124 THE GARDENER. [March 



before he knew a Rose from a Thistle. Before the ' Garden ' was 

 in existence, we wrote of hardy herbaceous plants that they were indis- 

 pensable for certain styles of gardening ; and for years before and after 

 the advent of the * Garden/ this magazine continued to devote no 

 inconsiderable portion of its columns to the description and culture 

 of these plants. That is part, and only part, of our " position " in rela- 

 tion to herbaceous plants. 



We may further add that it may perhaps be considered as much 

 in the interest of careful gardening and good order to refer to 

 the proper support — with stakes that shall be the least possible offen- 

 sive to the eye — of plants that cannot be made to stand erect without 

 them, as it is to write — as has been written in the * Garden ' — of a 

 border composed of those plants that do not require support, and 

 to include Picotees and Carnations ; or to state — as has been stated 

 in an article quoted into the ' Garden ' from the ' Field ' — that when 

 well grown, stakes are not required to support them against the 

 elements ! These are statements that 'nay fitly be coupled with others 

 suggesting a litter of leaves and long grass as fitting adornments for 

 gardens, — suggestions which may " do for the marines but not for 

 the line," and that sound more like the utterances of some pheno- 

 menon who has never had charge of a garden establishment, who has 

 no standing in either the science or art of horticulture ! and who in 

 consequence supposes apparently that he is the embodiment of all 

 horticultural wisdom ! Our gardening and " position " are before the 

 public, and whatever they may amount to, we want nothing more than 

 that they be judged on their merits. Will the writer in question tell 

 us where his gardening could ever be judged of ? We leave it to 

 others to say whether we have ever been an optimist or an obstruc- 

 tionist in regard to any branch of gardening ; but we do not aspire, 

 and refuse to be chained, to this writer's chariot- wheels, and this is 

 just the secret of these kind of references to our " position." 



This magazine and its aids — sneeringly referred to in the ' Garden ' 

 — have brought out quite as many acceptable writers on gardening 

 as our contemporary has done, and their writings have been used to 

 pad its pages, so that its sneers are not quite graceful in this respect. 

 For the capacity of growing hardy herbaceous plants, a very towering 

 position is claimed by our contemporary. We never condemned that 

 capacity ; and if it pleases it, we have not the slightest desire to 

 dim the lustre of its fame in that branch of horticulture. — Ed.] 



PLEIONES. 



The Pleiones are not so extensively grown as their merits deserve, either 

 for decorative purposes or for cut bloom, seeing that they bloom at a 

 season when flowers are so scarce, and the flowers themselves are not 



