FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
139 
have spent all their days in the vicinage of towns, or located themselves in a dull 
and level district, or failed to employ their minds in the contemplation of external 
objects, — is vividly manifest. Individuals of the latter class — -and they are evidently 
numerous— when they essay the erection of anything imitative of nature, encumber 
their work with straight lines, or meaningless conceits ; and hence rockeries too 
usually take the form of boundary walls, and grottoes of childish toys. Pre-eminently 
designed to excite attention and afford gratification, they should be pre-eminently 
natural ; and as well in the choice of materials as their arrangement, this point 
should be continually before the thoughts. 
If the summit of a grotto or a rockery rise above the dell in which it is placed, 
it will be easy to plant evergreen shrubs or trees on the outside of it, or train ivy 
up the parts that would be seen from without. Directions for putting the materials 
together would be little better than ridiculous. Irregularity and diversity must 
undoubtedly be aimed at, but it should not be forgotten, that nature, in different 
situations, assumes a certain indefinable uniformity of figure, one of which may be 
allowed to pervade each detached group. 
We hope these strictures, which are intentionally very general, and have for 
many reasons not been illustrated by references to well-known objectionable ex- 
amples, will be at least instrumental in directing notice to a few of the absurdities 
that have hitherto been perpetrated in the way of rock-gardens, and in inducing 
gardeners to attempt something more worthy of the present state of the art. 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
NEW OR BEAUTIFUL PLANTS FIGURED IN THE LEADING BOTANICAL PERIODICALS FOR 
JUNE. 
Brachycome iberidifolia. One of the prettiest annuals lately introduced, 
and conspicuous for the variety of colours exhibited in its daisy -like flowers. Blue, 
lilac, pink, and white blossoms are common in every shade, and are disposed on 
elegant branching stems, which differ in height according to the treatment they 
receive. Being from the Swan River colony, it succeeds best as a half-hardy plant, 
and should be grown in the open border. It has been raised from imported seeds 
by Mrs. Wray, of Cheltenham, and is now to be obtained of most nurserymen. 
Bot. Mag. 3876. 
Brov/n^a grandiceps. At length this noble plant has produced its magnificent 
flowers in the stove of Richard Harrison, Esq., of Liverpool ; though it is not stated 
under what circumstances the inflorescence was developed. Its stately pinnate, 
half-drooping, and richly-mottled leaves are well known, and the blossoms are borne 
in immense bunches or heads near the extremities of the branches. They are 
arranged in tiers; and " every day witnessed the expansion of a new tier above 
