546 THE GARDENER. [Dec. 



D. Rcnardcc. — This is one of the newer introductions, and is a worthy one. 

 The leaves are oblong-ovate, elegantly recurved. The ground colour is 

 very deep olive-green with a dash of bronze, margined with crimson rose. The 

 younger leaves are variegated in changeful style with rosy pink, cream 

 colour, and white suffused with rose, the youngest ones being wholly of the 

 latter combination. 



D. Sydncyi. — This is of the same type as Ernestii, and perhaps not quite 

 distinct enough to be desirable in the same collection. Its habit is freer and 

 more open, and the leaves are longer and broader than in the latter, and also 

 more erect. The colour is a deep bronze-green, in the mature leaves edged 

 with deep rose - crimson. The younger leaves assume wholly a rosy-crimson 

 tint, very bright and effective. It colours at a very early stage of growth, and 

 is therefore a very desirable sort. 



D. stricta or ferrea stricta. — This is sometimes erroneously called, terminalis 

 stricta, but it has nothing in common with that sort. It is a very bold, useful 

 variety, of erect style and brilliant colour when the plants are grown rapidly 

 from cuttings rather than eyes. It is also very serviceable, and endures well 

 in rooms. 



D. terminalis. — The last but not the least of the present selection. When 

 rapidly grown from cuttings, this is one of the most brilliantly coloured of the 

 whole group, and it is certainly one of the most enduring. W. S. 



HARDY PERMANENT EDGINGS. 



It is surprising how constantly we require to be learning. It seems 

 that while we are ever learning, we are, at the same time, ever forget- 

 ting; and while, on the whole, we may be adding to our stock of know- 

 ledge in the aggregate, our mental notes are filed and forgotten, until 

 now and then the eye or ear, like an index to a good book, suddenly 

 prompts the mind that its notes can be utilised to some immediate 

 purpose. It is hard work to think ; and we may even see and not 

 observe, consequently we slide along in an old groove, and allow others 

 to think for us : an occasional jerk of shame, necessity, or interest is 

 a wholesome stimulus to action. We have lately been aroused to a 

 sense of our own short-sightedness while comparing the doings of a 

 neighbour with our own, in the matter of hardy plants which might be 

 used for edging or carpeting. In looking round a well-stocked wild 

 garden, which, however, is a rarity ; or a richly-planted rockery, which 

 is rarer still — the rockery at the Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, for 

 instance, — a monument to the maker, and a book of reference to those 

 within its reach — it is surprising how many plants are clearly suitable 

 for edging or carpeting permanently, or changing annually if desired. 

 Many of them may be poor things, so far as showy flowers are con- 

 cerned, but form and habit are equally or more essential for the purpose, 

 and, happily, form and habit are becoming equally appreciated with 

 colour. We wish to draw attention to a few of which we have some 



