228 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



room under glass for many large plants. Of plants raised from 

 seed the most useful are Cannas, which may be taken up and 

 wintered under glass, or securely protected in the soil. Most of the 

 tall light green-foliaged varieties flower freely and make excellent 

 centres for groups, while the dwarf bronze-foliaged sorts are e good for 

 vases. Solanums have also been effective in the south. The spiny- 

 leaved S. robustum, the elegant cut-leaved S. laciniatum, and S. 

 Warscewiczi make good single specimens, or edgings to groups of 

 taller plants. Wigandias, Ferdinanda eminens, and Melianthus 

 major are all useful ; and Acacia lophantha, Amaranthus, Cineraria 

 maritima. Bocconias, with their tall spikes of graceful flowers and 

 noble foliage, are very effective and permanent plants and several 

 varieties of Rhus or Sumach have good foliage, Rhus glabra laciniata 

 among them. 



As to arrangement, the best beds or sets of beds are those of the 

 simplest design. Shelter is a great aid, and recesses in shrubberies 

 or in banks clothed with foliage form the most fitting background 

 for beds or groups to nestle in. Avoid Musas or Caladiums, the 

 leaves of which tear to shreds if winds cannot be shut out, and 

 also plants that look unhappy after a cold night or two. Make the 

 most of plants that grow under nearly all conditions, and use any 

 dell overhung by trees for half hardy fine-leaved plants. A garden 

 where each plant spreads forth its delicate foliage will form a pleasant 

 change from brilliant bedding plants, or severely geometric carpet 

 beds. J. G. 



Better effects may be obtained from hardy plants only than from 

 tender ones. There are the Yuccas, hardy, and unsurpassed by 

 anything of like habit grown in a hothouse ; the Arundos, con- 

 spicua and donax ; fine hardy plants like Crambe cordifolia, Rheum 

 in variety, Ferula and umbelliferous plants, as graceful as tenderest 

 exotics. Then we have a hardy Palm that through all our recent 

 hard winters has preserved its health and greenness wherever its 

 leaves could not be torn to shreds by storms. 



As an example of fine form from hardy plants, I cannot do 

 better than give the New Zealand Reed ( Arundo conspicua). This 

 handsome Grass produces its blossom-spikes earlier than the Pampas, 

 and is more elegant in habit, the silky white tufts bending like 

 ostrich plumes at the end of slender stalks. It is best adapted to 

 a sheltered corner, where it is protected from rough winds, and does 

 admirably in the cold and warmer districts, but, like the Pampas 

 Grass, not very hardy in cool and inland districts. 



As to tender plants in the open air, it would be difficult to give 

 a better illustration than the stately Musa Ensete in Berkshire. 

 In sheltered nooks in the southern counties this plant makes a 

 very fair growth in the summer. In 1877 I was struck with its 



