ISOLATION OF HARDY PLANTS. 15 



margin. These would in most cases come up and flower ere the 

 foliage plants were vigorous. Where they do not do so early, as in 

 the case of the Gladioli, the result is none the less beautiful, 

 inasmuch as the effect in autumn of these magnificently coloured 

 flowers among the rich and elegant foliage will prove simply superb. 

 Arrangements like these might be multiplied without end, wher- 

 ever there is a stock of plants and a little taste. In forming 

 combinations of this kind, and particularly in those in which no 

 repetition or formal grouping is attempted, instead of having a 

 formal margin to the bed or groups, it would be better to allow the 

 turf to flow over, so to speak, and conceal it, and then carpet over the 

 surface of the bed with the Lawn Pearlwort, a dwarf green 

 Saxifrage, a Sedum, or some other dwarf carpeting plant. This 

 brings us to an equally beautiful and very desiraole way of arrang- 

 ing the nobler perennials. 



CHAPTER IV. 



ISOLATION OF HARDY PLANTS. 



ONE of the most useful and natural ways of diversifying a garden, 

 and one as yet almost unknown to our gardeners, consists in placing 

 really distinct and handsome plants alone upon the grass, to break 

 the monotony of clump margins and of everything else. To follow 

 this plan is necessary wherever great variety and the highest beauty 

 are desired in the ornamental garden, and among the very best 

 materials for it are many of the finer perennials. Nothing, for 

 instance, can look better than a well-developed tuft of the broad- 

 leaved Acanthus latifolius, springing from the turf not far from the 

 margin of the walk through a pleasure-ground ; and the same is 

 true of the Yuccas, Tritomas, and other things of like character and 

 hardiness. We may make attractive groups 'of one family, as the 

 hardiest Yuccas ; or splendid groups of one species like the Pampas 

 grass not by any means repeating the individual, for there are 

 about twenty varieties of this plant known on the Continent, and 

 from these half a dozen really distinct and charming kinds might be 

 selected to form a group. The same applies to the Tritomas, which 

 we usually manage to drill into straight lines, but which, in an isolated 

 group in a verdant glade, are seen for the first time to best advantage. 



