June 4, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
461 
Medjerda \ alley the so-called forests are mere brushwood, composed of 
the Callistus, Juniper, Aleppo Pines, and small Oaks. The land is cleared 
for pasturage and cultivation, and only here and there are seen groups of 
larger trees, such as Alpine Firs and Olives. Nothing is therefore to be 
gained by preserving here, and the cost would be very great; but it is 
nevertheless recommended that some steps be taken to protect trees 
and shrubs which exercise a beneficial influence on the regime des caux 
The Xroumis Mountains to the north are of a totally different character. 
Magnificent forests of old trees exist in them, which attain as great 
dimensions as those in the best French forests. They contain magnificent 
Cork trees and White Oaks (Q. Mirbeckii) with trunks 3 or 4 metres in 
circumference and 10 to 15 metres in height to the first branches. One 
forest covers 100,000 hectares, and contains also the Alder, Willow, wild 
Cherry, Beech, Poplar, Holly, Bay, and the Tamarisk. This and some 
neighbouring ones should, the report advises, be strictly preserved. The 
bark and wood of the Oak and Cork would repay the expense.—( Nature ). 
NOTES FROM MY GARDEN IN 1884. 
No. 4.—HERBACEOUS BORDERS. 
In the endeavour to keep my borders gay I am obliged to have 
recourse to other plants besides hardy herbaceous plants, but only to 
a hmrted extent. In the early spring I use Tulips, Hyacinths, Crocuses, 
Bcillas (allot which, however, may be classed amongst hardy things). In 
the summer I occupy the spaces where these have flourished and died down 
with some annuals and a few Zonal and Bronze Pelargoniums scattered 
up and down in the borders, the latter especially being useful in li°btin°- 
up the general green appearance of the plants. Need I say what a trying 
summer last was for these kind of plants ; how annuals withered away 
despite all watering; how Pelargoniums refused to move, and were no 
larger at the end of the season than they were at its commencement; and 
bow the only things one could really depend upon were the “hardies” 
those especially which bad been long established ? The newly planted ones 
were m the same plight as the Pelargoniums ; they wouldn’t move, they 
wouldn t take hold of the ground, and the gaps, about which so many are 
writing, are due to this cause, and yet it revealed some things which 
were new to me. I have some Irises planted on the very hottest spot I 
think that I have in my garden, and they have never bloomed until this 
spring. Am I confusing things that are distinct when I say that the 
hot year must have so ripened the roots that they were induced to 
flow er ? 
Amongst the brightest and earliest of spring flowers is Doronicum 
austnacum. The rich golden yellow of the starry flowers makes it a con¬ 
spicuous object m the borders, and, as I have said, it is also admirable as 
a pot plant. I had taken mine to pieces last year for this purpose, and 
that, combined with the dry season, had not tended to make it quite so 
Btrong, but it has quite recovered itself, and is now in full vigour. 
Doronicum Clusn, which I am told is very like it, but a little later, iliave 
not as yet grown Another very pretty class of plants is the Epimedium. 
E. concmnum, which I have, one of my mementos of a delightful visit to 
Belvoir, is exceedingly pretty, almost like an Orchid, while the foliage is 
also very pretty. Merteneia virginica I have as yet small, but why an 
intensely blue flower should be called the American Cowslip I am"at a 
Joss to imagine. Then there is just opposite my window a stately group 
ot Crown Imperials which have gone on increasing from year to year, and 
have never, even in the most unfavourable seasons, failed to flower in great 
perfection. Ihey are in a somewhat shady position, and a clump of the 
Japanese Anemone, Honoiine Jobert, has established itself amongst 
them They push their way up through the roots, and the Anemone 
asserts itself later. I have generally given this latter a good mulchiDg 
m the autumn, and this may be one of the reasons why the Crown 
Imperials are so fine. 
Nothing could exceed the beauty of the Delphiniums last season 
i he flowering stems were in some instances 6 or 7 feet high, and tin 
Drilliant blue which distinguishes them makes them very conspicuoui 
objects. As a rule I prefer the single varieties, although such varieties a 
Madame Henri Jacotot and alopecuroide 3 are well worth growing, but 
< 0 , .*f, ot , thmk ^ hat , 1he y C£ m compare with Cantab, Madame Chatd 
nobillissimum, Enchantress, and especially Belladonna. This last is not si 
vigorous, as a rule, as some others, at least I thought so until I saw i 
magnificent clump of it with my fiiend Mr. Tymons in his delightfu 
garden at Basten Hill near Dublin, where a plant 4 feet through was i 
Bight not easily forgotten. There is something so exquisitely beautiful ir 
its azure blue, as I hardly tbink is to be met with in any other plant 
” ?.*? "S' aS \ n S ° me ° f the Gentians > bu t 'here is a delicacy in i 
hich I think they do not equal. They are, as a rule, amenable t< 
culture, and some of my clumps have been undisturbed for many years. 
Aquilegias also I largely depend upon for gaiety in the borders a 
certain seasons and there is now such a variety of them that they maki 
dirvik 8 g ^ y ’ hav j Dg criginaUy planted chrysantha, ccerulea 
chry antha hjbrida, and coerulea hybrida. They have with their grea 
" 0SS , 1D £> a number of crosses, which sowing themselve 
about the border are delightful in Iheir variety. So readily do the 
finTlStt b? fo Ti th , 6 S L reatest diffic uby in getting true seed of th" 
J e “, aM| as 1 th,nk - cbrysantba, but as it gives flowers later ihai 
mos* of the others, one can by watching and securing the seed pod in i 
muslin bag, manage it. Their graceful habit and strikingly coloured 
flowers make them a great favourite with us, and as they are very easy of 
culture no garden ought to be without them. The hot season suited them 
also, and they were very fine. 
