THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
7J 
The different varieties of Primroses and Polyanthuses are admir- 
ably adapted for massing or in lines. Take up old plants in August 
and divide, choose a shady border, and plant them in rich-leaf soil, 
and they will have good roots by the autumn. The common single 
vellow, the double white, and the double lilac primroses are the best 
for bedding. As to polyanthuses, if seed is sown in May and grown 
on, they will make fine plants by the succeeding autumn, but another 
year’s growing in the reserve ground is good for them. 
Another subject I use, and one which cannot well be dispensed 
with, as it not only serves to increase the variety, but its height 
serves to break up the otherwise even surface of the beds, as most of 
the other plants used are very dwarf-growing subjects ; I allude to 
the single Wallflower. As we should aim at something like a syste- 
matic arrangement, the same as for the summer bedders, it is best 
to get these plants from cuttings, put in as early as they can be got 
in the summer, so as to secure their colours separate, which cannot 
be done if we depend on seedlings. By this plan we get almost a 
pure yellow, a blood-red, and a very dark variety, and as many 
different shades as are desired. I am content with the three dis- 
tinct colours, and it is not desirable to grow more of them than are 
required, as they impoverish the ground so much. The double 
varieties would be preferable, but they are not so hardy as the single 
ones, and generally do not flower so early. At some nurseries very 
choice kinds may be met with, and it is well to buy a few when in 
flower. 
The next best of early-flowering plants is the Aubrietia, and no 
spring garden can be said to be complete without it, for when well- 
established plants are put out sufficiently close together in the beds 
they are indeed very effective, and in ordinary seasons they will 
bloom from the middle of March to the middle of June. Aubrietia 
Campbelli is of a beautiful violet-blue, one of the best. A. deltoidea 
is a neat early-flowering variety of a lilac colour. I saw another 
last spring, called A. spathulata, very distinct. But they are all 
good, and worthy of more extended cultivation ; they are easily 
increased either by division or slips, but they do not like the direct 
action of the sun immediately after removal. As perfectly hardy 
plants we have none which surpass them for spring flowering, 
and on drv sandy soils the variegated Aubrietia makes a splendid 
edging. 
Two more fine subjects are Arabis alpina and A. lucidavarleyata, 
both very essential plants for early flowering. They withstand the 
cold weather perhaps better than any of the other subjects named. 
But I must not stop here, for we have yet the Alyssums to cheer 
us up with their bright yellow flowers, and the best of these for 
early flowering, whether for beds or borders, are the common Alyssum 
saxaiile and the variegated-leaeed rariety of the same species. We 
have also thelberis sempervirens, which flowers at the same time, and 
is one of the purest white early-flowering plauts we have. It is a 
capital companion to the alyssums, being dense and neat in habit. 
These should be increased from cuttings late in the spring, and be 
planted out one season previous to being wanted for spring decoration. 
March. 
