THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
21 
decked out in its gayish summer toggery of red, white, and blue. 
The materials usually availed of where spring gardening prevails are 
bulbs, hardy annuals, hardy herbaceous perennials, and variegated 
and otherwise curiously-coloured plants. The value of bright- 
coloured or variegated foliage plants for the ornamentation of the 
flower beds or dressed ground during the winter or spring months 
cannot be too strongly insisted on. Among gay-foliaged subjects of 
an herbaceous habit, the Golden Feather Pyrethrum is by long 
chalks the most useful and effective plant we have. Some time since 
we devoted an article to the subject of shrub-bedding, in which it 
was attempted to show the advantages to be gained by a combination 
of the Pyrethrum with the ordinary spring’bedding. On the present 
occasion our object is to direct the attention of our practical friends 
and others interested in ornamental gardening to a subject little known, 
and which, if taken in liand, will, in its way, be as valuable as is the 
Golden Feather Pyrethrum, and that is saying a good deal for it. 
Tlie plant we allude to is, like the Pyrethrum, one of the Com- 
positse, but, unlike it, is of a shrubby and persistent character. Our 
protege is the Golden-leaved Diplopappus, D. chrysophylla. Here is 
a hardy low-growing shrub, which may be popularly described as 
heath-like in appearance and foliage, with the exception that the 
Diplopappus looks as though it had been dipped — leaves, branches, 
and stem — in a solution of gamboge, or other gold-coloured pigment ; 
in fact, it is the most perfectly gold-coloured plant that has ever 
come under our notice. It is perennial, perfectly hardy, will strike 
freely from cuttings, will accommodate itself, we should say, to any 
requirement, whether it be to form a gilt volute or finial in the 
fanciful scroll garden, a lowly but perennial edging or belt of gold 
to the flower bed, or a veritable obelisk or pillar of gold, should 
fancy so choose to fashion it. Apart altogether from bedding or 
flower ground considerations, grown in its natural form as a shrub, it 
is well calculated to arrest attention, and deserving of being brought 
under notice . — Irish Farmer's Gazette. 
VIOLAS AS BEDDING PLANTS. 
BY J. A. GORDON, 
Superintendent of the Crystal Palace Gardens. 
the slope of tlie Hose Mount in the Crystal Palace 
Grounds a bed of mixed violas was so thoroughly effective 
that some account of it will probably interest many of 
your readers. The bed to which reference is made was 
at the bottom of the slope, not far from the specimen 
Wellingtonia gigautea, planted in the centre of the triangular piece 
of turf. The violas with which the bed was planted were raised from 
seed started in a brisk temperature early in the season. The seed, 
was procured from Messrs. Downie, Laird, and Laing, Forest Hill, 
S.E., and as seed of Viola Perfection, now known as a thoroughly 
January. 
