166 A BOOK ABOVT THE GARDEN. 



I did not mention, when speaking of the darker 

 foliage, the oxalis and the alternantbera, because the 

 former seems too earth-like in colour to be effective in 

 beds ; and the latter has been, with me, capricious and 

 weakly. I also think that echeverias and semper- 

 vivums are more appropriate to the rockery than to 

 the summer garden ; and I am inclined to believe that 

 a snug nook in the same habitation will prove most 

 suitable for that exquisite gem, Mesembryanthemum 

 cordifolium variegatum, with its bright little purple 

 flowers peeping out from its golden leaves. 



And these latter words remind me how many of our 

 plants with variegated foliage have beautiful flowers 

 as well to wit, of pelargoniums, Flower of Spring, 

 May Queen, Silver Nosegay, Bijou, Cloth-of-Gold, 

 Crystal Palace Gem, Golden Fleece, the tricolors, and 

 bronzes, and ivies. 



Let me therefore advise that in the summer garden 

 foliage and flowering plants be intermixed, in circles, 

 diamonds, panels, a la pincushion, and in other 

 designs, so that the one may support the other, both 

 in prosperity and in adversity, both in wet weather 

 and in dry. 



When I have added to this, dig well, dung well, put 

 out plants few and good, rather than numerous and 

 scraggy, but such as will eventually quite cover your 

 beds, note down the defects of this year's arrangement, 

 that you may correct them hereafter, keep your ears 

 open when visitors come, and your eyes when you go 

 a- visiting, I have only to thank you for your kind 

 patience, and to resume my pipe. 



