320 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. BOOK ft 



2. Tender herbaceous plants. To these nearly the same re- 

 marks apply. They are better deserving of culture than the 

 other, because less monstrous. Pinks, carnations, auriculas, 

 and polyanthuses, are singularly fine flowers in the eyes even 

 of the botanist. 



3. Common herbaceous plants are easily propagated and cul» 

 tivated. They will grow in most soils, and are so various in 

 magnitude, form, mode of growth, time of flowering, colour of 

 the flower, &c. as to suit themselves to every situation which 

 can occur in those parts of a place devoted to ornamental gar- 

 dening. With respect to magnitude, some grow very large, as 

 the solidago*, rhubarb, &c; others very small, as the common 

 thyme, daisy, &c. There is every variation between these two 

 extremes, as in the primula, diantkus, ckeriant litis, Valeriana, vicia, 

 Sec. There are frequently all the varieties of magnitude in one 

 genus, as in aster, cardus, &c; often most species of a genus are 

 very large, as the rudbechia; and frequently they are very 

 small, as the bellis and the hep at ica. With respect to form, some 

 plants, when disengaged from others, assume a regular conical 

 shape, as the common larkspur; others an inverted cone, as 

 most asters, and plants bearing their flowers in a corymbus. 



* It is unnecessary to mention the particular species of those to which these cha- 

 racteristic distinctions are applied, as they will occur at once to every person in the 

 least acquainted with plants. 



