64r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Febutjary, 
will retain the smoke. Where the enclosure is 
small, the smoke must be generated with the 
least possible heat. A common tobacco pipe 
may be used, or the contrivance described by 
Mr. Quinby for smoking bees will answer for 
small operations. It consists of a tin cylinder, 
with a perforated wooden plug at each 
end; one of these serves as a mouth¬ 
piece to blow through, and the other 
to discharge the smoke. The cylinder 
is to be nearly filled with smoking 
tobacco, by removing the mouth-piece, 
a small live coal dropped in, and the 
plug replaced. By blowing through the 
mouth-piece a copious stream of smoke 
will be driven out at the other end, 
and may be directed into the enclosure 
which contains the plant. In smoking 
plants in a small way we have found 
that an hour’s exposure to the smoke 
answered as well as a longer time. 
The Red Spider ismbre insidious in its 
attacks. It is so small as to escape any 
but an experienced eye, and usually the 
first warning of its presence is in the 
blackened and dead leaves of the plant. 
Its effects are commonly attributed 
to almost anything but the right cause, 
and more water, change of soil and 
other treatment are tried in the belief 
that something is the matter at the root 
when the real trouble is upon the leaves. 
The Red Spider is barely visible to the 
naked eye, but one who knows what to look 
for will at once detect it. If a curled or browned 
leaf is noticed and the underside is found cov¬ 
ered with a minute cobwebby film, the Red 
Spider will be found by close observation. It 
is more likely to occur in hot and dry rooms 
than elsewhere. Abundant watering of the 
leaves will soon dispose of it. Plants which 
have firm leaves like the Camellia, can be washed 
with a sponge; those which would be injured by 
such treatment should be laid upon the side and 
showered by water from a watering pot with 
fine holes, taking care that the under surface of 
the leaves be thoroughly wetted. A repetition 
of this will in a few days, dispose of the little 
torment and a regular weekly bath of this kind 
will not only prevent its lodgment, but add to 
the health of the plant by removing the dust. 
of the portions of land at their disposal. If one 
is to begin upon a new place without stint as to 
land or purse, he had better employ a first-class 
landscape gardener to both furnish the design 
and lay out the work. But the majority of our 
readers either do their gardening within the 
Fig. ' 1 .—DESIGN FOR BEDS IN CENTRAL, PARK, BY I. PILAT 
Laying Out a Flower Garden. 
A number of letters have come to us this 
winter asking us to give directions and designs 
for laying out a flower garden, and it is gratify¬ 
ing to note that our friends are maturing their 
plans before the working season comes on. It 
is easy enough 1o give designs, but the trouble 
would be that no particular one would suit a 
half dozen of our readers, as their means and 
tastes vary as widely as do the shapes and sizes 
Fig. 1. —GARDEN AT THE TERMINUS OE A WALK. 
boundaries of a village lot or in the usually too 
restricted space of the “ front yards ” to farm¬ 
houses, or at best have a moderate-sized country 
place with an acre or less of ornamental grounds. 
In laying out a flower garden one has first to 
consider the territory at command, and then 
what he wishes to cultivate flowers for. If he 
wishes to produce effects of color, which can 
only be done by masses of flowers and bright 
leaves,where all individuality of the plants them¬ 
selves is lost, he will pursue a different course 
from those who wish to grow flowers as flowers— 
objects to be loved and cared for, and developed 
into things of individual beauty. Such an one 
cares not if a plant be new or old, fashionable 
or unfashionable, if it please him with its own 
beauty, or through some cherished association. 
Before describing the mixed flower border, let us 
consider the case 
in which flowers 
are grown for 
their effects in 
masses. Plants 
can be employed 
for this purpose 
in two distinct 
methods: in beds 
each containing 
but one kind, or 
in beds where 
f plants affording 
distinct contrasts 
in the colors 
either of their 
flowers or of their leaves are 
grown in successive bands or belts. The first 
is properly called bedding, and the second, belt 
or ribbon gardening. A large class of plants 
adapted to both are known as bedding^ plants. 
Where the beds are planted with distinct 
colors, they must be of such form that each 
one will hold a proper relation to the other, and 
the whole group of beds form a pleasing and 
symmetrical figure. Here are opportunities for 
a display of taste in designing the forms of the 
group, and the beds of which it is composed, as 
well as in the proper choice of plants with which 
to fill them, in order that a pleasing effect of 
colors may be obtained. Squares, triangles, 
and other figures with straight lines, are less 
tasteful than those with curved outlines. In 
fig. 1, we give a design by the late Mr. E. A. 
Baumann, as an example of simple 
work of this kind. In this design 
a flower garden is represented at 
the terminus of a walk. The circular 
space is graveled ; within it are three 
pear-shaped figures in grass, within 
which are cut the flower beds. Beds 
of this kind are set in the grass, as in 
the above example, or they are placed 
with very narrow graveled walks be¬ 
tween them, and their outlines marked 
with an edging of box or other material. 
It will be seen that the fancy may 
suggest a great number of forms for the 
beds, or the figure which they com¬ 
pose. Mr. I. Pilat, gardener at Central 
Park, N. Y., has introduced with good 
effect, figures suggested by leaves and 
the parts of flowers. In fig. 2 is given a 
portion of the beds in the flower garden 
of the Park. A single oval or other 
shaped bed planted with one kind of 
flowers only, or filled with some plant 
of showy foliage, such as Coleus, is 
, often made in a lawn with excellent ef¬ 
fect. From beds of this kind it is but a 
step to the ribbon style of planting, in 
which several colors are used. To be effective, 
ribbon-planted beds should be of considerable 
size, and the plants selected with reference to sim¬ 
ilarity of liight and correspondence in time of 
blooming. Planting of this kind is also used in 
such groups of beds as those to which we have 
alluded, but requires nice management to pre¬ 
vent confusion. Ribbon beds may stand alone 
by themselves, or they may be arranged with a 
symmetrical relation to one another, as shown 
in figure 3, another of Mr. Baumann’s designs, 
in which a walk passes quite around a central 
oval bed, and other beds of various shapes are 
placed in the lawn at a little distance from the 
walk. Another way of planting in the ribbon 
style is to run a narrow bed along each side of 
a walk and plant it with two or three colors. 
It will be seen that these styles of flower gar¬ 
Fig. 3. —DESIGN FOR FLOWER BEDS. 
dening may be carried out in a -single bed in 
the small lawn of a front yard, or may be ex¬ 
tended to ornament the largest grounds. All 
planting of this kind has its beauty much en¬ 
hanced when framed by the green of a well 
kept turf, and is seen to the begt advantage 
when it can be looked upon from a higher level. 
An enumeration of some of the annual and other 
plants best suited for use in beds of the kinds 
we have here described, as well as notes on mix¬ 
ed planting, must be deferred to another month. 
