BORDER PLANTS 53 



hibiting circle. While these two classes stand firm the 

 flower will only decline slowly. Meanwhile, so far as the 

 flower-garden is concerned, interest centres in the develop- 

 ment of the Paeony-flowered type, for it is in this that 

 the greatest possibilities of garden beauty lie. It is a 

 significant sign that some of the most enterprising raisers 

 are giving it the attention which they once devoted to 

 the Cactus Dahlia. New colours are forthcoming, and 

 the demand for them suggests that the Pseony Dahlia is 

 about to enter on a period of popularity, without actually 

 creating the stir that the Cactus aroused a few years 

 previously. Varieties equal to Lady Saville, orange ; 

 Mrs. T. G. Baker, white ; Solfatara, scarlet ; Loveliness, 

 pink ; Garibaldi, maroon ; Lady Allison, pale pink ; 

 Mrs. E. J. Wythes, cardinal ; Rev. Hugh Berners, 

 bronzy yellow ; and King Leopold, crimson, are sure of 

 a welcome. The Cactus varieties have probably reached 

 the end of their tether ; the novelties do not differ much 

 from the older forms, either in shape or colour. The 

 singles are also practically standard. I do not look for 

 much from the Star Dahlias, which are singles with gappy 

 florets, nor from the Collarette section, which are singles 

 with a collar of short florets in the middle ; there is no 

 element of greatness about either. 



DELPHINIUMS. The stately perennial Larkspur, with 

 its lofty spires of blue, has taken a place among the in- 

 dispensable border plants. There is nothing to fill its 

 place, and to give us those beautiful shades of light and 

 dark blue which it embraces. A few years ago it seemed 

 that a point had been reached at which further improve- 

 ment could not go, but that great floricultural wizard 

 Lemoine, of Nancy, who was for many years one of 

 the most conspicuous figures among raisers of new plants, 



