ON CONTRASTING THE COLOURS OP FLOWERS. 59 



may be made with these placed in any one of the five following orders, 

 viz., 1 — yellow, violet, yellow, violet, &c. ; 2 — yellow, violet, white, 

 yellow, violet, white, &c. ; 3 — yellow, white, violet, white, yellow, 

 white, violet, &c. ; 4 — yellow, violet, yellow, white, yellow, violet, 

 yellow, white, &c. ; and, 5 — violet, yellow, violet, white, violet, yellow, 

 violet, white, &c. They may also be arranged in quincunx, either in 

 a border or a basket. 



" For the month of March. — Winter Aconite may be opposed to 

 Snowdrop, or vernal Spring-flake (Leuco'ium vernum). In some sea- 

 sons the Christmas Rose (Black Hellebore) remains in flower in this 

 month, and may be surrounded witli winter Aconite, Violets, and 

 Snowdrops, in no particular order. White, rose,«and blue Hepaticas 

 may be arranged in a border thus — white, blue, white, rose, white, &c. 

 Primroses, being of several distinct colours, offer considerable facilities 

 in their arrangement. A border of Primroses in the following order 

 looks well : red, white, orange, lilac, yellow, brownish-violet, white, 

 red, white, orange, &c., repeating the series in the same order. If a 

 circular or elliptical border be required, one composed of Primroses 

 arranged as follows will be found agreeable to the eye : white, red, 

 white, orange, or orange edged with brown, violet or lilac, yellow, 

 Oxlips or Cowslips, violet or bluish-lilac, orange, or orange edged 

 with brown, white, red, white, and so on as before. The yellow O.xlips 

 or Cowslips occurring at equal distances produce an excellent effect, 

 their straight peduncles, covered with yellow flowers, agreeably destroy- 

 ing the flat appearance wliicli would otherwise arise from the uniformity 

 in the height of the other plants. 



" If from the last arrangement the orange flowers be taken away, 

 the effect is greatly deteriorated by the loss of symmetry. This 

 observation must be borne in mind whenever a border forming a closed 

 circle is, from its small size, at once taken in by the eye ; if this be 

 not the case, the first arrangement may be preferred to the last. 



" B. The large-flowered Arabis, Saxifriga crassifolia, the Arabis, 

 Caucasian Doronicum ; then repeat in the same order. If the Arabis 

 are left to themselves they spread too much relatively to the Saxifrages, 

 and there is then too much white. If it is too much trouble to keep 

 the Arabis in bounds, the following arrangement will be found useful : 

 Arabis, Saxifrage, Doronicum, Arabis, Saxifrage, Doronicum, &c. 



" C. Doronicum, purple Honesty ; or. Saxifrage, Doronicum, Ara- 

 bis, purple Honesty ; or. Saxifrage, Arabis ; then begin again, observ- 

 ing tiie same order. To insure this border looking well, care must be 

 taken that the flowers of the Arabis and Doronicum do not spread too 

 much relatively to the Saxifrages or the Honestys. Again, in the last 

 arrangement, one Honesty may alternate successively with one Saxi- 

 frage, so as to have the Honestys between two Doronicums and the 

 Saxifrage between two Arabises. 



" D. 1 — Blue Hyacinth, yellow Narcissus, blue Hyacinth, yellow 

 Narcissus, &c. ; 2 — Hyaciijtlis alone, in the following order: White, 

 red, white, red, &c. ; or ti^us: White, blue, white, red, white, blue, 

 wliite, red, &c. Large baskets of blue Hyacinths alternate well with 

 Doronicums ; so do large baskets of white Hyacinths with Saxifrages. 



