18 HARDY FLOWERS. 



for them. And what a luxury will it not prove to have one's best 

 bedding plants so arranged during winter that a thought need not 

 be bestowed upon them after being planted in their nursery. Of 

 course such plants as the variegated Arabises, the beautiful Pole- 

 monium cseruleum variegatum, Dactylis glomerata variegata, the 

 silvery Saxifragas, Gnaphaliums, and Cerastiums, the new Poa, the 

 variegated Daisies, the dwarf Antennaria tomentosa, and the several 

 kinds of Pansies, are among the best bedding plants in existence. By 

 making free use of what hardy bedding materials we are alreadv 

 acquainted with, the judicious gardener may save himself mucn 

 trouble. By the way, the Cliveden Pansies, so famous for the 

 spring garden, will be found equally useful for the summer season, 

 ir propagated in autumn, and planted out in spring. The blue, 

 for instance,, will be found quite as good as Viola cornuta, and the 

 other colours are equally valuable in their way. It is very likely 

 the blue one would prove even better than cornuta during a dry 

 season in ordinary soils. Of course there are hardy flower-garden 

 plants that will not bear the annual removal that I advise for the 

 free- growing and flowering kinds the Tritomas, for instance, and 

 some of those above enumerated when a particular end is desired ; 

 and the flowering kinds will require the change much more 

 frequently than those grown for the beauty of their leaves. Others, 

 again, will prove best during the second year of their blooming, and 

 oi these I may mention two of the finest plants in existence for 

 autumal gardening the fine white variety of Anemone japonica, 

 and Rudbeckia Newmanni. These furnish a long-continued bloom, 

 and on rich soils are truly fine for positions that require rather tall- 

 growing subjects. 



The hardy succulent alpine plants are capable of affording beau- 

 tiful and distinct effects in the flower-garden from their neat foliage 

 and habit alone, and the introduction of them is one of the most 

 rapidly growing improvements now taking place in our flower- 

 gardens. A few years ago they could only be found in very few 

 gardens ; now they may be seen in abundance in Battersea Park, 

 and many other places about London where flower- gardening is well 

 carried out ; and, a demand having arisen for them, they may be 

 seen in great variety in some of our London nurseries. The term 

 " succulent " may not be familiar to every reader. It is applied to 

 plants with stems or leaves of a very fat and juicy texture, and in 

 which soft cellular tissue greatly predominates. Usually in botanic 



