100 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND aARDEN GUIDE. 



thought to bo choice exotics, till I let the secret out myself. But 

 cannas are not the only plants of gorgeous aspect we can use in this way. 

 Last summer I put out begonias and caladiums, Coleus Blumei and Vers- 

 chaffelti, and, in fact, any stove or greenhouse plant, however valuable, 

 that is really capable of withstanding the vicissitudes of an average 

 season, the only requisite being suitability for the pm-pose ; and gene- 

 rally a striking foliage settles that point. 



My banks are helped out by means of knolls and butts. There is 

 nothing more effective among rustic-work than a huge butt well placed 

 and planted. On each side of the doorway of my wigwam are clumps of 

 lady fern, which delight in the shade, and beyond these we have huge 

 butts formed of sections of the bark of an oak ; these are fitted together so 

 as to form the semblance of a tree cut down but hollow, and they are ap- 

 propriated to pampas gi'asses, which are thus lifted high up and fall over 

 all round with tenfold the grace they have when planted on the level. On 

 some of the old trees we have trailing ringlets of wall linaria, tormentil, 

 periwinkle, stonecrop, Sedum denticulatum, mesembryanthemum and por- 

 tulacca, and ^odds and ends of tropa^olum, arctotis, gazania, and other 

 flowering plants that liave something of a Avild look about them, and that 

 tell better dangling from top knots, or peeping round corners, than when 

 stiffly set out in beds like a party arranged for a quadrille which never 

 begins. That, in fact, is just what is wanted for a set of bedders — they 

 ought to dance; then we should have the poetry of motion as well as of 

 colour, and we could invite friends to see our vegetable chromatropes. 

 As for grasses they come in anywhere, in sun and shade, damp and dry, 

 and harmonize with anything in these scenes. Among my favourites for 

 banks, I must name common canary (steal a pinch of seed out of Dick's 

 cage, and tell him he shall have a slice of apple in exchange), tussack, 

 Festiica ovina,' rubra, and glauca, Aira caespitosa, Stipa pennata, Briza 

 geniculata, Eranthis Bavenna^, Lagurus ovatus, Panicum Italicum, and a 

 few of the commonest species of carex, of which we can always find roots 

 among the peat and in the rhododendron beds. 



I am well aware that to make the best of banks and braes requires 

 some experience and taste, but the principal thing is to begin well. Once 

 get your curves, sweeps, breaks, openings, and walls of greenery and 

 rocker}' nicely disposed, and it is simple work enough to plant them. The 

 robuster species of British ferns and grasses will thrive almost anywhere 

 and anyhoAV, but the shady parts should be chosen for all the choice ferns, 

 damp places for Lady fern and Osmunda. For Saxifrages you must have 

 a north aspect and a good depth of turfy peat ; it is a moist air they need 

 most, a hot sun and a dry soil are death to them. For the succulents 

 choose the hottest and driest position, and if you want a carpet of moss 

 choose a cool, damp, shady nook ; take out the soil a foot deep, and fill in 

 ■with sour peat or a mixture of whatever comes out of pots in shifting 

 plants ; the old sour leaf-mould, and other exhausted stuff of a sandy kind 

 in which plants have grown, is the best of all soils to encourage mosses 

 and liverworts in a damp place. Thus, you see, nothing need be wasted 

 in a garden. It is a wonderful help to all such scenes to play the engine 

 upon them once a day at least, better twice, from the middle of April till 

 the end of June, or, in fact, the whole of the season, except in rainy 

 weather. It not only promotes luxuriant growth, and keeps the foliage 

 looking like new w^ax-work, but by moistening bark, logs, rocks, and soil. 



