560 Geyieral Notices. 



In reading your valuable journal for the last few weeks, I have been very 

 much pleased with what has been written on bedding-out plants, — a sub- 

 ject, though simple, yet second to none ; for what can be more beautiful 

 than a well-arranged flower garden ? In your last week's journal there 

 was a good list o( blue flowers named, but very few yelloivs; I therefore 

 give you the names of a few yellows which I find to answer well as dwarf 

 yellows. The Sanvitalia procumbens, though an annual, is very hardy, 

 and if sown in March, will flower as long as any plant that is bedded out. 

 CEnothera maculata and viparia are very good ; maculata shows well at a 

 distance. Then as />mts the Oxalis floribunda and the pink geraniums are 

 surpassed by none ; and as a purple the double groundsel, if propagated 

 from cuttings, is a fine thing. As mention has been made of the standard 

 geraniums, I will proceed to give you a simple detail of them as grown at 

 Courteen Hall. We have in this place one hundred and twenty standards 

 from three to nine feet high, and many of them measure from two to three 

 inches round the stem, and have had this summer from fifteen to twenty 

 very large heads of flowers expanded at one time. The sorts we find best 

 are Smith's giant Scarlet — but we have many of all sorts. The fuchsias 

 we have arc, for the most part, Giobosa fulgens ; and Corymbiflora fulgens 

 makes a beautiful standard. We train the heads of Corymbiflora quite full ; 

 and I have had one plant so trained this summer with twenty-nine heads of 

 flowers. Fuchsia serratifolia makes a good standard trained in this way. 

 The Cassia corymbosa and Brugmansia lutea are very beautiful as yellow 

 standards. The Brugmansia we train flat ; and we have had one plant 

 this summer which had 107 expanded flowers at one time, and it is now 

 showing, I think, nearly as may. 



Much has been said, and much remains to be said, on bedding-out plants. 

 I can only bear testimony to what has come under my notice. Various are 

 the opinions of this and that plant ; and I think soil and situation are very 

 important. As regards the color of beds in flower-gardens, I have tried 

 several ; part of what I approve of I enumerate. I object to neither annual 

 nor any other plant, if I can g?t them to have the desired effect. Helio- 

 tropium peruvianum, with its varieties, ought not to be despised, though it 

 looks rather dingy, with somewhat the scent of a cherry-pie. 1 keep it 

 close pegged down ; and it does well with me. Lobelia erinus, compacta, 

 racemosa, for small beds or edgings round other beds, do very well. Ver- 

 bena venosa, though little thought of, I have grown for years. Generally 

 speaking, it does well under all circumstances ; I have had it to stand the 

 winter. Ageratum mexicanum, though not a very bright color, has a very 

 good effect. Plumbago capensis I have had both upright and pegged 

 down ; and it makes a very good bed. Lupinus pubescens does well at a 

 distance. The blue Anagallis, grown either in beds or trained down the 

 sides of a rustic vase, has an imposing appearance. Cineraria amelloides 

 does well with me ; and were it better known, it would be more appre- 

 ciated. Salvia patens and S. chamaedryfolia : I prefer the latter, as its 

 habit and foliage are better than patens. I have grown Comelina tuberosa 

 for years as a bedding-out plant ; and, though not of good habit, I think it 



