SUB-TROPICAL GARDENING. 



By C. M. HovEY, Ex-President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



The "sub-tropical " style of gardening, so called from the use of plants 

 mostly from tropical climates, is undoubtedly familiar to most of the read- 

 ers of the Journal. First attempted in the parks, the boulevards, and 

 public grounds, in Paris, where the grand effect produced attracted the 

 admiration of all who witnessed them, and subsequently introduced into 

 the Battersea Garden in London, all readers of foreign gardening journals 

 or of " Hovey's Magazine " are more or less acquainted with what " sub- 

 tropical gardening" is, and the rich ornamentation produced when carried 

 out with good taste, and the free use of plants especially fitted for the 

 object. 



The mixed style of planting generally adopted years ago gave way in 

 part to the bedding system, and that again to ribbon gardening ; but 

 in each and all of these styles, which have their merits, the plants were 

 annuals, perennials, or the ordinary so-called bedding-plants, — plants 

 which flourished well turned out into the garden in summer, flov/ering at 

 once, and so profusely as to keep up a display the whole season. Sub- 



VOL. V. 25 193 



