497 



BOOK IV. 



LISTS OF ORNAMENTAL PLANTS SUITABLE TO VILLA GARDENS, 

 WITH THEIR CULTURE, 



548. The plants grown in the open air in villa gardens may be divided into 

 the ligneous, including the trees and shrubs ; and the herbaceous, in chiding 

 the annuals, the biennials and perennials, and the bulbs and tubers. The 

 herbaceous plants being those most generally cultivated in villa gardens, we 

 shall give them most in detail, referring to the lists of ornamental trees and 

 shrubs already given in many of the preceding pages of this work, but more 

 particularly in pages 68, 99, 100, 101, 147, 148, 262, 26-'5, 291 to 293, 

 330 to 338 ; and from these lists selections may easily be made. The culture 

 of trees and shrubs will be found by reference to the Index, in various places 

 throughout the work. 



SECTION I. 



HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 



549. The term " herbaceous plants," is genei-ally applied by gardeners only 

 to perennials ; but, in fact, it belongs to all plants the stems of which are not 

 woody, but are composed principally of what is called cellular tissue. Plants 

 of this kind are subdivided into those with fibrous roots, and those with 

 bulbous or tuberous roots ; though the latter are, properly speaking, under- 

 ground stems, with fibrous roots attached. The fibrous-rooted plants are 

 again divided into annuals, biennials, and perennials ; and under these heads 

 we shall consider them. 



SuBSECT. I. — Ornamental Annuals. 



550. Annual plants are, properly speaking, plants which only live one 

 year ; but gardeners generally include under the term all that flower the same 

 year that they are sown. Many of the plants of warm climates will do this 

 in England, and die in winter, being killed by the first frost, which will live 

 many years in their native climes, or even when the)' have the protection of 

 a green-house in England. Thus, for example, the common mignonette, 

 which is always considered as an annual in England, is a shrub in its native 

 country, Barbary ; and it may be trained into the appearance of a small tree in 

 this country, by keeping it in a green-house and pinching off the lower side 

 shoots as they appear. Bei^ides the common annuals, which are sown in 

 April or May, there are what are called the Californian annuals, which are 

 sown in autumn, as soon as the seeds are ripe, and which flower in very early 

 spring. There are also the half hardy annuals, which are sown in a frame on 

 a hotbed ; and there are tender annuals, which are raised on a hotbed, and 

 flowered in the green-house or the stove. 



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