PLAKTIKG OF LAW^S AND FLOWER-BEDS. 33 



It will be understood that these lists of plants can be 

 transposed in any way necessary to suit beds of all 

 widths, keeping in view that where small beds are placed 

 near walks the lower growing kinds are most suitable, 

 while for beds at greater distances from walks, or 

 other points of view, the taller growing kinds must 

 be used. Very fine effects are produced by plant- 

 ing on a lawn a single specimen of stately habit, such 

 as some varieties of the Eicinus, or Castor-oil Bean, 

 which grow ten and twelve feet in hight in one season, 

 and are particularly striking plants. Or instead of this, 

 a mass of six, eight, or twelve plants of scarlet sage will 

 form a group six feet high by as many in diameter, and its 

 dazzling scarlet color, contrasting against the green of 

 the lawn, is superb. Many of the Amaranths are also 

 well suited for planting in single groups. Amarantus 

 tricolor gigantea, (Joseph's coat), grows to the hight of 

 six feet, and its leaves in the late summer and fall 

 months exceed in brilliancy of color anything we know 

 of in foliage ; scarlet, crimson, and golden yellow pre- 

 dominating. Another, the Amarantus bicolor ruber, 

 grows to the hight of five feet, and is plumed with scar- 

 let crimson. In contrast to these, plants of a more 

 somber tint may be used, in individual specimens or in 

 a group of such as Pampas Grass, (Gynerium argenteum), 

 or the Eavenna Grass, (Eriantlius Ravennm), each of these 

 attain a hight from six to ten feet, and have a graceful ap- 

 pearance. The Tanyah, Oalaclium esctdentum, a tropical 

 looking plant growing three or four feet in hight, and 

 producing leaves sometimes eighteen inches across. 



THE CARPET STYLE OF FLOWER-BEDS. 



Planting, as practised at Battersea and other parks in 

 London, is as yet but little seen with us ; our public 

 parks here have shown a lamentable want of taste in this 



