THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 299 



having large foliage, which have become generally known under the 

 designation of " Subtropical plants." 



The "carpet" beds, that is, the beds filled with plants of low 

 growth, having coloured leafage, are on the upper terrace, by the 

 side of the walks which branch off right and left on descending the 

 steps in front of the transept, and on the Rose Mount. The beds 

 on the terrace and those on the mount form two distinct features, 

 and the former afford most valuable lessons for colouring beds, 

 square or oblong in form, and the others afford lessons equally valu- 

 able for planting circular beds. As the designs are necessarily com- 

 plicated, it is impossible to describe the planting with a sufficient 

 degree of clearness to admit of their being carried out from the 

 descriptions. This could only be done with the aid of diagrams. 

 Six of the oblongs on the terrace h.-ive been divided into three parts, 

 mostly with blue Lobelias, and in the centre compartment of each 

 bed a butterfly has been designed. The butterflies have been chiefly 

 formed with Alteruantheras, and rest on a light ground-work; the 

 greyish Sedum glaucum, and the silvery-leaved Cerastium tomen- 

 tosum, being the plants chiefly employed for the latter purpose. In 

 the end compartments are smaller designs of a dii*tinct character. 

 The idea of the butterflies is remarkably good, but they fail in 

 making a very strong impression, because of the beds being rather 

 too small for the conception to be carried out on a sufficiently ex- 

 tensive scale. Moreover, an attempt has been made to show the spots 

 and markings on the wings of tbe high-coloured butterflies, and 

 owing to the latter being of a very small size, comparatively 

 speaking, the effect is not so good as it otherwise would have been. 

 Indeed, uninitiated visitors wonder what the little clusters of Lobelias 

 and the clumps cf Golden Feather have to do with the butterflies, so 

 unlike are they to the spots which add so much to the beauty of these 

 ephemeral crtatures. To imitate with any degree of success a 

 butterfly, the bed should be not less than eight feet square, for out- 

 side of the carpet or groundwork upon which the representation 

 rests, it is needful to have a marginal line and a narrow band of a 

 different colour, to form, as it were, a framework, and give the bed 

 a finished appearance. Even in large beds there will be much difiB- 

 culty in imitating the spots on the wings, because of the plants that 

 are of the proper colours, mostly growing too high for the alter- 

 nantheras. It would appear less difficult to imitate the lines of 

 colour on the wings with the different varieties of the last-men- 

 tioned plants, which although similar in character, vary some- 

 what in colour. The beds on the mount are remarkably tasteful, 

 and afford some of the best examples of this stjle of bedding yet 

 presented to public notice, and as they are all different in detail, they 

 display, in a remarkable manner, the versatility of the superintendent, 

 Mr. G. Thomson. 



The sloping border round the rosery is coloured in a very rich 

 manner, and seen from the terrace as well as from the walk at the foot 

 of the mount and the one at the summit, it is very eflective. It may 

 be very briefly described. At the back of the border is a band of 

 Shottishani Pet geranium, a variegated variety, grown extensively 



October. ^ 



