May 11, 187G. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGK GARDKNER. 



307 



ornamental Grasses in cultivation. It is increasoa by divi- 

 sions and seeds. This plant looks well when mixed with the 

 Caladiums. It is now included in the genus Peuniaetum. 



3. Lantanaa.— These plants are worthy of a place in any 

 subtropical arrangement, especially when used as a carpet to 

 any large-foliage plant. They are equally effective if pegged 

 down or left to grow in their natural style. It is a good plan 

 to plant three or four sorts together, so that the flowers will 

 form a splendid mixture. Propagate iu spring, giving them 

 the same treatment as Verbenas. 



i. Verbena venosa. — This is a very old and much-neglected 

 plant, but one that deserves to be grown more freely than it is 

 at the present time. It has been used with groat success in 

 some of the London parks, and I have no doubt will rise 

 rapidly in favour again. It ia a stiff hardy perennial, growing 

 from 9 to 18 inches in height, producing from June until late 

 in the autumn a profusion of rich bluish-violet flowers. It is 

 easily propagated by taking up a few of the old plants in the 

 autumn and laying them under any soil until the spring arrives, 

 when they will throw a quantity of cuttings, and by t reating 



WALK 



Fig. 103.— Bed No. 5. 



them the same as other Verbenas will obtain good plants for 

 the summer bedding. A few of these mixed with the L an tanas 

 have a good effect. 



5. Salvia tricolor (Sage).— This is a beautiful dwarf-growing 

 plant with white and scarlet variegation, and is really very 

 striking. It roots freely in a cold frame during the spring and 

 summer months, and is well adapted for an edging. 



BED No. B, 



1. Canna Bihorellii. — Dark foliage with orange-scarlet flowers. 



2. G. Premice de Nice. — Green foliage, flowers canary colour. 



3. C. Prince Imperial. — Green foliage, flowers bright 

 scarlet. Cannas have now become so popular and are so 

 useful and ornamental for summer decorative purposes that 

 they have become indispensable, and as subtropical plants 



Fig. 104.— Bed No. 6. 



none are more effective ; for not only are they ornamental in 

 foliage, but they are now invaluable on account of their flowers, 

 ■which in some of the new varieties nearly approach those of the 

 Gladioli in form of spike and beauty of colour. The plants 

 are easily managed. If yon wish to let them remain outdoors 

 all the winter you can do so with safety by covering with coal 

 ashes, cocoa-nut fibre, or any light kind of covering, to pro- 

 tect the tubers from the severe frost, or you can take them up, 

 as they will keep quite as well in any cellar or out-of-the-way 

 place. If you want to increase your stock of plants early 

 in the spring, cut them up in small pieces with an eys to each 

 piece, place them in bottom heat, and as soon as they have 

 started to grow pot them, still keeping them in beat, when 

 they will make fine plants for the season, but when growing 

 give the i;oots plenty of pot room. In rai^g Cannas from 



seed sow in February or March in light soil, place the pot or 

 pan in a gentle bottom heat, and when the plants have at- 

 tained their second leaf pot them off singly and grow-on in 

 moderate heat until established in 48potB, which they will be 

 by the end of May or beginning of June. Plant out in rich 

 soil. Arrange the plants according to height of foliage and 

 colour of flower, for they are sure to be a complication of sorts, 

 as Cannas never come true to name. Most of them will bloom 

 before the frost nips them, and perhaps some of them will be 

 worth naming either from beauty of foliage or flower. So it 

 will be a useful as well as an interesting bed of Cannas, and it 

 will repay you for all the trouble you may have taken. But 

 there is one important point which I have left out — that is, in 

 preparing the seeds before sowing. Some recommend you to 

 soak them to soften their hard shells ; bat you may adopt this 



