200 
THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
glandulosa , and alpina , for very beautiful varieties, and which are quite 
equal to the former in beauty. The new Himalayan Columbines, A. 
glandulosa and A. fragrans, are very splendid. 
In A. vulgaris stellata the nectaries, or petals with a spur, are trans¬ 
formed into petals without a spur, and from this transformation a double 
brownish re(j variety, with whitish green points, has been obtained, which 
florists have called A. speciosissima in their catalogues. 
I have even had a variety of this form in my own gardens, in which 
the nectary or spur has become turned up and covered with a petal, thus 
uniting both forms into one. From these three conformations about fifty 
varieties have been produced, and which are from five to seven times 
doubled. All the principal kinds have the most beautiful shades of 
colour, even to the incomparable blue of our corn-flower. A regular 
table of the colours might be made, and it is to be hoped that, with the 
progress of cultivation, and by continually sowing the seed of so great a 
variety of form and colour, that a multitude of more beautiful and rare 
varieties will be produced, and it will afford me the greatest pleasure if I 
can induce others to participate in the cultivation of this ornamental plant. 
ON FLOWER-GARDENS.—No. II. 
BY THE EDITOR. 
In what are called geometrical flower-gardens, the flowers are planted 
in masses of one kind; and the effect depends on covering the beds 
entirely, so that the shape of each, when seen at a little distance, shall be 
distinctly defined by the colour of the flowers that fill it, and on the 
proper arrangement of the colours. The first of these desiderata depends 
entirely on the art of the gardener, in growing his plants so that they may 
either admit of being pegged down, or be sufficiently dwarf to cover the 
bed without; but the “second is generally considered to require some 
knowledge of the laws of colours. A great deal has lately been said on 
this subject, and my readers will find a paper on it at p. 196 ; but I think 
any lady, who possesses a good taste in dress, or in furnishing her apart¬ 
ments, will be able to arrange the flowers in her garden. No one would 
think of wearing a blue spencer with a pink gown, or of trimming red 
curtains with purple fringe; so that I think most ladies will find their 
own taste and feelings sufficient to guide them aright, without studying 
M. Chevreul’s somewhat abstruse work. To illustrate the mode of 
planting a geometrical flower-garden, we will suppose the ground laid out 
