72 , THE GARDENER. [Feb. 



exactly the same way as the parent stocks. Curiously enough, in one 

 locality where the Hollyhock has done well during the past year, the 

 common Mallows by the waysides were covered with the fungus. The 

 question is altogether a puzzling one — why, in some districts, the 

 fungus should attack the plants, and in another, where the fungus was 

 most abundant, the plants should escape. It has been noted before how 

 curious it is that the common Mallow should live and perform its func- 

 tions under a crop of the parasite which kills the Hollyhock ; but in the 

 Mallow the leaf alone appears to be subject to attack, while in the 

 Hollyhock, not only the leaves but the stems are affected. If the stems 

 were not subjected to attack, it is probable the fungus would not prove 

 of such a deadly character as it is. Should we now be in for a few 

 years of really fine summers, it will be seen whether the Hollyhock 

 will not again go under, as it is only during the last few years that any 

 progress seems to have been made in getting up healthy stocks. 



R. P. B. 



FLOWER- GARDElSriNG— THE BEDDING- OUT OR 

 MASSING SYSTEM. 



It would appear that this system of arranging the various kinds of 

 plants employed in the decoration of the flower-garden will soon be a 

 thing of the past. At least, if the advice of some writers on horticul- 

 tural subjects is followed, bedding-out must go, "bag and baggage," 

 before long. 



The present opposition to the style of flower-gardening that has 

 been in the ascendant for some years past, is the result of the teaching 

 of an eminent " arm-chair " gardener. He, in the seclusion of his 

 study, has discovered that hardy plants are beautiful, and the most 

 suitable subjects for out-door flower-gardening. It is only plants of 

 certain stature, however — dwarfs and creeping things, — that finds 

 favour with gardeners of the above type. Any species or varieties, 

 however beautiful their flowers may be, if they require support in the 

 way of stakes, are reluctantly admitted into the " hardy brigade ; " 

 and, as a consequence, the greater number of the most beautiful, 

 showy, and useful of our hardy herbaceous plants are not admissible 

 in the ideal flower-garden of those who advocate the abandonment of 

 the bedding-out system. 



Fancy the result of excluding from the herbaceous garden the stately 

 Delphiniums, the beautiful Asterlike - flowered Pyrethrums, several 

 species of the Lily family, Carnations, all the taller kinds of Phloxes, 

 and a host of representative members of other families that in this 

 windy island of ours it is absolutely necessary to stake, in some way 

 or other, if we would see them in all their beauty, and not as be- 

 draggled, bespattered, betattered objects — highly illustrative of their 

 fitness for admission into the ragged brigade ! 



