BEAU CAPER 



102 



BEDDING-OUT 



or being eaten off by slugs, &c. The early crops will do 

 best in a rather dry, warm situation, but for later sowings 

 any ordinary garden soil will suit them. Where soil is 

 not suitable or circumstances prevent sowing in the open 

 ground, seeds should be sown in frames or boxes under 

 cover in J anuary, and planted out as soon as weather 

 permits after the plants are large enough to handle. For 

 successional crops seeds may be sown according to con- 

 venience. When sown where they are to remain they 

 should be done in double rows, about four inches apart, 

 and three feet between each double row. For spring 

 sowing, the seed may be soaked in water for one day and 

 will germinate much quicker. The ground should be 

 regularly hoed to keep down weeds, and when a fair 

 crop is set, they may be topped. 



For Seed. The different sorts should be grown as far 

 from each other as possible, and to improve varieties a 

 selection of the best types should be made early, and 

 marked in some way. The first thing is to select those 

 that flower earliest, and no pods should be gathered. 

 Later, some may have to be discarded through imperfect 

 development of the pods, but careful selection from year 

 to year will much improve the stock ; while taking seed 

 indiscriminately will cause deterioration. 



The storing of seed is another important matter ; 

 after being properly ripened they may be kept in the 

 pods in a dry but not too warm position. Under good 

 conditions seeds will keep for a good many years, but 

 they are not reliable after the second year. 



The French Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) requires but 

 few remarks, except to say there are many hybrid 

 varieties ; they appear to have been crossed with the 

 Scarlet Runners (Phaseolus multiflorus). " Lima Bean " 

 is an American name for Phaseolus lunatus. 



All the above are very tender, and should not be sown 

 or planted until all danger of frost is over. It is hardly 

 necessary to give cultural instructions, except to say that 

 they do best in ground that has been manured and well 

 worked the previous autumn. The dwarf French beans 

 are extensively grown in pots under glass. They require 

 good loamy soil, and the chief thing is to give plenty of 

 light and air. Also to be careful in watering. 



Insects. See APHIS RUMICIS. 



BEAN CAPER. The common name for Zygophyllum. 



BEAN TREE. Swedish. Py'rus interme'dia. And of 

 Australia. Castanospe'rmum austra'le. 



BEAN TREFOIL. The common name for Anagyris, 

 and anciently given to Cytisus Laburnum. 



BEAR BANE. Aconi'tum Lyco'ctonum. Bearbind. 

 The common name for Calystegia. 



BEASTS' BANE. Aconi'tum Lyco'ctonum. 



BEATO'NIA. (Named by Dr. Herbert after D. Beaton, 

 a Scotch gardener ; one of the contributors to the Cottage 

 Gardener and to this Dictionary. Nat. ord. Irids [Irida- 

 ceae]. Linn. i6-Monadelphia, i-Triandria. Now re- 

 ferred to Tigridia.) 



Greenhouse perennial bulbs. Offsets and seeds ; the 

 latter to be sown in a slight hotbed, in March ; light, 

 rich soil. To be taken up before frost, or covered up 

 where they have grown, so as to preserve them both 

 from frost and wet. 



B. atra'ta (dark- flowered). See TIGRIDIA ATRATA. 

 ,, curva'ta(cmved-stalked). See T. CURVATA. 

 purpu'rea (purple- flowered) . See T. VIOLACEA. 



BEAUFO'RTIA. (Named after Mary, Duchess of 



Beaufort. Nat. ord. Myrtleblooms [Myrtacea?]. Linn. 

 1 8-Polyadelphia, z-Polyandria. ) 



Greenhouse evergreen shrubs. Cuttings of half- 

 ripened shoots, under a glass, in sandy loam, without 



heat ; loam and peat. Summer temp., moderate ; 

 winter, 38 to 48. 



B. carina'ta (keel-leaved). 3. Scarlet. N. Holland. 

 1823. 



,, Dampie'ri (Dampier's). 2. Pink. May. Hartog's 

 Island. 



,, decussa'ta (decussated). 3. Scarlet. May. N. 

 Holland. 1803. 



,. Ham)sfe'won(long-stamened). Purple. July. Aus- 

 tralia. 1843. 



