84 HAND-BOOK OF PRACTICAL 



grooves, to carry the water to one point for outlet ; next put in- 

 side a false bottom board, having quarter inch holes in it, once 

 every four inches — this false bottom board to be two inches above 

 the lower one. Place flat stones, broken to two inches, or there- 

 abouts, upon the bottom ; the two inches of good garden soil, and 

 for working in among roots to be planted herein, get good leaf 

 mould, i. e., the soil next under the turf of an old grass pasture, 

 or the soil from ground where an old wood-pile has been. Now 

 plant, next to the outside border of this box, with varieties of 

 Sedums and Lysimachia, alternately ; next, inside plant of Juni- 

 perus Eepens and Nana, using Nana as corner plants ; next, one 

 plant each of Pinus mugho rotundata, at each end of the box, 

 inside of the Junipers ; next plant two of Taxus adpressa and two 

 of Taxus ericoides; next, one at each end, inside of the last, of 

 Evergreen Thorn, and finish with center plant of Hemlock, 

 Lawson's Cypress, or some dwarf Arbor Vitaa. These, when 

 planted with the earth up to within half an inch of the surface — 

 that covered with fine moss will, with care in watering, keep 

 green and fresh all winter, and in the spring the plants can be 

 used in the open ground. We have often visited rooms where 

 ferns and many delicate climbing vines were growing in glass 

 cases, without any extra heat other than what might come from 

 an open grate or wood fire place. Flora's admirers are more than 

 even the most ambitious flirt — if there is such a creature — could 

 desire ; but her gems, i. e., Flora's, are not all made of flowers. 

 Foliage is a gem, without which many of her most brilliant colors 

 would not be noticed. Contrast, it is said, makes harmony, bat 

 such is not always the case ; yet the shades of green that belong 

 to foliage always give a pleasing contrast with the flower, no 

 matter what its coior. 



We have seen in the center of a window a fancy piece of rock 

 work, formed upon a common plank, grooved, so that all water 

 should run to one outlet. Broken rocks of selected colors, or 

 what some term rough, ungainly moss, overgrown boulders, laid 

 up in resemblance of some rocky point or mound one has seen 

 in their wanderings, and mingled with them, leaf mould, or good 

 loamy, sandy soil (not peat from a low, swampy bog); into which 



