JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ September 18, 1866. 



of Refuge, ; now Madison Square, and he told me that they were 

 the first Verbenas ever in this country, and the first scarlet 

 Petunia. A white Petunia had been received before. Grant 

 Thorburn, in 1837, received a plant of Verbena Tweedieaua 



from London, where he told me that it cost him two guineas. 

 Most of the stock now in the gardens in the United States is 

 from these plants; originally there were but two colours, one 

 of each— red and white.— {American Agriculturist.) 



ORIGINAL PLANS FOR FLOWER GARDENS. 



Tin. HOOP AND BINO PA.TTEHN. 



The above pattern is most effective when viewed from a 

 Blight elevation, as from a terrace walk or winnow. It will be 

 seen that the hoop, 1, is supposed to run through each small 

 feed as through a ring. The hoop itself is planted entirely 

 with Cerastium Biebersteini ; the centre of the beds 2, 2, with 

 Centaurea ; a cut-leaved kind, such as C. ragusina, matches 

 best with the Cerastium. The circles, marked 3, are planted 

 with a variety of colours ; 4 with Centaurea, 5 with Bijou 

 Geranium, 6 with Coleus Verschaffelti. — William Eablev, 

 Digswell. 



[Mr. Earley thus describes his other plan, No. 2 : — " It con- 

 sists of apparent divisions, halfmoon-shaped, each so crossing 

 the other alternately as to admit of the perfect blending of 

 various colours, without, however, destroying the general com- 

 position of any division. The centre is planted with some showy 

 high standard plant with, at its base, a dwarf plant with coloured 

 foliage quite distinct from any surrounding it, which aids in 

 giving a good effect to the whole." 



All flower gardens look best when looked at from a height. 



So viewed we have no doubt that the hoop and ring pattern, 

 with its knot in the centre and lawn all round, will look well. 

 The only objection is that there is neither inlet nor outlet to 

 the centre, but to get in you must pass over the hoop 1 ; but as 

 it seems narrow and all Cerastium, that might not be a great 

 drawback. The design is pretty, and gives the idea of ease 

 and room. The above objection is more conspicuous in Mr. 

 Earley's No. 2, where the centre is a circle with a wide space 

 round it, and seven crescents or quarter-moons forming the 

 chain around it, with the points or horns of the crescents cross- 

 ing each other, thus showing fourteen sharp points on the 

 inside of the chain. As these crescents are much wider than 

 the hoop and ring pattern, there would not be the same ease 

 in jumping over them to reach the lawn round the central 

 clump. Has our correspondent any particular reason for seven 

 circles in the plan above figured, and seven quarter-moons in 

 No. 2 ? because some of us would balance them more easily in 

 pairs. We like the design figured the better of the two, and 

 that much.] 



