MONTHLY CALENDAR. 



557 



coloured material at their disposal. The principle of repetition is quite in 

 accordance with the laws of harmonious arrangement." The following is an 

 example, the colours used being scarlet, orange, black, white, blue, green, 

 and some of the semi-neutral colours. They may be arranged with excellent 

 cflfect, thus : — 



1737. However, such repetitions are seldom practicable or desirable in 

 actual planting. It would require a border ten yards wide to hold such an 

 arrangement: and if ever so successfully managed, too much of a good thing 

 would be the general verdict. 



1 738. Ribbon-borders, from six to twelve feet wide, and planted with so many 

 distinct and separate colours, are generally the most effective. For the 

 greatest width here stated^ perhaps they are most beautiful divided by a row 

 of the tallest plants in the middle, and both sides planted alike, or different 

 in colour, but similar in height, gradually falling from the centre to the sides. 

 My largest ribbon this season rises from front to back eleven rows deep. It 

 is bounded on one side by a terrace-walk fourteen feet wide ; on the other, by a 

 gravel walk five feet wide. The following is the arrangement : — 



7th Eow. — Ageratum mexicanum (me- 

 dium-sized variety) . 



8th Row.— Ceneraria maritima. 



9th Eow. — Perilla nankinensis. 

 10th Row. — Dwarf yellow dahlia. 

 11th Row. — Crystal Palace scarlet ditto. 

 12th Row. — White verbena. 



1st Eow. — Lobelia speciosa. 

 2nd Row. — Cerastmm tomentosum. 

 3rd Row. — trolden-chain geranium. 

 4th Row. — Purple B-ing verbena. 

 5th Row. — Calceolaria aurea Hori- 



bunaa. 

 6th Row. — Punch's scarlet geranium. 



§ 4.— The Kitchen-Garden. 



1 739. To secure a supply of vegetables in the winter and early spring, all 

 arrangements not already completed should now be made withovtt delay ; the 

 growth of those already planted encouraged by hoeing and stirring the earth 

 round the roots, and where slugs abound, their ravages counteracted by 

 sowing soot or lime on the soil. 



1740. CtUry. — The earthing-up ot this useful vegetable now demands 

 special attention. The sowings made in July and August will now be ready 

 for transplanting. The cultivation varies in many districts, Lancashire 

 producing plants which, tor size and delicacy of flavour, are unsurpassed ; 

 and it may be worth while to examine the several modes of cultivating 

 so desirable a vegetable, wbich, as we learn from Phillips, is "aperient, 

 diuretic, febrifugous, and vulnerary, both the roots and seeds being used 

 in obstmctions of the liver and spleen : they warm and dry ; they purify, 

 attenuate, and carry off fevers, jaundice, and dropsies." 



