i88i.l SUBTROPICAL BEDDING. 463 



THE BEST POTATOES. 



TiiEEE or four years ago, when we tried over five dozen kinds of Pota- 

 toes, we felt rather sure of getting at least one dozen really good kinds 

 out of them ; but experience proves that we have been expecting too 

 much. Since our first trial we have been weeding out the worst, and 

 this year we find we must make further reductions. This is not so much 

 owing to the bad quality of any kind, as to the ravages made by the 

 disease. Good looks are always much sought after in the Potato, 

 and the best-looking kinds I find are generally most liable to disease. 

 International Kidney, for instance, is the finest-looking Potato of the 

 kind in existence ; but it is exceedingly poor in quality, and three 

 parts of it always go with the disease. Woodstock Kidney, another 

 beauty, merits the same character. In round varieties, Fenn's On- 

 wards, Foxe's Improved Round, White and Red Emperor, and many 

 others, are all of fine appearance ; but they suffer so much from the 

 disease, that they never pay for culture. The only kinds which have 

 almost escaped with us, and which are well worth growing, are Sutton's 

 jMagnum Bonum, Scotch Champion, Turner's Schoolmaster, Hooper's 

 Covent Garden Perfection, Wheeler's Gloucestershire Kidney, Mona's 

 Pride, and the Improved Peach Blow. The Champion, Schoolmaster, 

 and Peach Blow are rounds : the others are kidneys. The kidneys 

 are best for early use. Schoolmaster and Peach Blow may be used in 

 autumn, Magnum Bonum in winter, and the Champion in spring. 



J. MuiR. 



SUBTROPICAL BEDDIISTG IN PRIVATE GARDENS. 



The advantages to be derived from an extension of the subtropical 

 system of bedding in private gardens, must sooner or later force its 

 way upon the minds of those who have much experience of flower- 

 gardening. The same plants, it is true, that are employed in the more 

 favoured climate of the south, cannot be brought into general use in 

 northern latitudes; but at least many plants — and not a small number 

 either — might be used to much advantage and good effect. 



The meagre attempts at outdoor embellishment with many plants 

 devoid of natural beauty, and many of them of little interest, except to 

 botanists and scientific men, have already distracted attention from what 

 was promulgated not long ago as being an ideal system of flower-gar- 

 dening. Plants which possess few attractions of habit, form, or colour, 

 and which are extravagantly extolled on paper and tinselled with fine 

 words that are technically true but practically misleading, are not 

 likely long to retain a hold of public favour. We have been too 

 well schooled to admire gracefulness of habit, beauty of outline, and 

 symmetry, to accept a plant as something startling because it has a 

 long name. 



