THE BOOK OF GARDENING. 



they clothe themselves in their gayest apparel. The ways in 

 which they may be utilised are as numerous as the plants 

 themselves. For beds and borders, the margins of streams, 

 the choice parts of the rock garden, the ' shrubbery border, and 

 the decoration of window-boxes, they are equally well adapted ; 

 and it needs but the exercise of a little taste for a maximum 

 of effect to be procured with a minimum of trouble. 



Again, there is a wonderful variety of form, colour, and habit ; 

 in fact, so diversified are these characteristics, that one is 

 astonished, when noting the effect of such plants as Yucca 

 gloriosa or Y. filamentosa in a bed, that they are allies, and 

 close allies, of the Lilies of our summer gardens. The botanist, 

 of course, knows that they are, but the average gardener cannot 

 see how two such dissimilar-looking plants, taken at a cursory 

 glance, are brought together by any system of classification. 



Compared with even a very few years ago, these sections of 

 hardy plants have increased at a rate that even the most enthu- 

 siastic gardener could scarcely have hoped. Not only are our 

 collections altogether richer in species and varieties, but to-day 

 there flourish in our midst plants whose hardiness would have 

 been considered doubtful, to say the least. As evidence of this 

 we have but to point to the bold-looking Eremuruses, the inde- 

 scribably beautiful Calochorti and Brodiseas, all of which at 

 one time were thought to need the shelter of a house. A better 

 acquaintance with their requirements has placed the cultivator 

 of to-day in a position to grow them without any artificial aids, 

 and our gardens are accordingly the richer by their presence. 



Cultivation. — Though soil and situation are important factors 

 in the successful cultivation of bulbs and tubers, yet so widely 

 different is the geographical distribution of the individuals com- 

 prising the groups that it is impossible to lay down hard and 

 fast rules in respect of them. What, for instance, would suit 

 one bulb would be absolutely fatal to the chances of another, 

 and the peculiarities of each member of a family have frequently 

 to be dealt with. The absurdity, therefore, of attempting to 

 generalise will be at once apparent. To prove the truth of 

 such an assertion one has but to take say the Lilies, which are 

 by far the most popular of any plants to be found in either 

 section. Lr a state of nature it is possible to find one species 

 inhabiting a swamp ; another in a comparatively dry place ; 

 and yet a third taking an intermediate position, and revelling 

 maybe in a peaty soil. And so it is with all the larger and 



