1871.] REVIEW. 529 



up the contest. The testimony of the gardeners who saw the contest is as 

 follows : — 



"We, the undersigned, met for the purpose of proving of Mr M'Lachlan's 

 edging-machine, and find that it is all that could be desired for the purpose, and 

 a great improvement on the old system of edging. Mr M'Lachlan, with the assist- 

 ance of one man picking up the trimmings, cut with the sole-knife a verge 90 yards 

 long in the short space of 7^2 minutes." 



Signed by sixteen gardeners present at the trial. 



The work performed by the new machine was full twice as much as was done 

 by the old edging-tool, and a comparison of the work showed the great superior- 

 ity of the work performed by the new one. The old tool either scatters 

 that part detached from the edging over the walk, or requires a man or boy to 

 follow with a Dutch hoe before it can be picked up ; while that cut by the new 

 one remains where it is cut, and can be gathered up without disturbing the walk. 



REVIEW. 



Hardy Flowers : Descriptions of Upwards of Thirteen Hundred of the Most 

 Ornamental Species, and Directions for their Arrangement and Culture, &c. 

 By William Robinson, F.L.S. London, Warne & Co. 

 Another volume from the busy pen of Mr Eobinson ! and one of the best he 

 has yet written. If hardy border-plants do not soon become as popular as their 

 merits deserve, the author of this book will not be to blame. He seems passion- 

 ately fond of this class of plants himself, and writes much about them that is cal- 

 culated to make his readers look upon them with the same affection. In this 

 handy volume everything connected with the culture and arrangement of these 

 plants is minutely and elaborately dealt with. Mixed borders of hardy flowers; 

 hardy flowers for mixed shrubberies, for beds and groups, for isolated specimens, 

 and for being used as bedding-plants ; hardy plants for the rock-garden, the wild 

 garden, for water and for boggy ground, — all come under treatment and minute 

 botanical description. The concluding part of the work deals with selections for 

 various purposes, and bears evident marks of skill and care, and is especially cal- 

 culated to be useful to those who have yet to learn how to utilise hardy peren- 

 nials in dressed ground — a task which is by no means easily combined with that of 

 keeping a flower-garden always trim and fresh -looking. We quite agree with Mr 

 Robinson that the mixed border composed entirely of hardy perennials should be 

 cut off entirely and distinctly from ordinary flower-gardens, for with all the inter- 

 est that is undeniably attached to a selection of these, they cannot be appropri- 

 ately combined with plants suitable for artistic flower-gardens. But that is no 

 reason why hardy flowers should be banished from our grounds. This is a point we 

 are happy to find Mr Robinson dealing with in a more temperate spirit than his 

 usual, for we have often thought his condemnation of flower-gardens too sweep- 

 ing ; and we feel convinced, now that he is soon to be in regular editorial har- 

 ness, that he will find the bedding system, as it is popularly called, to have a 

 strong hold. But that is no reason why hardy plants should not have a stronger 

 hold than they have, and to all who want to learn all about them, ' Hardy 

 Flowers ' will be a most useful and interesting volume. 



