BEDDING PLANTS. 227 



business of the gardeners not only to water and cultivate 

 the bedding plants, but also to prune them with intelligence 

 and art. It is usually the practice to pinch back coleuses 

 and other plants in ordei- to make them look even and thick, 

 simply a broad, flat mass, but in this way all due emphasis 

 of parts is lost. 



In fact no pinching whatever should be practised ex- 

 cept here and there where a single plant gro\vs awkwardly, 

 or where too even a surface appears. In some cases, even, 

 as in Union Square, the acalyphas have been trained for a 

 time on sticks to secure the strongest contrast possible be- 

 tween the tree effect of the acalypha ajid the grass effect of 

 the alternanthei-a. Pi'uning plants of all kinds, it should 

 be remembered, means in its proper acceptation the 

 development of natural and characteristic beauties. It 

 means perfecting the special individuality of the plant. 

 Judging from the style of pruning we often see, the object 

 of the art might l)e readily supposed to mean obliterating 

 as far as possible all individuality. 



Having thus defined and illusti-ated briefly the main 

 principles that should appl\' to the construction of a color 

 or foliage bed, it would seem pi'oper to consider some of 

 the leading plants suitable for work of this kind. Taking 

 them in the order of their employment, from the lowest to 

 the highest, we have among the grass type the alternan- 

 theras. They do not grow ordinarily over five or six inches 

 high, and ha\'e close-set leaves not unlike those of grass. 

 Their marked peculiarity is found in their coloring. Each 

 leaf is variegated in irregular fashion with green and red 

 or green and yellow, the foundation color being green. The 



