204 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGHST. 
[ September, 
cal shape, like a well-formed potato-hog, I could not help calling to mind the 
above ballad, and would calmly inquire ‘ what was she doing up there so high.’ 
In beds of ordinary dimensions, it is a good rule to have the centre of the bed of 
exactly the same height as the edges, so that if a line were drawn across the bed 
it would touch both the grass edges and the centre of the bed, the grass verge 
being always one inch higher than the soil of the bed ; this will give the bed 
apparently an inch of rise, whilst all the while it is perfectly flat. Now, such a 
bed can be seen, and its character taken in at a glance, but when the conical form 
is used, there is always a portion of the bed hidden. A bed of Scarlet Verbena, 
or one of Scarlet Ranunculus, when seen at a glance, gives one the genuine ideal 
of an English garden flower.-bed. It is not only the individual beauty of the 
plant, but it is enriched by the social character, the bond of union, and its being 
but only one, and that without any break; ' and as it has no rise, it is being flat, 
at ease, and at rest. There are, moreover, practical difficulties attending the 
management of raised beds: for instance, they cannot conveniently be watered 
either by rain or by hand. 
A certain painter said to his pupil who had painted the portrait of a lady, 
that he had failed to paint her /afr, and had therefore made her fine. Now, in 
trying to make summer beds more conspicuous by mounding, the earth which 
should be hidden is brought into notice, and we get back to the days when our 
shrubberies were carefully hoed and raked, instead of being carpeted with lawn 
grass, as we see them in all good gardens. Succulent plants, such as the 
Echeverias.) whpse homes, like those of the Houseleek of thatched-house celebrity, 
are on the house-tops, seem always degraded when seen on level ground. There 
is a line to be drawn between the succulent bedding plants, and such as Pelar- 
gonimns of all hues, beautiful though they be ; and the favour with which 
Echeverias are received seems a guarantee that better days may dawn, when the 
glories of Mesemhryanthemums (mid-day flowers), now little known, shall come 
upon the carpet. Then, indeed, one might raise the beds, and when the props 
have raised the flowers as high as those of a rose-tree, the line of beauty will 
be nearly on a level with the lady’s eye that comes to admire.— Alex. Forsyth, 
Salford. 
THE GUELDER ROSE. 
’HE Guelder Rose, as represented by the type, Vihurnum Opulus^ which is 
a true Britisher, is to be met with growing wild in many a moist 
marsh-land or damp and swampy copse athwart the country. Its 
frequent associates during the winter are known to many a keen sports¬ 
man to be the woodcock and the snipe. Very handsome and striking withal 
is this plant, with its three-lobed leaves, and its flattened bloom-heads of 
pearly white, variable in size and shape, and extremely bright shining and 
showy are the heavy bunches of cherry-red berries which hang pendent 
after the falling of the leaves. There are three or four distinct forms of 