B. purpu'rea (purple- flowered) . Purple. July. Aus- 

 tralia. 1841. 



spa'rsa (scattered-leaved). 3. Red. N. Holland. 

 1803. Syn. B. splendens. 



sple'ndens (shining). See B. SPARSA. 



BEAUMO'NTIA. (Named after Mrs. Beaumont, of 

 Bretton Hall. Nat. ord. Dogbanes [Apocynaceas]. Linn. 

 5-Pentandria, i-Monogynia.) 



One of our best stove twiners, with large, white 

 trumpet-shaped flowers, produced in clusters at the 

 end of the shoots. They succeed best planted out in the 

 borders of a house, intermediate between a stove and 

 a greenhouse. Cuttings of half-ripened wood ; rich, 

 lumpy loam and peat. Summer temp., 60 to 70 ; 

 winter, 50 to 60. 



B. grandiflo'ra (large-flowered). 20. White. June. 



E. Ind. 1818. 

 ,, longifo'lia (long-leaved). See B. GRANDIFLORA. 



BE'CIUM. (United to Ocimum.) 



BED is a comprehensive word, applicable to the de- 

 tached space on which any cultivated plants are grown. 

 It is most correctly confined to small divisions, purposely 

 restricted in breadth for the convenience of hand-weed- 

 ing, or other requisite culture, and, in the flower-garden, 

 for the promotion of beauty. This involves the question 

 of form, one of the most difficult that is submitted to the 

 gardener, because few tastes agree as to their estimate 

 of the beautiful. Under the head FLOWER-GARDEN we 

 shall give a few general observations upon this subject ; 

 and here will merely observe that, in making flower-beds, 

 they should always be proportioned to the size of the 

 plants which are to be their tenants ; and that though, 

 for large masses of shrubs and trees, we have seen rectan- 

 gular forms so planted as to look solid and grand, yet that 

 we believe no arrangement of dwarf-flowers would ever 

 make a separate square or parallelogram bed of them 

 otherwise than decidedly ugly. 



BEDDING-IN. This may be applied to the sowing of 

 seeds, but its more general application is to plants pro- 

 pagated from cuttings or layers, and bedded-in thickly 

 until space allows of them being planted in their quarters 

 where they will flower. The term may have a wide mean- 

 ing, but in modern practice it is not applied to the sowing 

 of seeds, except by quite the old school of gardeners ; 

 the term sowing beds being more applicable. 



BEDDING-OUT refers to the planting of various sub- 

 jects grown in pots during the winter and planted in the 

 open for summer flowering, or the plants may have been 

 grown in boxes or in frames until the time comes for 

 putting them in the beds. There are so many modern 

 weekly Horticultural publications published which refer 

 to garden work week by week, that it is not necessary 

 to give a list of plants suitable, except to say that 

 recently the best Begonias of the tuberous section may 

 be added, also the finest varieties of Fuchsias, which 

 formerly it was considered necessary to grow under 

 glass with shading over them in sunny weather, are now 

 found to do well in the open. Many other plants which 

 were kept shut up in the stove under shade have since 

 been found to do well in the open during the summer. 

 Even Pandanus Veitchi, Cocos weddelliana, and in 

 flowering plants Begonias, Fuchsias, &c., that were nursed 

 up under shade and heat are found to do better in the 

 open during the summer. Experiments were carried 

 on at the Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens years 

 ago, and it was proved that many plants from the 

 tropical regions would do well in the open during the 

 summer. Crotons, or rather Codiasums, may be men- 

 tioned ; they are not so extensively used for bedding in 

 England, but in America they are great favourites for the 

 summer garden and do well, and in England some enter- 

 prising florists have tried them, and they have done 

 well. Yet it would not do to take them direct from the 

 stove ; they must be gradually hardened off. The Salvias 

 of the splendens type are another example. They were 

 formerly nursed up under glass, but are now grown in 

 the open ; and with favourable treatment make a very 

 bright show during the summer and up to quite late in 

 the autumn. Plumbago capensis flowers well in the open, 

 also Streplosolen Jamesoni. It is not necessary to 

 enumerate ordinary bedding plants, as they are found in 

 almost every nurseryman's catalogue. 



