98 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[April, 



than at first, and of a paler and less beauteous 

 hue than heretofore, for which reason I consider it 

 only middling for bedding purposes, and hardly 

 that. Gloria d' Automne did pretty well, but not 

 assuming its rich markings so vividly as a few 

 plants kept indoors as a means for perpetuating its 

 species. A dark-leaved variety, with a purple tint 

 on the veins, of which I don't know the name^ 

 served its purpose in good style for lining through 

 the lighter sorts, or intermixing with such as Stevia 

 variegata, or Centaurea gymnocarpa. Meteor, 

 Monarch, Golden Beauty, Delight, Perfection, 

 Aurora, May Queen, Monitor, James Vick, Colum- 

 bia, Jewel, Triumph, and President Garfield, while 

 they stand pre-eminently suited for indoor culture, 

 have not here any special merits for open air bril- 

 liancy. Alternantheras have not assumed their 

 rich golden and crimson tints this season, notwith- 

 standing the brightness and dryness of the summer. 

 Golden Feverfew (Pyrethrum parthenifolium au- 

 reum), has been a signal failure. It looked good 

 for a time after planting, but soon began to damp 

 and spoil the effect where planted. Mesembry- 

 anthemum cordifolium variegata is a plant I 

 thought unmatched for carpet bedding, but here, 

 beneath the rays of a scorching sun, it is worth- 

 less, never producing its sparkling leaves and 

 stems as is its wont in a more salubrious clime. 

 Browallia elata, I find, is a good thing for a rib- 

 bond border ; so, also, Chrysanthemum frutescens. 

 Lobelia erinus compacta made an admirable 

 line for the early part of the season, but later on 

 it drooped its tiny heads all round, began to 

 damp away in the center, and finally most of it 

 disappeared long before the others ceased to be 

 gay. Asters do not finish well here ; they grow 

 and bud with amazing vigor, but ere they reach 

 the summit of their beauty they turn prematurely 

 brown and die away. Dahlias do pretty well, but 

 many of the buds, for some reason or other, never 

 come to anything, rotting away, while other 

 blooms make a profusion of beauty. Heliotropes, 

 tuberoses, geraniums, verbenas, phlox, salvia, 

 pansies, gladiolus, ageratum and many varieties of 

 hhes appear to do best here. Achyranthus, too, 

 wherever planted, seems to be the leading feature, 

 and thrives under many circumstances. 



Among vegetables, corn, peas and beans are 

 very poor, the latter so late that many won't get 

 filled ere the frost overlaps us with its icy mantle. 

 White corn got prematurely ripe from the intense 

 heat and dryness of the atmosphere. Beets, pota- 

 toes, onions, tomatoes, cauliflower and celery are 

 all good. Melons were also a good crop, and gave 



hopes of a plenteous yield of fruit. But ere they 

 reached maturity, I went through the hills one 

 morning and espied some footmarks that seemed 

 as much out of place as that solitary one Robinson 

 Crusoe beheld in the sand, on his desolate island, 

 together with a broken fence rail, which were vivid 

 indications that the marauder had been at work; 

 for gone were the melons, and naught but the sere 

 and shrivelled leaves remained to compensate for 

 the time so vainly spent in a hopeful endeavor to 

 mature what nature nurtured until the hand of 

 greedy man tore ruthlessly away. 



Such episodes as these metaphorically sip the 

 honeyed nectar of the gardener's pride,- and plant 

 with burdocks his bed for roses, testing his abil- 

 ities to refrain from vindictive thought or supplant 

 his ruffled feelings with more hopeful views than 

 his first impulses presenced. But fortunately in 

 the gardener's career such incidents dwell in an 

 inferior minority. Still, though most of his toil 

 and exertion invariably give pleasure, they are 

 not all devoid of pain. It is nice to scatter the 

 tiny seeds and watch them burst and spring forth 

 from their moulded beds, and then behold the 

 weak and puny buds develop into flowers of un- 

 equalled beauty. It is also nice to trip o'er the 

 dewy-crested lawn, and brush the shining drops 

 away in quest of some fair specimen of the floral 

 tribe ; but is it nice to find on going through one's 

 plants in the morning, that the slugs had directed 

 their peregrinations through some pans of seedling 

 Gloxinias, leaving nothing but their slimy trail 

 behind? Or, how is it for fun to find your neigh- 

 bor's cats all squatted in the pansy beds, or bask- 

 ing in the rays of an evening sun upon his boxes of 

 geranium cuttings ? 



I fear I have traveled wide of my mark and 

 lost my subject in the sentiments of a gardener's 

 care ; therefore I will add the remaining shred to 

 my tree of retrospect. If the past season has had 

 its glories mingled with adversities, his patience 

 will bear him o'er its lacking features, and forti- 

 fied with the knowledge of the past he must ulti- 

 mately achieve victory over hi§ failures, and then 

 in such hopeful contemplation, can say : What if 

 the past season was unfavorable, the coming will 

 be better. 



CANNA EHMANNL 

 BY MR. A. NEUNER, LOUISVILLE, KY. 



Being familiar with the nature of this strikingly 

 new Canna, we wish to give a few hints to your 

 readers about the treatment of tubers after frost 

 has killed the leaves. Unlike other varieties of 