The same cannot, however, be said of another class of plants of which 
we are exceedingly fond, I mean Lilies. Some of them, it is true, did 
well, but others have failed to put in an appearance this year at all. 
Such kinds as Humboldti superbum and Batemannise appeared to have 
suffered for it, while others were very fine. We have some grand clumps 
of Lilium candidum, the common white Lily, about which so much has 
been said, and with which some seem to have experienced so much diffi¬ 
culty. I was accosted one day last summer in the conservatory at South 
Kensington by one of our most successful Lily growers, “ Do you grow 
Lilium candidumf” Yes. “ How do you grow it? ” Well, all I could 
say was it grow3 itself, and so truly it has done with me. It gets very 
near the surface of the ground, and I suppose the top-dressing that I gave 
the bed helped it, for I have never seen my clumps look finer than they 
do now. It is sometimes said it will not bear transplanting. Last autumn 
I got a clump, being greedy, from a neighbour’s garden ; it was removed 
en bloc , and it looks now as vigorous as any of the others. I see it all 
about here in the most differing situations flourishing most vigorously. 
There is one row of small houses facing the west, where the gardens are 
broiled by the afternoon sun, and yet there it does well, while that from 
which mine came is shady, and yet there they flourish to perfection. 
There seems to be something capricious in its movements, and I believe 
the only advice one can give upon it is that of Lord Melbourne in poli¬ 
tics, “ Can’t you let it alone ? ” L. lancifolium rubrum, which has now been 
in the ground some seven or eight years, seemed to rejoice in the warm 
summer, and has increased largely in size and number. On the other 
hand, L. superbum, or the Swamp Lily, did not, as its name would imply, 
like the drought; it flowered, but did not by any means reach its usual 
height. Lilium testaceum, one of the stateliest of our Lilies, did well, 
and, to my mind, there are few that surpass it in effectiveness. The 
white L. Martagon did well, and from the clump, with an addition of a fine 
bulb which my friend Mr. Tymons sent me from his garden, where it 
flourishes like a weed, I hope to have a fine display of it. As usual, 
auratum disappointed me, as it does a good many people, and we cannot 
all command such situations and soil as Mr. McIntosh and Mr. G. F. 
Wilson. Neither did L. Batemannise flourish as it ought to have done, but 
to my surprise a bulb of L. giganteum, which I had from Mr. Noble of 
Bagshot, threw up a spike of bloom. But oh ! how the snails did 
punish the foliage 1 so much so, that I doubt very much whether it will 
flourish this year as it did last. Amongst other Liliaceous plants which 
gave me a great deal of satisfaction was the double-flowered Hemerocallis, 
it is such a stately-looking plant, and the flowers are so much more dura¬ 
ble than the ordinary Day Lily, that it is well deserving of a place in any 
garden. I may say the same of those hardy Amaryllids which I have 
before mentioned, the varieties of vittata raised by Mons. Souchet of Fon- 
tainbleau. They have now been in their place for six years, and the flower 
stems have each year increased in size, and a more striking plant for a warm 
border I do not think there can be. It is a marvel to me that they are not 
more grown. The winter at Fontainbleau is much more severe than we 
have it in the south-east of England, and yet they continue in the ground 
there all the year with no other protection than a few leaves placed over 
them. 
Pyrethums, single and double, a few only of each, of course, make a 
very effective display, and the single ones are especially valuable for 
cuttings for vases, and there are so many good colours amongst them that 
they effectively answer many purposes in decoration. They are more 
lasting than the single Dahlias, and their foliage is in itself very 
pleasing. 
After July there is a lull in the herbaceous garden—at least I have 
found it so, but this may arise from ignorance—until the autumnal flowers 
come in, and it is then that I have mainly to depend on annuals for 
brightness in the borders. A judicious selection of these, of such kinds, 
for instance, as the different varieties of Coreopsis ; the annual varieties of 
Chrysanthemums, such as Dunnetti, carinatum, and the Corn Marigold ; 
Linum grandiflorum, Sweet Sultan in its various shades of yellow, purple, 
and white, Salpiglossis, Gaillardias, Corn Bluebottle, See., generally make 
the borders bright, but last year was a sad season for annuals. -They did 
not grow, and their blooms were few and poor. No amount of watering 
will make up for the natural watering of the clouds ; hence I was, com¬ 
paratively speaking, disappointed. With the autumn there are a few of 
the herbaceous plants which make a telling effect : such plants as Telekia 
specio.sissima, the Tritomas—or Red-hot Pokers, as some very unpoetically 
call them—the Salvias,especially fulgens and the lovely blue patens, Bocconia 
cordata, Celsia cretica, which was very fine with me last year, a few 
single Dahlias, and my very favouri e flower Senecio rulcher, all come in 
to lighten up the garden, while the few plants of Zonal Pelargonium, 
which take up the place of the Hyacinths, Tulips, and other bulbs, make 
it look bright and gay. These last are the old plants that I have had 
already done duty in the greenhouse, and are now turned out to 
flower and then die. They are much more free in their blooming 
than cuttings, and do not so much run into leaf. Of my Gladiolus 
I have already written, and can only repeat that they gave me a 
great deal of enjoyment last season. Of course, amongst autumn flowers 
one cannot omit the Asters; they are sufficiently numerous and strong- 
growing to fill all the space that I have at my disposal for all my plants, 
if I am to grow them all, and therefore, as in other things, I am obliged to 
contemt myself with a selection. I grow the old-fashioned novse-belgim. 
Amelins, Chapmani, beskarab'eu®, ericaefolia, and one or two others, and 
