30 PRACTICAL FLOKICCLTUKE. 



plants were made to produce such \vonderful effects when 

 grouped and contrasted^ in the subtropical arrangement. 

 The plants used were mainly Cannas, Japanese Maize 

 (striped), Wigandias, Ferdinandas, Bocconias, Sola- 

 nums, and many of the tall-growing sorts of Amar- 

 anths. These were grouped in beds of every conceivable 

 form, some clearly defined on the broad lawn, some skirt- 

 ing the edge of a clump of trees, others planted in and 

 among the trees and shrubbery as undergrowth, giving 

 the impression when looking at it under the leafy shade 

 of trees that you were viewing an undergrowth of the 

 tropics rather than a piece of the most artistical planting 

 of an English park. One particular spot, which will not 

 soon be forgotten, is a ravine of considerable extent, well 

 shaded by tall trees, where were planted immense plants 

 of tree ferns, the stems covered with Lycopodium, so ex- 

 actly as to resemble what would be their condition in 

 nature. Behind these and against the blue sky stood out 

 strongly some gigantic Palms, so that we had here again 

 a glimpse of what an Australian or Indian forest might 

 seem. In direct contrast to these was a hill, a miniature 

 Alp, planted from base to nearly the summit with alpine 

 plants of the rarest kinds, among which were largely in- 

 terspersed Sedums, Sempervivums, and other succulents, 

 in rarity and variety sufficient to give joy to a botanist's 

 heart. On the peaks and in the crevices of this little hill 

 was planted closely one of the most common native plants 

 of Britain, Antennaria dloica, one of the Everlastings, 

 having white foliage, and this plant easily conveyed the 

 impression of snow on the hill-tops and in its gullies. 

 Altogether, on this little mound of half an acre, were 

 planted probably three hundred distinct species. 



Then from this mound of botanical interest, the first 

 turn brought us to a very different style of planting the 

 massing or ribbon style, or what would be more appro- 

 priately (as it is done here) called the " carpet style," 



