i88i.] THE BEDDING -OUT SYSTEM. 123 



How any man could venture to make such statements as the above, who had 

 the least knowledge of the subject lie writes about, I cannot conceive. The 

 advocates of hardy plants, and of a freer and more natural style of gardening 

 in which all the various subjects could be effectively displayed, have con- 

 tinually, by articles without number, by illustrations, and by lists of the most 

 copious description, in season and out of season, advocated the great claims 

 of all good hardy plants, quite irrespective of their size or habit, and have 

 never so much as alluded to any trouble connected with their culture in the 

 way of staking till the question of the cost of such work was raised by the 

 bedding-out brigade themselves, ic'/co alone have used that argument as an obstacle 

 to the culture of hardy 2)lttnts. I do not profess to know who the "gardeners 

 of the arm-chair type " are to whom "J. H., B." alludes, but I think it is pro- 

 bable that your correspondent is casting his innuendoes at men about whose 

 knowledge and abilities he is in all probability absolutely ignorant. The 

 author of these remarks has, for nearly twenty years, known some at least 

 of the most noted advocates of hardy plants and their culture, and who 

 have had, perhaps, more to do with the present revolution in flower-gardening 

 than any others ; and he can tell from accurate knowledge, that it would 

 become some to sit at their feet and learn a portion of that special know- 

 ledge which has been gained in the field of actual practice, and under the 

 very best facilities, and which has been amplified and matured by oppor- 

 tunities of study and observation that fall to the lot of few. 



One of the Advocates of the Hardy Brigade. 



[As the question of staking was first raised by us, we must point 

 out that our correspondent misrepresents our object in doing so. 

 We did not raise the question of expense connected with much 

 necessary staking and tying " as an obstacle to the culture of hardy 

 plants." Our object was to show that in our experience — and in a 

 great measure on account of staking and tying — we did not find 

 herbaceous plants cheaper than bedding plants, as some represent 

 them to be. Any one by referring to our remarks in the ' Gardener ' 

 of last November will see what our object was, and by a glance at 

 the last paragraph will find a recommendation of herbaceous plants, 

 and not an obstacle to their culture. We might also appeal to the 

 facts of our practice as a still more forcible refutation of our corre- 

 spondent's misrepresentation, for we propagate and grow more of a 

 few genera of hardy herbaceous plants than would suffice to fill the 

 whole of an ordinary-sized flower-garden. We could also " instance 

 many important families in which stakes are not required " that we 

 grow in quantity. 



We take this opportunity of referring to a recent issue of the 

 ' Garden^ where also comments are made on "J. H., B.'s" article, and 

 where " the resorts to which we are driven to defend our position " 

 are sneeringly alluded to. The writer in the ' Garden ' is in perfect 

 ignorance of our position, so he manufactures one to suit his purpose. 

 Long before the editor of the ' Garden ' came to this country, we 

 had devoted for years much of our spare time to hardy herbaceous 

 plants, and we could show him a herbarium of them that was formed 



