74 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



abundance of them in both pansies and violas. The best white 

 of the latter section are, doubtless, Countess of Hopetoun and 

 Snowflake ; but the best early white pansy I have seen is 

 Messrs. Sutton it Sons' seedling strain of Giant White, which 

 gives from established plants very early in the spring big clumps 

 of pure white flowers. The finest of the strain propagated by 

 cuttings soon furnish wonderfully effective bedding material. 

 If purples or yellows be desired they can be secured in quantity 

 in the same cheap way. As to violas, those who have seen the 

 stock plants left out in beds all the winter in Messrs. Cannell & 

 Sons' grounds at Eynsford, when in bloom in April, can better 

 estimate the exceeding value of these hardy plants for spring 

 beddings, than where no such experience has been obtained. 



It is not possible in any reference to spring gardening to over- 

 look tbe merits of the Giant White double daisy and of its rich 

 coloured compeer, King of Crimsons. These two are un- 

 doubtedly the best, and, planted up thickly in clumps of several 

 plants, are very pleasing. But how many of these hardy early 

 blooming plants there are that may be utilised. The perennial 

 candy-tufts, of which there are several, especially correaofolia and 

 Garrexiana ; the beautiful golden and orange globe flowers, 

 Trollius; the too seldom seen double white tuberous saxifrage, the 

 rich scarlet-flowered Anemone fulgens, the charming blue forms 

 appenina and blanda, the double white form of nemorosa, so 

 effective in clumps ; or, not least, early planted clumps of the 

 Irish poppy Anemone and its beautiful varieties which bloom so 

 finely and so profusely in the spring. 



But even in referring to this somewhat long, yet very im- 

 perfect, list of hardy spring flowering plants I have hardly 

 mentioned bulbs, yet in no case can these be left out of any 

 effort to make flower-beds gay in the spring. Objectionable as 

 to me are large flat masses of any bulbs, however striking in 

 coloration, it is not possible to over-estimate the charm which 

 moderate clumps of crocuses in colours, of snowdrops, scillas, 

 chinodoxas, grape hyacinths, tulips, narcissi, and hyacinths 

 lend to beds when judiciously planted. To attempt the produc- 

 tion of big colour masses is not only to defeat the object in view, 

 that of creating pleasing and refined effects, but also exposes at 

 once all the trumps in the planter's hand. That is the too 

 common fault of all bedding, whether of spring or summer, for 



