262 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



" At the Arboretum is a bed of Compositse, containing seventy- 

 nine species and varieties of Aster, Solidago, Helianthus, Rud- 

 beckia, Pyretlirum, Silphium, Echinacea and others. The mass- 

 ing together of these species of plants makes a display at a time of 

 the year when most other bedding plants are on the wane, and they 

 continue well into the fall after the more tender plants have been 

 destroyed by frost. This kind of bedding should receive more 

 attention, especially on large estates, where many nooks and 

 corners often unsightly could be made things of beauty. In many 

 instances people of wealth go to the sea-side or other summer 

 resorts as soon as the spring flowers are over, and do not return 

 until September or later, when the beauty of the garden is past ; 

 now by a judicious planting of these late autumn flowering Com- 

 positse, the autumn garden would be as brilliant as the spring gar- 

 den, if not more so. Thus by a judicious arrangement of all the 

 spring and autumn blooming plants, each end of the season could 

 be made to vie with the other, and the place would not have the 

 desolate appearance that many gardens present after the first frosts. 

 The cultivation of this class of plants is simple ; the main requi- 

 sites being a good deep well prepared soil, clean culture, securing 

 the taller species by stout stakes to keep them from being broken 

 by the fall gales, and the taking up, dividing, and resetting of the 

 plants every two or three years. Indeed this last operation is 

 necessary with most herbaceous plants when fine blooms are 

 wanted. When they remain too long without change, they are 

 apt to crowd each other, and the flowers are smaller and do not 

 last as well as where the beds are made over and the plants 

 divided and reset every two or three years. 



The following are some of the species in the bed at the Aboretum ; 



Helianthus rigidics, Boltonia glastifolia, 

 " grosse-serratus, " asteroides., 



" heterophyllus ^ Pyrethrum uUginosum, 



" doronicoides, Silphiuvi perfoliatum, 



*•' tuberosus, " laciniatum, 



" mollis, " trifoliatum, 



" Maximiliani, " terebinthinaceum, 



" strumosus, R%Ldbeckia subtomentosa, 



" decapetalus, " maxima, 



Actinomeris squarrosa, " laciniata. 



