74 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



to be, but lie did not advise giving thera up altogetlier. An 

 essa3'ist could say something in their favor. 



John G. Barker said that his S3mpathies were in a large measure 

 with the essayist. The speaker, as years roll on, is more and more 

 impressed with the importance of cultivating herbaceous plants. 

 Though we cannot discard bedding plants entireh', we should use 

 them with discretion. In extending the grounds of the cemetery 

 at Lynn, of which be is superintendent, he makes a special point of 

 hard}^ trees and shrubs, and has lately planted two beds on lots 

 owned by private parties. 



He uses tender plants to fill vases, but thought we might find 

 substitutes, and believes tliat we can in future create a taste for 

 hard}' plants in grounds of small extent. There are places in his 

 own city where the owners, after spending from thirty to a hun- 

 dred dollars a year for three or four years, for bedding plants, 

 have become discouraged, and given up cultivating flowers alto- 

 gether, and laid tlie ground down to grass. If the same amount 

 of money had been paid for hardy herbaceous plants, the result 

 would have been far more satisfactory. The speaker is fond of 

 natural eflfects, which may often be produced at small cost, as in 

 the cemetery at L^'un, where Clematis Jackmanni and Virginia 

 Creepers were planted at the foot of a rough stone wall, which they 

 have covered, and have cost no more trouble than weeding and 

 cutting oflT the ends of the shoots. The effect is fine, and the 

 expense was small. 



He has a large bed covering the basement of his cottage, the 

 background being composed of such shrubs as Hydrangea panicu- 

 lata (the type, which is more erect fn growth than the variety 

 grandiflora) ^ the larger Deutzias and Spiraeas, Paul's Scarlet 

 Thorn, Delphiniums, etc., and, in front of these. Phloxes, different 

 varieties of Irises, Aquilegia cceridea, Spircea palmata, Lilmm 

 umbellatum, and the Japan lilies ; with Castor-oil plants, Eulalia 

 Japonica, and Canuas where some of the shrubs died out, which 

 give it a sub-tropical effect. Still furtlier in front are the lower 

 kinds of herbaceous plants, and the whole are arranged without 

 formal lines. He had a visit from the late K. R. Mudge, who 

 admired the bed, and wanted one like it, though he had great 

 quantities of Coleus and Achj-ranthes in long lines of ribbon 

 gardening. From such a bed as the speaker had described he 

 could cut flowers freel}' and have plenty left. He had some rocks 

 lying naturally, where he cleared out the soil in front and carted 



