32 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



by Dactylis glomerata variegata, one of the most beauti- 

 ful variegated grasses, which grows some 2 feet high. 



For narrow beds along the margins of walks, ribbon 

 lines should be formed of low-growing plants, such as the 

 white Lobelia Snowflake, for the front line, followed next 

 by Tom Thumb Tropeolum ; then, as the centre, or third 

 line, Fuchsia Golden Fleece ; as a second marginal line 

 on the other side, Geranium Flower of Spring, with its 

 white foliage and scarlet flowers, followed by a line of 

 Lobelia Paxtonii. 



CHAPTER V. 



SOILS FOR POTTING. 



I rarely pick up a work on floriculture but the matter 

 of soils is treated of in such a way as to be perfectly be- 

 wildering to amateurs, if not also to professional florists. 

 One authority gives a table of not less than 19 sorts ! 

 Whether these authorities practice as they preach is very 

 questionable ; some of them I know do not, but why they 

 should thus write to mystify those they attempt to teach, 

 can only be ascribed to a desire to impress their readers 

 with the profundity of their knowledge on such subjects. 

 Now, what is the effect of such instructions ? Our ama- 

 teur cultivators are disheartened, as such combinations are 

 to them perfectly impracticable. The private gardener, 

 perhaps, falls back on his employer, and ascribes the un- 

 healthy condition of his plants to the efiect of his not 

 being able to procure such and such a soil, which, he says, 

 is necessary for some special class of plants, and excuses 

 his failures thereby. The young florist, beginning busi- 

 ness in some country town, with restricted means, and with 



