October 14. 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 
37 
HEEBACEOUS BLANTS. 
The very best autumn-flowering plant of this descrip¬ 
tion that I saw in the Society’s garden, was Funkia 
grandijlora alba. In my younger days, Funkias went by 
tlie name of Hemerocallis, or Day Lily, and this white 
one, though not very new, is the very best of the family, 
and is, indeed, a conspicuous plant, well worth having; 
and flowering so late in the season, makes it still more 
desirable. 'There are two plants not altogether her¬ 
baceous, or shrubby, but something hetween the two as 
they stood in the borders; one is Clematis tuhulosa, and 
' the other my own groat favourite, Indujofera decora. 
I Both have received medals as green-house plants, but 
they are sufliciently hardy about London to stand out 
in the borders, and from what I know of them, both 
prefer a peat border. The Clematis stood as a thick 
bush, twenty inches or two feet high, and well covered 
with large light-blue flowers. I saw it in two or three 
other places this season, where it was not nearly so 
good, but the nature of the soil made all the difference. 
Oentiana pneumonantke was in fine bloom in the Ameri- 
can-garden, and there were several other species of the 
Gentian, all nice flowers for a mi.xcd border; and there 
are several little shrubs, or half shrubs, that are equally 
suitable for such a place, and foremost among tliem is 
the old-fashioned Comptonia asplenifolia, named after 
Bishop Compton, the greatest patron of gardening and 
botany in his day. It is a North American plant, doing 
better in peat than any other way, with leaves as pretty 
as those of a fern; and Clethra alnifolia, another little 
American plant, requiring a damp peat-border, and 
seldom seen out of nurseries. I saw them both in the 
mi.ved borders at Cliiswick, and I never saw them so 
much in character before. In the same borders were 
largo patches of the scarce Azalea procumhens, which 
one hardly ever sees in these days out of botanic gardens; 
this is a native of the Grampian range, in Scotland, and 
it is said that at one time its place of growth was only 
known to the Messrs. Brown, of the Kinoul Nursery, at 
Perth, who made a better market of it than of tlie Double 
Scotch Rose, which was first obtained by them in that 
nursery, and I never saw it more flourishing than on 
this occasion, and I recommend it and Epigeea repens, 
another scarce ])lant, as pet plants for tlie American 
borders. A plant of the Lilium giganteum, of India, one 
of the most stately of all the true lilies, has been jdanted 
out here in the new American garden, and it looks as if 
it woidd do out-of-doors with us; and if so, it will he a 
match some day for the Pampas grass (Ognerium argen- 
teum), which is not far from it in the same garden, and 
which I ho]ic the Messrs, Dickson, of Chester, will ho 
able to seed, and when Mr. Appleby calls there again, 
he would bring us up a large batch of the seedlings; 
indeed, it would be worth while to send out to Mr. 
Tweedie for a peck or two of the seeds of this royal 
grass. Mr. Tweedie was the collector who first sent 
it to the Glasnovin Botanic Garden, in Dublin; and 
as Mr. Appleby tells us (vol. viii., j). 414), that “ unfor¬ 
tunately the Alessrs. Dickson have not been able as 
yet to increase it,” writing to Mr. Tweedie seems 
now the only chance we have of getting a stock of it 
for supplying the universal demand that is sure to be 
made for it wherever The Cottwgtj GAunENER is read. 
Does our friend Mr. B., of Philadelphia, know a corre¬ 
spondent in the south, who could send him a supply of 
the seeds? Lot him and Mr. Low, of Clapton, who has 
dealt largely with Mr. Tweedie, run a race for this grass. 
ROCK PLANT. 
But grass or no grass, I must not run away from my 
little pet plants, till I make known the best rock gdant, 
in England or America either; it is called Polggonum 
vaccinifoliuvi. I saw it both at tlie Society’s Garden, 
and at l\cw, and there can be no mistake about it, 
although some of ns are disappointed at not seeing the 
flowers come out so gay and brilliant as they are given 
by Dr. Hoyle, in his “ Illustrations of the Plants of 
India,” where the colour of the flower and the spikes is 
a deep rose, but with us they put you more in mind of a 
red brick than of a rose; nevertheless, all the cottage 
gardeners in the kingdom must get hold of it. It grows 
as close as a carpet, and runs away “ like anything,” as 
Sam Slick would say. It only grows a few inches high, 
but it flowers all over, like a corn-field, in close spikes, 
three or four inches long, and that too all through the 
autumn, until the frost puts a stop to it. According to 
Dr. Boyle, it grows up as high above the level of the 
sea as 13,000 feet, on the peaks of the Himalayas, so 
that no frost can hurt it here. It would soon car[)et a 
bed for Ilhododendrons, like Musk miimdus, or it would 
cover over rock-work, or blocks, or make an edging for 
any block bank, or cover bare places about a Swiss- 
cottage, like the common Tutzan. D. Beaton. 
JOTTINGS ABOUT MATTEBS OF TASTE. 
Unity of Expression. —“And what about that crankey 
subject?” good-humouredly write and say many of our 
friends. “Just let us know the temperature and the 
soil, and the waterings, certain plants re(piirc, and leave 
us to give expression according to our fancy. Your 
greatest doctors disagree as to the veriest trifles in those 
matters; why should not I have a fancy of my own ? 
If it pleases me, who has a right to interfere ? And by 
what means can you demonstrate that your ideas, your 
tastes, your arrangements, are superior to mine?” 1 
own there is great force in statements such as these. 
We all will form opinions of our own, and it requires 
time, observation, and thought, to alter us a shade in 
their validity. A man could hardly get along if he did 
not consider his own plans best in the jtcculiar circum¬ 
stances. He must be orthodox. The mischief is that, 
going a stop farther, he is apt to imagine that his doxy 
is the only orthodoxy, while all other doxies are hetero¬ 
doxy. Would that these ideas were confined to gar¬ 
dening. They meet us in the most momentous affairs 
of life. In our little world of gardening they foster alike 
rude, independent action, ancl a servile, copying spirit. 
“ Oh ! such a design will be quite out of character with 
the rest of your grounds; it will neither contrast nor 
harmonise with anything.” “Indeed! why? I don’t 
see that a fine wheat stack even shoidd bo any disagree¬ 
able object on my lawn.” Another will have beds of 
his own quite original in their form, and they are twisted 
and turned into all conceivable quirks and fancies, in¬ 
volving vast labour in making and keeping, and yet 
never can be made to present an imposing effect. “ One 
arrangement is very striking at a certain place—I will 
have the same here.” It matters not that one position 
may bo on a hill, and the other in a valley—that shut¬ 
ting out may be required in one place, and opening up 
in another ! Water in every shape is a delightful acces¬ 
sory in gardens and pleasure grounds; its very sight 
cheers—the noise of its gurgle, ripple, or dropping, 
tranquilises the mind. A gentleman has come from 
Versailles, or witnessed the unequalled jet d'eau at 
Chatsworth, and forthwith he must have a spirting 
miniature fountain in his garden, though placed in the 
highest ground in the neighbourhood, leading every 
visitor to ask in astonishment where the water comes 
from. No douht, even in this respect, much may be 
done with water-rams and steam ])ower; but if the 
natural position of the valley is wanting, the magical 
influence of a fountain will ever be lessened, if not 
destroyed. 
Hence it is, notwithstanding all that has been said 
and written, that the expressions, “ good taste, and bad 
