4 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
isolated beds on grass, delightful effects can, with a little intelligent 
forethought, be thus secured. 
For spring bedding there is no lack of hardy biennial and perennial 
plants that can be depended upon to make a good show. Polyanthus, 
double Daisies, Wallflowers, Aubrietias, Sedums, Hepaticas, and 
Anemones, are all too familiar to require any recommendation, but 
later in the season it is not so simple a matter to keep a bed neat and 
uniformly gay. Antirrhinums are of inestimable worth for this pur- 
pose, and are deservedly advancing in popularity year by year. There 
are plenty of good things that will produce a blaze of colour for a month 
or so ; but for an isolated bed in a conspicuous position this is scarcely 
sufficient, except in the case of an establishment where the family 
are in residence for a short time only, and the bed can be timed to be 
in its prime just at the correct period. I have seen a bed planted 
with the compact little plant named Chaenostoma hispida which has 
been densely spangled with its small white starry flowers from May 
until October, and with a few dot plants of dark foliage such as the 
brilliant-flowered Lobelia cardinalis a striking effect is obtainable. 
Gilia coronopifolia is another suitable companion for the Chaenostoma, 
or even Chelone barbata or its variety Torreyi. Nepeta Mussini is 
another good bedding subject, and either a deep yellow or dark red 
flower of taller growth makes a good combination. Pentstemons 
are, of course, well known as good bedding plants, and I have recollec- 
tions of a gorgeous show of colour produced by a large bed of a good 
strain of hybrid Mimalus, which also does remarkably well in the moist 
soil alongside a stream or pond. 
Why is not more frequent use made of our hardy Fuchsias for 
bedding purposes ? They are easily propagated from cuttings, and, if 
pinched and grown to convenient size in pots, they plant out as easily 
as Pelargoniums, and yield an abundance of bloom with no suggestion 
of stiffness or formality. St. Brigid Anemones can scarcely be over- 
estimated as subjects for bedding, and if the bed is first thinly planted 
in autumn, and a further batch of corms is interspersed a few weeks 
later, a prolonged season of flowering may be ensured. 
Of the rock garden I cannot attempt to speak with any idea of 
doing justice to alpines in the time at my disposal. So big and en- 
grossing a subject as alpine and rock gardening demands nothing less 
than an entire lecture ; but I would like to say that, in my opinion, one 
should make up his mind to do one of two things — either set himself 
to the task of gathering together as varied a collection of the choicest 
gems and rarities of perennial plants, each individual of which is to be 
treated as a special treasure with an importance all its own, or else, if 
he aims at a rock garden of general effect, he should be satisfied to 
limit the variety of subjects, choosing only those of free growth and 
prolific flowering propensities, and planting these in broad masses, so 
that, viewed from any point of vantage, the eye may sweep over an 
undulating carpet of bold and effective colours. 
