54 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



good time to plant biennials. These should be sown in July, in a 

 bed apart from anything else, and about the month of October they 

 will be in a condition to plant out in the place of annuals, which 

 will then have passed their prime, and soon will be over. Hardy 

 biennials, if not drawn up by being allowed to grow too thick, will 

 give the garden a fresh and evergreen appearance during the winter, 

 and will put forth their handsome flowers the following summer. 

 Many of them are highly ornamental. The following are most 

 usually grown : — Canterbury Bells, blue and white ; French Honey- 

 suckle, crimson ; Indian Pinks, various colours ; Imperial Stocks, 

 various ; Sweet William, various ; Scabious, various ; Wallflowers, 

 various. It is far from advisable to have more than two or three 

 sorts in one season. If each plant has plenty of room, they will look 

 well and do well, but the sight of a crowd of miserable, half-starved 

 plants, huddled together in a little garden, although common, has a 

 discreditable and ungardenly appearance. We should observe here 

 that such names as we have inserted apply to such things as are 

 easily and cheaply procured, which are usually grown, and which 

 are admitted to be highly ornamental ; yet we have named few 

 indeed, compared to what might be named ; nor would we advise 

 any one to confine themselves to such lists, nor, indeed, to any lists ; 

 such flowers as one might reject, another might regard with particular 

 favour ; and while one desires only such flowers as are usually 

 cultivated, another may be highly interested in the common wild 

 flowers of the meadow or the hedgerow, and each may rank high in 

 display in both taste and judgment. 



The true merit is seen in the effect, and effect is produced by 

 skill and industry, therefore let the lords-and-ladies from the woods 

 and the cowslip from the meadow be transferred to the little garden, 

 and let skill and judgment be employed in the planting and manage- 

 ment, and we guarantee that it shall he in keeping with the true prin- 

 ciples of horticulture. As we before observed, the various modes of 

 planting and arranging the shrubs or plants in a garden, and the 

 various species of plants with which it may be furnished, are won- 

 derfully numerous, so that laying down any cut-and-dry set of rules 

 to be observed in arranging or furnishing a garden would be absurd ; 

 yet it is well to know what particular plants are suitable to parti- 

 cular situations. All bright and free-blooming plants do best in 

 sunny situations, and all plants valued for the beauty of their foliage 

 should be placed in shady situations ; of the latter, ferns are con- 

 spicuous, but more of them anon. There are some few hardy plants 

 which are remarkable for fine foliage or habit, such as TTarfugium 

 grande, Arum maculatum, Pulmonarias, etc. ; these, with ferns, 

 should invariably be placed in shady situations, since the direct rays 

 of a burning sun are likely to disfigure them, which in this instance 

 is a permanent injury, or at least one that will last till the following 

 season. This does not apply so strictly to flowering plants, many 

 kinds of which will bloom as well in the shade as in the sunshine, 

 and vice versa. Many little gardens may be so situated that the 

 direct rays of the midday sun shine full upon them. In this case, 

 if the soil is of a cool, retentive nature, there need be no fear of 



