444 THE GARDENER. [Oct. 



paltry geometric flower-beds that a child can step across, the whole 

 being disagreeably loaded and crowded with paltry vases and statues 

 that are scarcely worthy of a third-class villa. Under such circum- 

 stances the mansion looks like a lad that has outgrown his last suit. 

 A few good and massive features in such a policy are surely worth 

 scores of paltry ones, with which it is possible to fritter away all natural 

 beauties instead of assisting them. 



NOTES ON "AMERICAN" OR PEAT - SOIL SHRUBS. 



LEDUM. 



Though less showy in foliage, and to some extent lacking in tliat 

 brilliancy of colour whicb characterises many of the other American 

 shrubs, the Ledums are nevertheless a most useful and interesting 

 family of hardy evergreens. Blended as they usually are with the 

 allied j^lants of a similar height, their distinct appearance gives a 

 character and variety to the mixed border or clump which is at once 

 effective and pleasing, and wdiich no one W'ho has so seen them would 

 willingly dispense with. 



All the species in cultivation have been found to stand the most 

 severe winters in this country without the slightest injury, and to grow 

 freely when planted in a shady dampish situation, with the usual allow- 

 ance of turfy peat, or, in the case of the natural soil being fibry loam, 

 a quantity of rotted vegetable mould. 



They are all free bloomers, and in congenial circumstances produce 

 their pretty white flowers in April and May, year after year, in great 

 profusion. 



The two species, latifolia and palustre, found wild in northern 

 Europe, and abundantly over a large portion of Canada and the 

 United States, growing in swamps and the margins of lakes, form 

 neat shrubs of from 2 to 4 feet in height. In both species the leaves 

 are of a linear oblong shape resembling the Rosemary, densely clothed 

 on the under side with a rusty tomentum, the upper side being dark 

 green. When bruised, they emit a strong yet pleasant aromatic 

 odour. In both these species the flowers are white, and are produced 

 in corjTnbs at the end of the branches. The species latifolia is more 

 robust in its habit of growth, wdth the leaves, as its name imi^lies, con- 

 siderably broader. Both these species are worthy of cultivation, and 

 sufficiently distinct to be grown together in even a small collection. 

 Among the other desirable sorts may be mentioned thymifohum, buxi- 



