OCTOBER 127 



varieties of Mdalia japonica, the fresh green foliage of 

 Indian Corn, and the brUliant light-green leafage of 

 Funkia grandiflora. Great attention is paid to staking 

 the Asters. Nothing is more deplorable than to see 

 a neglected, overgrown plant, at the last moment, when 

 already half blown down, tied up in a tight bunch to 

 one stake. When we are cutting underwood in the 

 copse in tlie winter, special branching spray is looked 

 out for our Michaelmas Daisies and cut about four feet 

 or five feet long, with one main stem and from two to 

 five branches. Towards the end of June and begin- 

 ning of July these are thrust firmly into the ground 

 among the plants, and the young growths are tied out 

 so as to show to the best advantage. Good kinds of 

 Michaelmas Daisies are now so numerous that in select- 

 ing those for the special garden it is well to avoid both 

 the ones that bloom earliest and also the very latest, 

 so that for about three weeks the borders may show a 

 well-filled mass of bloom. 



The bracken in the copse stands dry and dead, but 

 when leaves are fluttering down and the chiUy days of 

 mid-October are upon us, its warm, rusty colouring is 

 certainly cheering ; the green of the freshly grown mossy 

 carpet below looks vividly bright by contrast. Some 

 bushes of Spindle-tree {Euonymv^ europceus) are loaded 

 with their rosy seed-pods ; some are already burst, and 

 show the orange-scarlet seeds — an audacity of colouring 

 that looks all the brighter for the even, lustreless green 

 of the leaves and of the green-barked twigs and stems, 



