February 10, 1870. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUfiB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



105 



plementary to red, and red to green. To discover the comple- 

 mentary of any given colonr, say red for example, you have 

 only to fix the eyes earnestly on a spot of black and then on a 

 spot of red, when a dim circle of green, the complementary 

 <:olonr to red, will be seen around the red spot. In the like 

 manner the complementary colour of purple will be found to 

 he orange, and of blue yellow. 



dotted in a mass of compound colours, and thus nothing is 

 finer in effect than a mass of green with two or three specks of 

 red or bright yellow. The same principle will hold good with 

 white or black, and thus a speck or tivo oi bright, light, or 

 clear-shining black may be placed adjoiuing or among objects 

 of any colour whatever. When I speak of black it apphea to 

 fohage, not flowers ; indeed, there are no black flowers that I 



Fig. 2G.— EeJ E. 



The simplest arrangements of colours are the combinations 

 of the primaries and secondaries, yet that these combinations 

 be perfectly harmonious requires great skill in their distribu- 

 tion, otherwise their characteristics of simplicity speedily de- 

 generate into coarse vulgarity. Nothing is less brilliant than 

 flower beds in which the only colours to be seen are blue and 

 white. Nothing is more gaudy 

 than a garden stocked with a 

 profusion of yellow and little 

 flso. It is very unsatisfactory 

 also to find flowers but of dif- 

 ferent shades placed near each 

 other, and all these errors of 

 taste should be avoided. 



In order that a garden may 

 be showy and attractive the 

 grand principle in the employ- 

 ment of colours is never to 

 employ a compound colour be- 

 tween the two primitive colours 

 which compose it. For ex- 

 ample, purple ought never to 

 be employed between blue and 

 red, green between blue and 

 yellow, or orange between yel- 

 low and red. Blue flowers 

 should be placed near orange, 

 violet next to yellow. Eeds 

 and pinks look well when sur- 

 rounded with a border of white 

 or grey. Each primitive colour 

 should be contrasted with its 

 complementary one, which will 

 always be found to be a com- 

 pound one. Thus red is a 

 primitive colour, but green is 



a compound one; yellow is a primitive colour, but purple a 

 compound ; and blue primitive, orange compound. 



In the CMe of employing primitive colours in a combination 

 without the compound or intermediate colour one should be 

 planted in large, and the other in small fjuautities. One 

 primitive colour may be opposite to another, and will have a 

 good effect. For example, adjoining a mass of blue llieremay 

 be specks of red or yello", but the primitive colours have a 

 better effect still when the specks of blue, red, and yellow ".re 



Fig. 27.— Bed F. 



am aware of. The following examples of planting cironlar beds 

 effectively are submitted. 



BED E. 



1. Lobelia Blue King. 



2. Alternanthera amtcna spectabilis. 



3. Alternanthera paronyobioides major. 



4. White Lobelia. 



5. Stellariagraminea aurea. 

 This bed would look best on 



a sloping bank. 



BED F. 



1. Coleus Veroohaffeltii. 



2. Leucophyton Brownii. 



3. Lobelia I31ae Stone. 



4. Alternanthera magnifica. 

 A deep claret colour. 



;j. Stellaria graminea aurea. 

 f). Eoheveria secunda glauca. 

 7. Sempervivum montanum. 



BED G. 



1. IresineLindeniand Gazania 

 splendens, planted alter- 

 nately. 



2. White Lobelia. 



3. Blue Lobelia. 



4. Golden Pyrethrum. 



5. Echeveria secunda glauca. 

 — N. Cole, Kensington. 



KEEPING GBAPES 

 LATE. 

 Fig. 28.— Bed G. I QUITE agree with your cor- 



respondent " W. E." that good 

 late Grapes can be had even with the disadvantages of growing 

 plants in the vineries. I had charge of a late vinery in my 

 former situation, Chilworth Manor Gardens, in which were 

 greenhouse plants, Ac, and we, like " W. E.," took advantage 

 of a dry clear day to water the plants, then mopped the water 

 up dry, having opened both front and top ventilators to tho- 

 roughly dry the house. We were never troubled with mildew, 

 the Grapes keeping good till the middle of February, when 

 those remaining were out from the Vines, the stems of the 



