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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



better for annual division ; those of the Amellus section may go 

 on untouched for three or four years or more. Close-growing 

 kinds like A. Novce-Anglice and A. cordifolius soon exhaust the 

 soil beneath them, and if not divided want a rich top-dressing in 

 spring. As for where and in what company to grow these 

 plants, different writers have laid down very different and very 

 arbitrary rules. One says they ought only to be grown in wild 

 shrubberies, where they may lean against the shrubs, so as not 

 to require tying. Others, who know that any attempt they 

 might themselves make to grow them in this way would end in 

 their falling over and being smothered by nettles and docks, 

 advise growing them in a special border, and staking them all 

 carefully. No absolute rules should be given, as different modes 

 suit different surrounding conditions. In my garden I grow 

 them mixed with other plants in the herbaceous borders, and 

 elsewhere in lots of thirty or forty kinds arranged and graduated 

 together, but all supported by tying, which is an absolute neces- 

 sity with me. When flower-buds begin to form, those in the 

 mixed borders, which have previously been loosely tied to one 

 rod, are tied out to several short and not conspicuous iron rods, 

 and the branches spread so as to make them cover as much 

 breadth as the flowers will fill. In this way a border which till 

 August was quite full of other flowers may be made to appear 

 in October quite full of Michaelmas Daisies. Some kinds deserve 

 an isolated treatment to display them to their best advantage. I 

 have one of doubtful parentage which I have hitherto called 

 Ledbury, raised from seed and given to me by Mr. Grant, of that 

 town. This, if well cultivated, and provided with plenty of side 

 room, branches widely and horizontally, and flowers in drooping 

 masses down to the very ground, in the form of a well-grown 

 Holly-bush. This, if sheltered from high winds, which easily 

 break it, has of all Michaelmas Daisies I have ever seen the best 

 habit ; but it would be comparatively worthless if crowded. 



Cultivators of these plants should know that the young leaves 

 of many kinds are a favourite food of slugs. Those which break 

 at the base whilst still in flower attract these marauders most, 

 as affording a prospect of food during the mild days of winter. 

 The slugs hide below the crowns, and if not prevented go on 

 eating the young growth in spring till the plant perishes, and the 

 loss is often ignorantly attributed to frost. There are parts of 



