BEDDING PLANTS. 79 



four good species ; the first and last are procumbent, the second is dwarf, and speciosa grows from 

 one to one-and-a-half feet high ; the CE. prostrala is useful as an edging and has neat foliage. All 

 are easily increased, and require only ordinary soil. See the November number of our last volume. 



Petunias. — These are of great value from their prolific habit of flowering. For beds, borders, 

 or a dry bank, they are equally suitable. A pinch of seed sown on heat or a warm window will 

 give hundreds of plants in a few weeks, which will flower the same season. The best varieties 

 must be increased by cuttings. Light soil suits them, and in this they are almost hardy. 



Pentstemon. — These beautiful plants are favorites with all, especially Hartwegii and its hybrids 

 with P. gentianoides ; the true gentianoides is less valuable. P. campanulatum is a good hardy 

 species, which blooms the first year from seeds ; one and a-half to two feet high, with rosy crimson 

 flowers. P. ovatum is the best blue-flowered species, hardiness and habit considered. Speciosum 

 is a better blue, but a much more troublesome plant, being a biennial. Murrayanum, atro-purpureum, 

 Cobece, variabilis (alias Salterii), are all first-rate plants; the last is only a variety of Hartwegii; 

 the others are not perfectly hardy, and slips should therefore be preserved in a pot through the 

 winter. 



Phlox. — Another valuable class of plants, all hardy, except the P. Brummondii and its varieties. 

 They should be replanted each season in fresh soil, as they exhaust it quickly. They are so 

 numerous, that it is impossible to say precisely which are the best. Abd'el Meschid Khan, white 

 and rose, purple centre; Adonis, light rose, violet eye; alba grandiflora, pure white; General 

 Duvivier, white, carmine eye ; Madame Nerard, fine white, bright red eye ; Napoleon, flesh ground, 

 beautifully striped with rosy violet, exquisite ; Madame Viard, white, striped with rosy-purple ; 

 and La Fraicheur, white, mottled with rose, are all beautifully varieties, growing from two to 

 two-and-a-half feet high, and flowering at the latter part of the summer ; but there are many others 

 quite as good. Increased by division, and by seeds for new varieties. The P. depressa is a good 

 dwarf variety, and the old white nivalis is a beautiful species. 



Platycodon. — This is allied to the Campanulas, and as far as we know there is but one species, 

 grandiflora, with blue flowers ; there is a single white variety, and another with double flowers. 

 All of them grow about eighteen inches high, are increased by seeds and cuttings, and need only 

 ordinary sandy loam ; they are quite hardy, and well merit cultivation. 



Plumbago Larpentm. In moderately dry autumns, this will please in the borders, but wet spoils 

 the delicate violet-blue flowers. It may be treated as a hardy perennial, and should be planted in 

 light peaty soil ; grows about a foot high, and is readily increased by division in spring, or cuttings, 

 at any time during summer: 



Potentilla. — No garden should be without several of these, their flowers are highly ornamental, 

 and they entail no trouble in cultivation. The varieties are become very numerous, but the 

 following are as good as any : Menziesii, rich orange scarlet ; insignii, fine yellow ; Hopivoodiana, 

 crimson and white ; and Smoutii, yellow and crimson, striped. They require a good free soil, and 

 6hould be divided in autumn, in preference to spring. 



Prunella. — These are not often seen in gardens, but there is one species at least of some interest, 

 suitable for the front of mixt border, the P. Webbiana. It is a dwarf hardy perennial, producing 

 heads of pretty purple flowers in summer, and flourishing in any common soil. P. reptans alba 

 has white flowers. Messrs. Low of Clapton have both these plants, and several others. 



Rudbeckia — Of these handsome Composite plants we would recommend fulgida and Brummondii 

 with yellow flowers, and purpurea, and intermedia purplish violet ; the two last are also known as 

 Echinacea purpurea and intermedia. All flower during the summer and autumn. 



Salvia. — Most of the species deserve cultivation, especially fulgens, splendens, eoccinea, with 

 scarlet flowers ; patens, and p. alba, chamadrgoides, prunelloides, bicolor, and hians, with blue, or 



