CARPET BEDDING. 23 



A further modification in the round beds has 

 been introduced still more recently. It is the 

 bedding-out of zonal pelargoniums, of echeverias, 

 and of other plants, whose beauty lies in the 

 foliage rather than the blossom. No doubt 

 they give softer tints to the general effect, but 

 they are a poor substitute for the varied beauty 

 of an old garden. It may be difficult to find 

 interest in the ordinary " bedding-out stuff," 

 but they are poetry itself compared to plants 

 which chiefly remind one of the last days of the 

 garden of " the Sensitive Plant," when, instead 

 of all odorous flowers, there were only growths 



" Whose coarse leaves were splashed with many a speck 

 Like the water-snake's belly and the toad's back." 



And this latest fancy is itself falling into the 

 further degradation of carpet-biding. That a 

 carpet should imitate a flower-bed is one thing ; 

 years ago in Casa Guidi Windows, Mrs. Brown- 

 ing wrote of some carpets, where 



' ' your foot 

 Dips deep in velvet roses." 



