AND THEIR SETTINGS. 257 



with gladioli! ; and for the outside of the same bed, the Colleus 

 verschafelti, alternated with the Lady Pollock geranium. Some 

 years will be required to grow the evergreens named to the size 

 that will make them appropriate centres for such a parterre. If a 

 showy bed is required the first season without the use of either 

 vase, basket, or evergreen tree-centre, the following plants may be 

 suggested to effect it, viz. : for the centre, the Canna gigantea 

 auriantica, ten feet high; around it on a circle eighteen inches 

 from the centre, the Canna sanguinea chatei, six feet high, to be 

 planted one foot apart in the circle ; next on a circle one foot 

 further out, the Salvia argentea, or the mountain-of-snow geranium, 

 to be planted one foot apart in the circle ; for the next circle, 

 one foot from the same, the Amaranthus melancholicus ruber, a 

 plant of deep-red foliage from one to two feet high ; and for the 

 edge of the bed the fern-like low white-leaved Centaurea gymno- 

 carpa ; or if plants of the latter are too expensive to use freely, 

 make a border of the common Indian pink, or the blue lobelia. 

 These plants, if successfully grown, will make a magnificent bed 

 from midsummer till frost. For a display in the first half of the 

 season, early blooming bulbous flowers must be relied upon. We 

 have thus far considered only the central-bed of the group shown 

 in Fig. 51, and have suggested various modes of treating it which 

 would be equally applicable to a round bed of the size named, were 

 it disconnected with the surrounding beds. For the small circular- 

 beds, each alternate one may have a cluster of the Japanese striped 

 maize in its centre ; the other four beds might have in their 

 centres the Canna flaccida, the Nicotiana atropurpurea grandiflora, 

 the Canna gigantea splendidissima, and the Wigandia caracasana. 

 Around their edges may be planted any well-foliaged flowering- 

 plants which do not exceed nine inches in height, and a different 

 species in each bed. The outside tier of beds are for low bedding 

 flowers or annuals, which should not exceed fifteen inches in height 

 for the centres, or more than six inches near the borders. 



Fig. 52 represents a circular-bed with one of the pendulous firs 



mentioned in a preceding page, in its centre, and such tall growing 



brilliant flowers as the Japan lilies and gladiolii next to it ; a circle 



of petunias around them ; and creeping plants near the margin, 



17 



