442 THE GARDENER. [Oct. 



weather forecasts of six months cannot yet be achieved, we ought to 

 prepare a due proportion of dull weather as well as sunshiny beds, the 

 former to predominate, in deference to the prevailing climate of these 

 islands. 



Fortunately there is a growing public taste for the interesting as 

 well as for the gaudy flower-beds, and these may be made both showy 

 and tasteful by a judicious mixture of herbaceous and foliage plants, 

 banding them round with edgings of the summer bedders, or em- 

 broidering them with hardy carpeting plants ; or more prominence 

 might be given to tall foliage plants, such as Solanums, Cannas, even 

 hardy Ferns, banded with Geraniums, Calceolarias, Lobelias — in 

 short, the usual summer bedders. Many of the hardy herbaceous class 

 of plants have been quite gay this season, and point to the fact that, 

 planted in rich soil, with attention, abundant watering, and thinning 

 out the shoots as they go out of flower, the season of bloom would be 

 much prolonged. In this way, we think, many might be found to 

 yield throughout the summer months quite as good a show as Ger- 

 aniums and Lobelias, and, as far as flowers are concerned, superior to 

 the foliage plants we have just been noting. Geranium sanguineum 

 is a plant which has been equal to most bedding plants this season, 

 and might be used with advantage to fill the centres of large beds, and 

 is all the better not to have too rich a soil to grow in. The foliage is 

 of a bright showy green, and the flowers of a brilliant purple red. 



For a yellow flowering plant, Corydalis lutea has been and is fine. 

 The foliage alone recommends it, even if it were not so profuse and 

 continuous in flowering. For a blue edging - plant, nothing could 

 approach Myosotis palustris. This past season it has been a continuous 

 sheet of the clearest blue since March. Another little plant which is 

 suitable for edgings has been in bloom all the summer — viz., Erodium 

 Reichardii, quite a carpet-plant, and it is a wonder it has not been 

 pressed into the service before now. These four common herbaceous 

 plants — three of them British — we feel sure would make or would have 

 made this summer quite a showy lasting bed, planted as noted : the Ger- 

 anium for a centre mass, with the Corydalis to follow in a band around, 

 then the Myosotis, and last the white-flowering Erodium. These have all 

 been under our eye all summer, flowering in patches, and we feel sure 

 they will not disappoint any one trying them in a bed as indicated. 

 We have no doubt other arrangements would occur to others better ac- 

 quainted with herbaceous plants. The Veronicas are a large class con- 

 taining tall as well as dwarf-creeping species of trim habit, and showy. 

 Some of the Everlasting Peas are quite gorgeous on heavy rich soil, such 

 as Lathyrus grandiflorus and latifolius, but especially the last. For 

 large beds they should be allowed to creep over some Spruce or other 

 branches laid over the surface of the bed, same as is sometimes done 

 for TropaBolum and Clematis : they then make a close hard mass, with 

 the flowers elevated above the foliage. We can vouch for their grand 



