THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



461 



the most striking individuals should be 

 selected before the plants are put out. 

 Used sparingly, its effect is often perhaps 

 more telling than if in quantity, but it 

 is a mistake to use this or any such 

 vegetables in the flower-garden. Other 

 varieties of the common Beet are used in 



the tall and graceful Birches of more tem- 

 perate lands take a bushy form, and there 

 are also arctic and northern species which 

 are small and give us little effect or in- 

 terest except for botanic gardens. The 

 Birches, generally, are easy to grow, and 

 should be raised from seed, in which way 



Weeping Birch. 



the flower-garden for the sake of their 

 dark colours, but no artistic flower- 

 gardening is possible where such vege- 

 tables out of place are used. 



BETULA (Birch}. Trees of cold and 

 arctic regions, often forming vast forests. 

 Sometimes, in the extreme north, even 



they come very easily, excepting what are 

 called the garden or nursery varieties. 

 These are grafted, and might be propa- 

 gated by layers, if anybody would take 

 the trouble, and in this way might be 

 longer lived and useful in some ways. 

 Owing to the beauty of our native species 



