2G2 
THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
free stocks — trees possessed of vigour and long-lasting properties — 
■will be looked to for profitable results rather than such as are 
chiefly interesting because of the excessive trouble they occasion, 
and their general adaptiveness for planting in the front of a doll’s 
house. S. H. 
HUNTING TOE BEDDING PLANTS. 
BY JOHN 'WALSH. 
OME bedding plants are so much affected by peculiarities 
of soil and situation, that it is essential to see them 
abroad as 'well as at home, before pronouncing a decided 
opinion on their merits. So strongly am I convinced 
of the importance of this, that I annually make a tour 
of the public parks, in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, where 
the bedding arrangements are on a large scale, and aho of those 
nurseries in -which the bedders form an important part of the trade. 
By doing this, and comparing the notes made in my rambles with 
those made in my own garden, 1 am well able to speak with confi- 
ence of the value of novelties, or the adaptability of old favourites for 
special purposes. 
Before passing on to an enumeration of the most desirable 
bidders for propagating in quantities for next year’s display, I 
would strongly advise those who have not done so, and are inter- 
ested in floricultural pursuits, to visit the London parks with as 
little delay as possible. The parks in which the bedding arrange- 
ments are on an extensive scale, and in the best possible taste, are 
Hyde, Victoria, and Battersea, and they are here placed in somewhat 
of a proper order of merit. The bedding display in the first- 
mentioned paik is really grand ; the series of beds extending by the 
side of Park Lane, from the Marble Arch to Hyde Park Corner, are 
simply grand, and afford the best possible example of the manner in 
which flower-beds should be kept during the summer season. They 
are not only filled with a due regard to the artistic blending of the 
colours, and quite solid with bloom, or, as the case may be, most 
richly coloured with leaf plants, but they are most tastefully kept, 
not It leaf nor a flower being out of its proper place, or a dead leaf 
or unsightly flower-truss perceptible anywhere. It occasions no 
small amount of work to keep the beds in the same perfect order 
as these, but on the principle of “What is w orth doing, is worth doing 
well,’’ the beds should either have the necessary attention, or be 
turfed over and blotted out of existence. 
The planting in front of the ivy-covered house, not far from the 
briige by which the Serpentine is crossed, is extremely rich, as also 
is the bedding in front of Kensington Palace. 
The bedding in Victoria Park is also extremely good, the princi- 
pal points of interest being near Shore Place, Shore Gate, and by 
the side of the lake, and by the side of the road running from the 
Crown to the Eoyal Hotels. 
