FEBRUARY. 
41 
the terrace of the Crystal Palace, looking over the unrivalled scene of 
English gardening spread before me, and I could but add' this one 
thought,—none of the revolutions in these days exceed that which has 
taken place in gardening ; and then I went back in memory to some of 
the show places that 1 had visited some 25 years ago, and recollected 
them well enough to contrast them with not only the scene then before 
me, but with that which well nigh every well-kept country place presents 
to its visitors. Imagine, you, my young friends, whose whiskers are not as 
ours—“ grey as a badger ” (the shadows of coming events, even of a grey 
or perhaps bald head), who mourn not over crows’ feet, and have not 
already began to find that your boots must be made easier, and that you 
cannot climb the mountain side as you could some years back,—imagine, 
I say, as you are giving directions to your man to propagate for “ bedding 
purposes,” what you could have done when Tom Thumb was unknown, 
when Verbenas were confined to teucrioides, Tweediana, and chame- 
dreefolia (and these were only introduced and known amongst us about 
25 years ago), when bedding Calceolarias were not yet thought of, and 
no one had even dreamed of variegated beds and borders, what would 
you have done ? Suppose you were deprived of them now, what a sorry 
display you would make. Even so, my friend; and there are few 
flowers that you have to thank more for the revolution you have been 
enabled to make than the Verbena, about which I am now going to 
say a few words. Before leaving the place of my reverie, may I ask, 
would it not be possible for the Crystal Palace Company to publish a 
lithographed plan, every year, of their flower garden, numbering the 
beds, and giving the names of the plants used ? Many go there really 
to learn, and are at a loss to know what the plants are, perhaps, and 
would gladly pay a shilling for the information they need. 
Instead, then, of three sorts of Verbenas, the names of sorts are 
Legion, and I know of no flower that has made more rapid progress, or 
shown more decided improvement within the last few years, than it; 
while Geraniums have hardly progressed, and Pansies pretty well stood 
still, the catalogues of Verbenas show us that well nigh every one of 
those grown five years ago is discarded, and that new and better kinds 
have taken their place. There are two faults in a Verbena which 
should, I think, banish it in toto from a small garden—badness of 
growth, and tendency to mildew. Time was when we were obliged to 
put up with many things for the sake of something new in colour or 
good in shape ; but now, when we have such an abundance of all 
colours to choose from, we may be more exigeant in our demands, and 
our Index Expurgatorius becomes much more extensive. With regard 
to cultivation there is ntft much witchery in this, for they propagate 
so readily, and are so nearly hardy, that common attention will always 
secure a supply of them. Every owner of a small garden ought at this 
period to have a goodly number of short stubby plants, struck in the 
summer, and well established before the winter ; they should now be 
kept tolerably dry, and then when the spring comes, and he sets a 
small frame to work, he can have as many plants as he likes for 
bedding out by May or June. Let him beware of a lazy plan some 
try, of layering them into pots when growing in the beds ; he is pretty 
