86 Subtropical Gardening. 



but these, we need not despair, for they possess almost 

 every quality the most fastidious could desire, and 

 present a useful and charming variety. The larger kinds 

 make grand masses, while all may be associated inti- 

 mately with flowering-plants — an advantage that does 

 not belong to some free-growing things like the Castor- 

 oil plant. The Canna ascends as boldly, and spreads 

 forth as fine a mass of leaves as these, but may be closely 

 grouped with much smaller subjects. The general ten- 

 dency of most of our flower-garden plants is to assume a 

 flatness and dead level, so to speak ; and it is the special 

 quality possessed by the Cannas for counteracting this 

 that makes them so valuable. Even the grandest of the 

 other subjects preserve this tameness of upper-surface 

 outline when grown in great quantities : not so these, the 

 leaves of which, even when grown in dense groups, 

 always carry the eye up pleasantly from the humbler 

 plants, and are grand aids in effecting that harmony 

 which is so much wanted between the important tree and 

 shrub embellishments of our gardens and their surround- 

 ings, and the dwarf flower-bed vegetation. Another good 

 quality of these most useful subjects is their power of 

 withstanding the cold and storms of autumn. They do 

 so better than many of our hardy shrubs and plants, so 

 that when the last leaves have been blown from the Lime, 

 and the Dahlia and Heliotrope have been hurt by frost, 

 you may see them waving as gracefully and as green as 

 the vegetation of a temperate stove. Many of the sub- 

 tropical plants, used for the beauty of their leaves, are so 

 tender that they go off in autumn, or require all sorts of 

 awkward protection at that season j but the Cannas last 



