XX INTRODUCTION. 



gardening. It will be convenient for clearness' sake to 

 separate the hardy perennials, capable of being cultivated 

 in borders without any special care or trouble, from the 

 plants termed alpine; and the former, being the most nu- 

 merous and important, may properly be first taken up. 



To what extent are they capable of being nsed in *' Bed- 

 ding-otif ? — The first consideration that strikes one when 

 he passes herbaceous plants in review, in order to ascertain 

 to what extent they are capable of being used in the style 

 of flower-gardening most fashionable at the present time, 

 or in any modification of it in which its essential features 

 of massiveness, precision, and brilliancy, may be pre- 

 served, is, that only a comparatively Hmited number of 

 them are possessed of the requisite qualities in such a 

 degree as to invest them with much importance as mass- 

 ing plants. A good many candidates for "bedding" 

 honours from the ranks of herbaceous plants have been 

 put forward within the past few years ; but in those cases 

 in which the claims urged were based on the continuous- 

 ness, brilliancy, and profusion of the flowers, we have 

 heard little about them after the preliminary flourish of 

 trumpets that heralded their introduction died away. 

 The truth is, the number of hardy herbaceous plants that 

 may be used in the more showy styles of '' bedding-out " 

 for the sake of their flowers only is very limited ; and 

 such as have the necessary brilliancy and duration of 

 flowers are, by reason of incongruity of habit, unfit to 

 mingle with the popular classes of flowering bedding 

 plants generally. There is a large num.ber, however, of 

 hardy perennials, with peculiar grey, glaucous, bronze, or 

 variegated leaves, and a considerable group of dwarf 

 carpet-like subjects in various shades of green and other 



