260 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



hibitors'Carnation,with flattened petals 

 and laced edges,givingus a pretty bloom 

 when seen close at hand, but without 

 effect in the open air. Nothing else we 

 know gives such glow and colour to the 

 garden as self-coloured Carnations. 

 Here there is happily no trouble as re- 

 gards grafting, but in some districts these 

 plants are difficult to keep in health 

 through the winter, and many gardens 

 have no proper stock of them. Where 

 this difficulty is found it is wise to grow 

 a good batch of Carnations every year 

 from seed. If the seed is well chosen the 

 result will be valuable; the plant is na- 

 turally biennial, and from seedlings we 

 get a strong plant. Even where the re- 

 sult is poor as regards double flowers 

 and the flowers are almost those of the 

 " wild plant," the effect of the colour 

 will be good. Tree Carnations also, 

 grown in pots and put out in May, give 

 excellent results in vases or beds, and 

 with me enjoy the sun. The tallerPhloxes 

 are splendid summer flowers, but to suc- 

 ceed in warmer and drier counties must 

 be in moist ground, which is not always 

 at hand in our prim parterres. The high- 

 ly coloured varieties are essential. The 

 Sweet Pea with its varied colour is now 

 precious for the summer garden. It en- 

 dures heat to any degree and flowers a 

 long time if the seeds are cut off. Quite 

 regardless of the heat are the Everlasting 

 Peas, and some are good in colour, too. 

 The noblest of the perennials, the Del- 

 phinium, if grown in a northern aspect 

 or with a little shade, often flowers 

 throughout the heat of the summer. 

 Among the simple effective things re- 

 gardless of heat are the blueCornflowers, 



the Lavenders, and Lavender Cottons. 

 On warm beds and banks the best Rock 

 Roses ( C istus) are pretty and endure any 

 heat of our land; these, however, should 

 be grouped and not dotted about. 



When we come to the waterside, 

 there are the noble Water Lilies, which 

 are now well known though very rarely 

 grown effectively, rats and waterfowl 

 being allowed to almost reduce the 

 bloom to nothing. By the waterside 

 there is nothing finer than the Loose- 

 strifes, which are so easily grown. As 

 undergrowths and carpets the varied 

 dwarf Hairbells are good in colour and 

 habit, and with them are the tufted 

 Pansies, lovely in colour, and though 

 they give way in very dry soils during 

 long continued heat, where there is the 

 least shade they will flower into August 

 even in the southern counties. The 

 stencilled way of laying out a flower- 

 garden quite flat is dead against them, 

 because it deprives them of shade and 

 ourselves, too, of the play of light and 

 shade. There is no chance in the set 

 flower-gardenforadelicateplant,shrub, 

 or tree, and none of the varied life of 

 the old flower-garden, but where there 

 is a little variety of surface we can easily 

 give some shade to plants that want it, 

 and so prolong their time of bloom. A 

 young dog chasing a rook has some fun 

 though he never gets his quarry, but the 

 attempt to make a flower-garden con- 

 form to any stencilled pattern or flat sur- 

 face is as vain a chase, while in no way 

 amusing. We shall never get the garden 

 beautiful in that way, and if there were 

 a thousand Kews and Crystal Palaces, 

 or Chatsworths, to illustrate the evil 



