212 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



scant. A deficiency of flowers, then, must be the result in both 

 cases. What, then, will such experience teach us ? Why, that the 

 majority of the failures are owing to light soils. If they are planted 

 in a good-holding loam, in wet seasons they cannot work too fast 

 with their minute fibres ; thus causing a sturdy growth, and, after 

 three or four fine days, a mass of bloom. If, on the contrary, a dry 

 season, the holding quality of the loam supplies their small fibres 

 with sufficient nourishment, so as to cause plenty of growth, also an 

 abundance of bloom. 



Such, then, are the results of practical observation and the ex- 

 perience of several years. For pot-culture, compost of three-fourths 

 good holding loam, and one-fourth of leaf-mould, with a good 

 sprinkling of silver-sand, and cool treatment, they grow fine, and 

 are sure to repay for extra care and labour to the ardent admirer of 

 nature and its flowers. 



THE HOLLYHOCK. 



AN we dispense with the hollyhock ? The rose is a more 

 general favourite, and in its varied states of standard, 

 climber, and bush, a more available plant ; the dahlia is 

 still the " queen of autumn ;" but for the old nooks and 

 corners in small gardens, and for planting in masses 

 for distant effect in large gardens, there is no flower so suitable as 

 the hollyhock. As to the height to which it grows, this cannot be 

 fairly urged to its disadvantage ; there are positions in almost every 

 garden for which this feature renders it peculiarly adaptable. The 

 best of our " bedding plants " are of lowly growth ; we must look 

 down upon them to appreciate their beauty. But we cannot always 

 be looking down, be the prospect ever so charming. And there is a 

 new feature of beauty in that garden where, on raising the bent head 

 and downcast eye, we meet with spikes of hollyhocks breaking the- 

 flatness of the general surface by streaks or lines of rich and varied 

 colours rising high among the leafy trees. In many beautiful gar- 

 dens that we have visited, we have been more than disconcerted by 

 the abrupt transition from " bedding plants " to trees, moderated as 

 this has sometimes been by raised baskets and pillars of summer 

 climbers. Beautiful as are these latter, they are not sufficiently 

 massive. The hollyhock, and, as far, as we know, the hollyhock 

 alone, effectively fills the vacuity. We know that it has been the 

 fashion with some to decry this plant, calling it coarse, formal, and 

 weedy. Admitting that there is some truth in this, may we be per- 

 mitted to ask, is it not also bold, striking, and effective, and are not 

 these elements worth combining, at some sacrifice, with the rich, the 

 bright, the beautiful ? 



Thus far of its value in garden scenery. But it has lately come 

 to be considered as a florists' flower. The busy brain and hand of 

 the cultivator have been engaged in its improvement ; and those 



