194 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



requirements of the critical florist. Ilowarth AsJiton and Miss Bur- 

 dett Coutts are amongst tlie most beautiful and vigorous-habited of 

 their respective classes. — Extracted from Mr. Hibberd's " New and 

 Rare Beautiful- Leaved Plants." 



BEDDING PLANTS WITH GOLD AND SILVER LEAVES. 



[HOUGH the majority of these plants are used as edgings 

 to beds, in order to subdue and tone down and har- 

 monize strong colours, there are many eminently 

 adapted for forming masses, especially where large 

 breadths of neutral tints are required in the centres 

 and connecting points of geometric patterns. The subjects now to 

 be dealt with may be grouped in two distinct classes, namely, plants 

 with " variegated '' leaves, which have originated from species with 

 green leaves, and plants which are naturally woolly, silvery, or snowy 

 in appearance, without being " variegated." The distinction is of 

 much importance, and we will cite two cases to illustrate it. The 

 variegated periwinkle is a plant we suppose to be known to every- 

 body. If that is not known to all who read this, then let a varie- 

 gated-leaved geranium serve for the purpose. If in either of these 

 cases the leaf is examined, it will be seen that its beauty consists in 

 the combination of a mottling, or band, or lines of cream or amber, 

 upon a green ground, or the centre of the leaf is green and the 

 margin white. In any case there is a certain proportion of green in 

 the leaf, which may not be perceptible when the plants are in large 

 masses because of the superior attractiveness of the white ; never- 

 theless it is there, and the example is one of strict variegation, the 

 result of a sport from a variety wholly green and without variegation 

 at all. Take, on the other hand, a plant of Cineraria maritima, 

 otherwise called the "Powdered Beau" and "Dusty Bob;" or if 

 you do not know that, take Cerastium tomentosum ; or, better 

 known still, take the Rose Campion of the borders. In each of 

 these cases the leaves have none of the ordinary green hue common 

 to vegetation ; the Cineraria maritima is covered with a grey dust, 

 as if flour had been sprinkled upon it ; the leaves of the Cerastium 

 are covered with grey hairs, and have a woolly appearance whan 

 viewed under a lens, and glisten like silver when placed beside blue 

 lobelia in full bloom; the leaves of the Campion are also woolly; 

 and in all these three cases the silvery appearance is natural to the 

 plant, not the consequence of a sport, and, strictly speaking, they 

 are not variegated. Now, this distinction is of importance as a 

 matter of art and as a matter of culture. In the first consideration, 

 the effect of plants with leaves naturally silvered is generally more 

 decisive. But on that point differences of opinion as well as of fact 

 may arise ; for though Lady Plymouth, Dandy, Flower of the Day, 

 and Alma 'geraniums are strictly variegated plants, and have a certain 

 proportion of green in their composition, nothing can surpass them 

 for beauty when used appropriately in combination with other plants. 



