1873.] FLOWER-GARDEN NOTES. 395 



good grower. Lady Plymouth is good for carpeting, giving mucli tlie 

 same effect as Mesembryantliemum variegatum. Of Calceolarias, Raines' 

 King, an old variety, is exceedingly hardy and prolific, and not given 

 to disease like Aurea fioribunda. Golden Gem, of a deep orange 

 colour, is very dwarf, and a most useful variety. 



Violas cornuta Perfection, and lutea grandiflora are excellent, and 

 seem to stand drought and heat just as well as any other bedding 

 plant if planted in deep rich soil. 



Among foliage-plants for carpet-bedding the small variegated leaved 

 Abutilon vexillarium is very neat, its habit spreading, and has a 

 bright golden variegation — the brightest gold in a bed we know, not 

 even excepting Golden Feather. Golden Thyme is very neat for lines, 

 but not so good as the last, and it has a tendency to get greener unless 

 the ground is poor. Mesembryanthemum cordifolium variegatum — 

 bother the name — makes a beautiful groundwork to show up scarlets 

 or reds, for edging beds and vases. Kleinia repens is exceedingly dressy 

 in lines. Testuca glauca is also very dressy for parting lines when it 

 does not grow over much; with us, in a dry climate, it is very short, and 

 high in colour. Sedum glaucum in the same way as to colour, and 

 will grow if chopped up and sown on the ground in spring. Coleus 

 Yerschaffeltii is fine for carpeting and working in with whites and 

 yellow^s. Iresine Lindenii is all but discarded. Alternantheras are 

 thrown away, except magnifica and amoena : the former, orange red, 

 spreads and grows robustly ; amcena is slow growing, but the colour 

 rich j it grows well in heat under glass, which shows that our summers 

 are too cold for it. The old Cerastium cannot be discarded yet, though 

 Antennaria tomentosa is more dressy for groundwork or edging. 



One of the prettiest beds of the season of an oblong shape is planted 

 with Violet Hill Nosegay for centre mass, a band round of Mangles' 

 variegated, followed by a band of Coleus Yerschafi'eltii, and finished 

 with a band of Golden Feather. Another bed has a groundwork of 

 Mesembryanthemum cordifolium variegatum, dotted with Vesuvius in 

 little round patches, banded with Alternanthera amcena, and edged 

 with Echeveria secunda, edged with Sedum glaucum. Another, with 

 the centre mass of Coleus, banded with Golden Feather, banded with 

 Alternanthera magnifica, banded with Echeveria, and edged with 

 Sedum. Charley Carbon makes a glowing bed, banded with variegated 

 Veronica and edged with Sedum, Golden Gem Calceolaria banded by 

 Viola Perfection, banded with Cerastium, and edged with Alternan- 

 thera. Christine for a mass, banded with Crimson King, banded with 

 Mangles edged with Coleus. Purple King for a mass banded with 

 Viola lutea, banded by Crimson King and edged by Mangles. 



A long border under a high wall looks gay with first at back a row 



