341 
Verbena pulchella (Fair Verbena); not mucli to boast 
of, it is true, but still it is useful for very small beds, 
or for a low band of edging. It is very easy to keep, 
being one of the liardiest of the new race Lobelias. 
At page 321, I have said that there are some white 
dwarf Lobelias belonging to the section called erinus. 
These are very neat plants for the smallest beds, and 
require the richest soil, are easily kept over the win¬ 
ter, and should be propagated in August by cuttings 
or seeds. 
Campanula (or Bell-flower).—The most dwarf white 
campanula is one called pumila, and there is a 
blue one of this species. The height is no more 
than three inches, and is one of the neatest white 
edging plants I know, and as hardy as the “ blue 
bells of Scotland.” Like all the campanulas with 
creeping roots, it should be taken up every April 
and divided into little pieces, and these pieces 
should then be planted as closely together as they 
will lie ; when used as a rock plant, it need not be 
divided oftener than every second year. Campanula 
carpatica —so called from being a native of the Car¬ 
pathian mountains, and therefore, must be a very 
hardy plant with us. Of this blue bell there is a 
variety with white flowers, as pure white as the snow 
on the Carpathian range. This is a gem of the first 
water for the flower-garden, either as a patch in a 
mixed border, or for a low bed or edging. The height 
is from nine inches to a foot. I was on the point of 
saying, that every one who has a flower-bed or border 
ought to procure this plant, but it is quite new, and 
may not be so readily met with as the blue one from 
which it sported. It does not seed freely, and will 
not come from cuttings after it begins to flower; but 
if put into heat in the spring, the cuttings will root 
as fast as those of the verbena, and will be ready to 
plant out in May, and will bloom beautifully for 
three or four months; after that, dividing the roots 
in April will be the proper mode of treatment as a 
bedder. 
Senecio is the name of the American groundsel, 
of which there are two shades of purple, and a 
white variety. The white of this plant is not very 
clear, but it makes a variety, and lasts in good order 
from June to the middle of September, and, there¬ 
fore, is not to be despised; besides, it comes from 
cuttings in the spring as freely as any plant. The 
height is 12 or 15 inches. The seeds of these Ame¬ 
rican groundsels should not be offered for sale; a 
bushel of them would not furnish enough of double 
flowers to plant a yard of ground. There is an old 
Cape plant, with starry, white, little flowers, known 
in gardens by the name of Buchneva viscosa, which 
name, however, belongs to another plant. This also 
makes an addition to. the low or small beds, though 
not very showy. It is about a foot high, very easy 
to grow from cuttings, and to keep over the winter, 
as it flowers on all the season, and is not bad to keep 
in the reserve beds. It is a useful plant to have at 
hand to fill a bed in July, after some annual or other 
plants are done flowering. 
Geraniums. — The White Ivy Leaf is the best of 
all the geraniums for a low white flower-bed ; the old 
White Flowered Horse-sltoe geranium is too poor a 
trusser, and seeds too freely for a bedder, and my 
own light seedlings are not white enough to pass as 
such. Queen Victoria and Lady Rivers are too deli¬ 
cate to stand out in most places; but where the soil 
and situation is congenial for them, they form light 
groups of exquisite beauty, and there is a white va¬ 
riety of Unique, which promises to be a good addition 
[March 28. 
to our light coloured beds, but I believe it is yet too 
scarce to be had in quantity. 
Phlox. —The best of the white phloxes for a bed, 
is one called omnijlora, which delights in dark rich 
soil; and being quite hardy is well deserving of general 
cultivation. It rises from a foot to eighteen inches, 
and should be taken up and divided every second 
season, or, if wanted to bloom late in the autumn, it 
should be replanted every spring, about the middle 
of April. All the Phloxes are good showy border 
plants, but they soon exhaust the soil unless they are 
taken up and planted every second or third spring. 
When strong plants of them are divided, all that is 
necessary is, to get up the whole ball with as many 
roots as possible, and then with a sharp spade to 
slice ofl‘ pieces from the outside for replanting, and if 
needs be, two or three of these slices may be put in 
together to form a large mass, and always in fresh 
soil, or in a different part of the border. The whole 
centre of the old ball ought to be discarded, but the 
usual method is to quarter the ball, which, as it 
retains the older roots, is bad practice. No matter 
what kind of old plant one has to divide, the younger 
parts ought to be chosen in preference to that which 
has often flowered; the youngest portion of the roots 
are always the most active, and will throw up the 
finest flowers. 
Antirrhinum, or Snapdragon, furnishes two kinds 
for clear white beds; and both must be increased 
from cuttings only, as no reliance can be placed on 
seedlings coming genuine. A dwarf old white one, 
called Double, makes a nice low bed, and holds in 
bloom a long time if the spikes are cut off as fast 
as the seed vessels appear, winch, like the Lupines and 
many other plants, is the right way to keep all the 
Snapdragons in flower for along time. For a tall, or 
a medium height, make choice of the best white 
seedling, which may be picked out of a seed-bed of 
these Snapdragons; and propagate it by cuttings 
before they throw up for bloom in the early part of 
summer; and after they are rooted, plant them in 
the reserve ground, and pick off their flower stems 
as fast as they appear through the autumn, and they 
will be in fine order to remove to the flower-garden 
the following spring; or, where there is the con¬ 
venience of a slight hotbed, they may be increased 
in the spring, and will be in time to flower the same 
season. They have been very much improved of 
late years, and there is no end to their variations; 
and of all plants, they and the wall-flowers are the 
least objectionable plants to mix in shruberies, or for 
covering naked banks, or bare spaces under trees, 
where few other things could live. 
Pentstemons. —Some of these are fine things in a 
flower-garden, but they furnish none for a white bed 
that I am aware of. The so-called White Pentstemon 
is only a milk-and-water looking thing, only fit for a 
shrubery border, and most of them answer well that 
way; indeed, more so than in beds. 
(Enotliera (Evening Primrose), is a fine family of 
plants, producing some good bedders; but only two 
of them are suited for our white groups, and these 
are not used nearly to the extent they might be— 
either because they are affected by particular soils, as 
they certainly are, or their cultivation is not generally 
understood. The best of them is Taraxifolia or 
Dandelion-leaved, and should be used as an annual; 
the seed to be sown in August or February, and the 
plants turned out in May, in rich deep sandy soil, 
where they will soon trail out and cover a bed all 
over, and produce very large white evening flowers. 
The other white one is called speciosa, and rises to a 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
