74 Notes on Flower Garden Plants, 



dered with an edging of scarlet verbenas, has a fine effect. 

 So also has a bed planted thinly towards the centre with the 

 blue >S'alvia patens, filling through and around them with 

 Gaillardm picta, belting the whole with a white verbena. We 

 once saw a bed composed of salvias, which struck us as very 

 fine. First the blue, then the white (>S'alvia patens alba), 

 then the scarlet, not distinctly demarcated, but the one color 

 gradually blending into the other. Very beautiful variegated 

 beds of this kind can be formed with different colored petu- 

 nias or verbenas, although they are of rather dwarf habit to 

 give sufficient effect by themselves in a large bed. A suitable 

 centre may be had by planting heliotrope or the oak-leaved 

 geranium, allowing the smaller but more profuse flowering 

 plants to ramble over them. If surrounded by grass, the 

 darker colored flower should be placed in the centre of the 

 bed, choosing those of a lighter tint, such as orange or white, 

 next the grass. If gravel forms the boundary, these positions 

 of color may be reversed, gravel being generally of a light 

 color. 



Long linear beds, partly filled with herbaceous plants, 

 decorated with annuals and other tender flowers during 

 summer, often occur in giardens, and when the former are 

 arranged with regularity, these borders can be rendered very 

 showy and interesting. The best arrangement of this kind 

 that we have seen was nearly as follows : At the back was 

 a row of hollyhocks ; alternating with these, and about 

 eighteen inches in advance, was a row of dahlias, with plants 

 of columbine, Lysimachia verticillata, delphiniums, phlox, 

 chrysanthemums, &c., between them; next came a line of 

 blue salvias and double white feverfew ; then came balsams, 

 coxcombs, eschscholtzia, asters, dianthus, and other dwarf 

 herbaceous plants. Nearer the walk came petunias, verbenas, 

 snowdrops, cowslips, grape hyacinths, &c., finished with a 

 white streak of Nierembergm filicaulis. The whole, when 

 seen from a distance, was superb, and a closer examination 

 did not lessen its effect. To perfect an arrangement of this 

 kind requires skill and experience to place the colors in effect- 

 ive relations. It is true that a beautiful flower will still retain 



