times too many plants brought together; whereas one third of their 
number better employed might have served to make a delightful gar- 
den picture. 
What is most commonly overlooked is the need for a good quantity 
of foliage plants as a framing to the flowers, and another usual weak- 
ness is losing sight of the need of restraint in the number of kinds pre- 
sented. It is much better to show a good group of one plant at a time, 
or of any two that associate well, with a setting of suitable greenery, 
and then to pass on to another group of either allied or different color- 
ing. This kind of restraint does not mean monotony such as one may 
see in many large places where there is a whole house full of nothing 
but Coleus or Cineraria or Calceolaria. 
A conservatory or anything of the nature of a winter garden may 
be made the most of, and be certainly far more enjoyable, if the fixed 
wooded stages are done away with altogether, and the whole place 
treated as a rock garden, with a stone bench and a clear paved space, 
according to the available area, where other chairs and a tea table may 
be placed. 
For forming the rockwork, a clever arrangement of stones will 
gradually rise in more or less stratified fashion to a little above the 
height of the pipes, so forming a kind of rugged wall in front of them. 
In places the stonework will pass from this to the outer wall over the 
pipes, which will also be enabled to give off some of their heat laterally 
forward, through Httle caves of mystery contrived here and there in 
the stonework, such hollowed places serving also the valuable pictorial 
purpose of giving dark shadowy backgrounds for plants with white 
or hght colored flowers. In arranging the stones, spaces are left 
where pots can be dropped in — spaces large enough for a good group of 
some one kind of plant at a time. All in between is planted with 
green things, such as Selaginella and the small wild Maidenhair Fern 
of Southern Europe; these would be near the path, with larger ferns 
and Aspidistras further back, where the flowering plants will be of 
bolder character. 
This kind of arrangement also admits of having a number of the 
more important things planted out; among climbing plants or such 
as may be used as climbers there are Bougainvillea, Lapageria, Mande- 
villea. Plumbago capense, the lovely pink Luculia gratissima and 
Daphne indica — all requiring a free root run. Where there is a good 
space there are some of the plants of noble aspect that also thrive 
best when their roots are not confined, such as Musa, Bruginansia, 
Hedychium, and Cannas; while among those that are docile to pot 
culture there are the very beautiful Rhododendrons, hybrids of tropi- 
cal and sub-tropical species, and the tender Indian lilies, L. sul- 
phurem, nepalense and Neilgherrense, with the more easily cultivated 
L. longiflorum, Brownii and varieties of speciosum. 
3 
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