108 WOOD AND GARDEN 



small, grey foliage keeping close to the ground, and 

 rather large flowers of a low-toned pink. The white 

 Thyme is a capital plant, perfectly prostrate, and with 

 leaves of a bright yellow-green, that with the white 

 bloom give the plant a particularly fresh appearance. 

 It looks at its best when trailing about small flat spaces 

 between the neater of the hardy Ferns, and hanging 

 over little rocky ledges. Somewhat farther back is 

 the handsome dwarf Platycodon Mariesii, and behind it 

 the taller Platycodons, among full-flowered bushes of 

 Olearia Haastii. 



By the middle of August the garden assumes a 

 character distinctly autumnal. Much of its beauty 

 now depends on the many non-hardy plants, such 

 as Gladiolus, Canna, and Dahlia, on Tritomas of doubt- 

 ful hardiness, and on half-hardy annuals — Zinnia, 

 Helichrysum, Sunflower, and French and African 

 Marigold. Fine as are the newer forms of hybrid 

 Gladiolus, the older strain of gandavensis hybrids are 

 still the best as border flowers. In the large flower 

 border, tall, well-shaped spikes of a good pink one 

 look well shooting up through and between a wide- 

 spreading patch of glaucous foliage of the smaller 

 Yuccas, Tritoma caulescens, Iris pallida, and FunJcia 

 Sieholdi, while scarlet and salmon-coloured kinds are 

 among groups of Paeonies that flowered in June, whose 

 leaves are now taking a fine reddish colouring. 

 Between these and the edge of the border is a strag- 

 gling group some yards in length of the dark-foliaged 



