260 FLOWERS AND BEDDING PLANTS, 
much longer, and look cleaner, if the wood is obtained when the 
bark will peel readily, and made up with no bark upon it. The 
first effect is certainly less rustic, but sufficiently so to harmonize 
with the surroundings of a suburban home ; and after a few yeais 
the advantages of the barkless constructions are very evident. 
There is a frequent fault in the use of vases, whether rustic or clas¬ 
sic, that mars all their beauty wherever they are placed. We refer to 
the want of care in keeping their tops level, and their centres vertical. 
A house “ out of plum ” is not more unsightly than a vase awry. 
The plants used with good effect in rustic vases are those which 
have large and showy or curiously marked leaves, for the centies, 
surrounded by delicate-leaved drooping or trailing plants. The gor¬ 
geous crimson-leaved Colleus verschafelti is a deserved favorite foi 
vases of good size, being a rank grower and developing its greatest 
beauty in exposures open on all sides to the sun. The following 
are some of the plants recommended by Henderson, in his book of 
Practical Floriculture, for the central portions of small baskets, and 
will answer also for small vases: “ The Centaurea Candida , a plant 
of white, downy leaves, of compact growth; Tom Thumb geranium, 
scarlet, dwarf, and compact, blooming all summer; Sedum sie- 
boldii , a plant of light glaucus foliage and graceful habit;” and 
for large baskets the following: “Mrs. Pollock geranium, foliage 
crimson, yellow and green, flowers bright scarlet; Centaurea 
gymnocarpa, foliage fern-like, whitish gray, of a peculiar graceful 
habit; Sedum. sieboldii variegatum, glaucus green, marbled with 
golden yellow; Achyranthes gilsonii , a beautiful shade of carmine 
foliage and stem; Alyssum dentatum variegatum , foliage green and 
white, with fragrant flowers of pure white; Altemanthera spathula , 
lanceolate leaves of pink and crimson; pyrethrum or golden 
feather, fern-like foliage, golden yellow.” For plants to put around 
the edge of a small basket or vase, and to fall pendant from its 
sides, he recommends the following: “ Lobelia erinus paxiom, 
an exquisite blue, drooping eighteen inches; Tropceolum (ball 
of fire), dazzling scarlet, drooping eighteen inches ; Lysimachia 
numularia , flowers bright yellow, drooping eighteen inches; Linana 
cymbalaria, inconspicuous flowers but graceful foliage.” For the 
edging or pendant plants of a large basket he recommends the 
