BORDER FLOWERS. 



31 



BOTANIC GARDEN. 



is to contain five hundred plants. 

 He first collects five hundred kinds of 

 as many colours as he can, and out 

 of these he selects those of one colour, 

 say blue, and distributes thern equally 

 over the border, guessing at the height 

 the plants may attain, and placing 

 them in the front, back or middle ac- 

 cordingly. He does the same with 

 all the other colours, and next sum- 

 mer, when the plants are in flower, he 

 shifts them about ; taking them up 

 with balls, so as to avoid having two 

 of the same colour coming into blossom 

 in the same month near together. A 

 tolerably good effect may be produced 

 in this manner by a careful, active, 

 and intelligent gardener ; but it will 

 require incessant attentionand labour ; 

 and after all the result will be very infe- 

 rior to what it would have been had the 

 subject been regularly studied, and a 

 plan of the border made for every 

 floral month, say from April to No- 

 vember inclusive, a circle representing 

 each flower and being coloured ac- 

 cordingly. There are very few 

 borders in England that have been 

 planted with this degree of care, be- 

 cause the prevailing fault of the em- 

 ployers of British gardeners is, a desire 

 for quantity as indicating power, rather 

 than of quality as indicating taste. 

 The amateur who has a small garden, 

 and is anxious to make the most of it, 

 may, if he will take the trouble to 

 select the very finest flowers, and to 

 arrange them according to their sizes, 

 colours, and time of flowering, pro- 

 duce an effect which he wilj not see 

 in the garden of any professed gar- 

 dener that we know of. 



Border Flowers. — Herbaceous 

 plants of hardy constitution ; showy in 

 appearance, and of easy culture, and 

 therefore well adapted for ornamenting 

 the borders which accompany walks 

 in gardens. These are classed as per- 

 ennials with fibrous roots, perennials 

 with bulbous or tuberous roots, bien- 



nials, and hardy annuals. Among the 

 the fibrous rooted perennials are some, 

 such as certain species of saxifrage, 

 pinks, carnations, &c, which are ever- 

 green, and these are most desirable 

 plants for the borders of winter gar- 

 dens. There are also evergreen bi- 

 ennials, such as wall-flowers, stock 

 gilliflowers, &c. 



Boronia. — Rutacece. — Evergreen 

 New Holland shrubs, which flower 

 during the greater part of the sum- 

 mer, and which are all very orna- 

 mental. B. serrulata is a most 

 desirable species, forming a neat com- 

 pact plant for a room, or greenhouse, 

 and requiring plenty of light and air, 

 but very little heat. It, and all the 

 other species, will grow freely in 

 sandy peat, well drained, and they 

 may be propagated by layers or cut- 

 tings of the young wood in sand, un- 

 der a bell-glass, taking care to wipe 

 the glass frequently, so as to keep the 

 cuttings free from damp. 



Bossi;ea. — Leguminosce. — Ever- 

 green New Holland shrubs, which all 

 thrive in a mixture of turfy loam, 

 peat, and sand, well drained, and 

 which may be propagated by cuttings 

 of the young wood. 



Botanic Garden. — A garden de- 

 voted to the culture of plants with a 

 view to botanical science ; and in 

 which the plants are arranged accord- 

 ing to some system, only one of a 

 kind is planted, and a name appended 

 to each. The most convenient mode 

 for study is to place the plants in 

 straight rows of narrow beds, one row 

 in a bed, with a narrow path between ; 

 but the best mode for effect is to 

 place them in groups of one order, 

 tribe, or genus in a group. These 

 groups have the best effect when of a 

 circular form, and when placed on a 

 lawn. The position of the groups 

 relatively to each other should be 

 such as to correspond with the bota- 

 nical system followed. 



