INTRODUCTION. XXXI 



crowded to the front of borders in the same way. Their 

 foliage is in the way for only a short period of the 

 season, and may often be removed earlier than it is 

 without injury to the plants. The advantages that 

 would be obtained, therefore, by planting them in the 

 spaces between the summer-flowering plants all over 

 the border are very obvious ; the fringy and irregular 

 appearance in spring that results from the practice of 

 crowding the flowers of that period to the front of the 

 border would be done away with, and every part of the 

 surface unoccupied with dormant plants might be as 

 richly varied and beautiful then as at any other period. 

 In connection with this I would draw the attention of 

 readers to the value of the spring -flowering hardy 

 annuals, especially those commonly known as " Cali- 

 fornian." They are indispensable for spring-gardening, 

 and those inquiring after them will find much valuable 

 information in a cheap little work on annuals by Mr 

 Thompson, seedsman, Ipswich, one of our best authori- 

 ties on such matters. The title of the book is, * The 

 Gardening-Book of Annuals.' Much might be done, 

 also, to render mixed borders beautiful, not only in 

 spring but all the year over, by adopting the " carpet- 

 ing" practice that has made some favour for itself in 

 connection with the massing system. Looked at cor- 

 rectly, this practice is mixed planting, not massing; and 

 it cannot, of course, be done without obliterating the 

 essential features of the massing style. It appears to 

 me to be a very desirable practice to introduce gener- 

 ally into mixed borders ; and the abundance of hardy 

 evergreen trailing or creeping plants, and others of 

 various tones and variegations of foliage that are to be 



