THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 357 



clean tan ; it is owing to the colour of tbe material, which seta off 

 and brightens every scrap of vegetation, to which it serves as a 

 groundwork. An amateur who has a passion for floriculture, and 

 is compelled to reside near a town, and must put up with a small 

 garden, may have full gratification of his taste by following the 

 plunging system, and may soon have better collections of plants 

 than the majority of people possessing large gardens, and making 

 pretensions to large practice. Moreover, the system is admirably 

 adapted to produce splendid effects by means of the cheapest plants, 

 aud a very large proportion of the subjects grown ought to be 

 hardy, and adapted to bear some amount of rough treatment. 



Now let us suppose some one of our readers anxious to carry 

 into effect these proposals ; with him or her the question will pro- 

 bably be, " How am I to begin ? " We will endeavour to answer 

 the question in such a way as to suit a majority of cases. The first 

 thing to be done is to select the site for the operations, and here a 

 word of advice may be useful to this effect — feel your way carefully, 

 begin with one border or so, and extend the system as you become 

 accustomed to it, and equal to its demands, for it will swallow up 

 many more plants than you have been accustomed to provide for the 

 same space when planting out was followed. 



If we had to advise in particular cases, we should frequently turf 

 over many of the existing flower-beds, and reduce the area for 

 display to very circumscribed limits ; for in many small gardens the 

 multiplicity of flower-beds is puerile, and makes one think of a 

 doll's garden, or a farthing kaleidoscope. Of course we get into 

 difficulties at this point ; people are not prepared to give up their 

 flower-beds, and do not quite see the way clearly to do anything 

 with them but as they have been accustomed to do. If there are 

 groups of beds, and the desire is to improve the garden and reduce 

 the extent of bedding, and make a first start in plunging, it will 

 probably not be difficult to mark off certain of the beds to be 

 planted with evergreen and flowering shrubs, with some good hardy 

 herbaceous plants iu front of them, and reserve the remainder for 

 experiments in plunging. Let us illustrate this suggestion by a 

 rough-and-ready example. Suppose a group of beds, as in the 



annexed diagram. We have here ton beds, and wo desire to reduce 

 their number without makiug them one-sided. We have but to 

 strike out, say, 2, 4, 7, 9, and we have six r emainin g. 



Or we may strike out 5 and G, or 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10. 



Now, suppose that we cannot attempt to manage six beds by 

 plunging, as shown in the second diagram, why not plant 5 and 6 

 with groups of hollies, or, if equally convenient (as it may be in a 

 peat district;, with hardy rhododendrons and azaleas, or with pampas 



Dcutuibcr. 



