another quarter of the hea- 

 vens : it must be due south, consider- 

 ing the march of colour, for we are 

 going towards the tropics, and taking 

 our own climate with us, for the 

 aurora is left far behind as weak and 

 flashy, and nothing less than sunshine 

 and Tyrian dye will suit us now. If 

 we do not see something better than 

 calceolaria and scarlet geranium in the 

 viUa gardens this season it will not be 

 our fault, and wherever we do see it 

 we shall knock at the door and leave 

 a prospectus of the Floeal Woelc, 

 as the only cure for a mortal disease in 

 the constitution of decorative horticul- 

 ture. The demand for Antennariamar- 

 garitacea tells us that there must be as 

 great a lack of silver coin here as in 

 the dis-United States, where arealdol- 

 las is worth a yard",of wall paper, and a 

 silver cent almost as great a rarity as 

 the Koh-i-noor. You may depend 

 upon it that we cannot overdo it in 

 the use of plants which produce a de- 



sirable effect by means of their leaves 

 only, because then we have in the bed 

 or line one uniform colour, instead of 

 dottings of red, white, or blue on a 

 ground of green. Take a distant view 

 of a bed of geraniums, and as you see 

 the flowers oi masse, the effect is de- 

 cided and satisfactory ; you are in fact 

 delighted, and so you go closer, and it 

 is like being at a conjuror's elbow, and 

 you no longer enjoy the delusion. 

 Now you see the scarlet broken into 

 splashes, and the green of the leaves 

 spoils it. The combination of the 

 green and scarlet produces on the 

 retina a sort of neutral brown. 



If you do not believe it, mix red 

 and green together with water-colours, 

 and report to us on the result. But 

 pluck a thousand trusses of scarlet 

 geranium, and stick them in close to- 

 gether in a bed of dark soil, and you 

 see at once how one colour on a dark 

 ground satisfies the eye, whereas two 

 colours, and those complementaries, 

 cause dissatisfaction when both are 

 seen without partiality to either. 

 ' It follows (and if it does not appear 

 I to follow, we can prove the point by 

 ; other arguments) that a plantation 

 of flowers set out parterre fashion, 

 should be viewed as nearly as possible 

 j in a horizontal line, or at an angle 

 j just low enough to take in the view 

 I of the furthest of the colours. Now 



