383 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 28 . 
could be kept sufficiently low, no flower is more beau¬ 
tiful while it lasts. It stands the winter well, and it 
might easily be proved next spring. I have now the 
fellow to it in beautiful bloom,— Microspermum alias 
Eucnide bartonioides. It deserves more than was said of 
it last year as a pot annual for the greenhouse or rooms, 
but it is rather difficult to get up well in the first stage 
or two. Mr. Walton’s new case seems to suit such ten¬ 
der or slender seedlings at first, for his plants of it are 
now the best I have seen. 
The white and purple Candytuft make the next best 
pot-plants; five plants of either of them will make a 
large mass in a 32-pot, and they improve by using the 
richest soil for them. 
The red or purple Virginian Stock is about the first 
annual to bloom in the spring. The way to have it in 
pots is to take up little lumps of soil, or balls, and the 
more of them which you can put into a pot the better 
it looks. I once saw, more than twenty years ago, at 
least a dozen of pots of it taken up in February when 
it was coming into flower, and they lasted in the greeu- 
house till the end of May as gay as any plants w T e had. 
They were allowed to hang over the pots, and they were 
so thick together that they seemed to live entirely on 
the watering. The white Virginian Stock makes no 
show in a pot, but the red one is capital that way. 
For those who have the convenience of keeping 
annuals in pots over winter, there are none better than 
the different kinds of Scldzanthus, particularly Schiz- 
anthus Hookerii and violaceus, which are better than 
pinnatus for pots, but are of the same habit. 
The Clarkias do not make nice pot-plants, it being 
difficult to keep them from being too long in the legs; 
but the Clarkia-like plant, Eucaridium grandifloruni, 
makes one of the very best pot-plants, even better than 
in the open ground, and it stands the winter, and it may 
be potted as thickly as the Virginian Stock. 
Godetia rubicunda and G. Lindlyana are very beautiful 
in pots; but, like the Clarkias, they soon get too leggy, 
and it is only where there is a collection of plants that 
they come in useful like the old-fashioned Chrysanthe¬ 
mums, their bottoms could then be hid with taller 
plants. 
Viscaria oculata was exhibited as a pot plant only a 
few years back, and beautiful bushy plants of it they 
used to exhibit. This, however, requires a very dry, 
airy place to winter in, and is the last of those hardy 
; annuals that I recommend for sowing now to stand out 
1 during the winter, and to come in for potting in the 
spring. 
There are many more kinds; but one hardly knows 
what to say about them, as very few persons have ever 
tried them that way; and although they may do for 
patches, or even for whole beds out-of-doors, late in the 
spring, I am not aware that they are suitable for being 
removed into pots; but those that I have mentioned, 
I have either grown in pots myself, or have seen them 
with others so good, that I am sure of their usefulness, 
their gayness, and the ease and simplicity of this way 
of treating them. D. Beaton. 
Paint for Barns. —The following mixtures are given 
in Wheeler’s new and useful (American) work, entitled 
“ Homes for the People,” from which some valuable 
hints may be derived in forming desirable tints : — 
A cool grey, similar to what would be the tint of unpainted 
timber after a few years, may be obtained as follows :— 
Indian Red, half-a-pound; 
Lamp Black, three ounces ; 
Raw Umber, half-a-pound, mixed with one hundred 
pounds of White Lead. 
This, colour will be changed by the addition of sand, 
which in all cases is recommended, in a proportion of 
about one quart to every one hundred pounds of mixed 
colour. The finest and whitest sand that the neighbour¬ 
hood affords should be used, and as its hue differs so will 
the tint of the paint be changed. 
This colour, with one-third less white, is very suitable for 
wooden roofs, and is a cool, unreflecting grey tint of great 
softness and beauty. 
Cream colour, No. 1.—A soft pleasant tint like that of 
coffee greatly diluted with milk, is oftentimes well adapted 
to a building, particularly in regions where red sand stone 
or other similar objects, with such local colouring, give a 
brown hue to portions of the landscape. 
It may be mixed as follows:— 
Yellow Ochre, five pounds ; 
Burnt Umber, half-a-pound; 
Indian Red, quarter-of-a-pound; 
Chrome Yellow, No. I, half-a-pound, with one hun¬ 
dred pounds of White Lead. 
The key notes in this colour are the Indian Red and the 
Chrome Yellow, and the tone may be brightened or lowered 
by more or less of either, as individual taste may prefer. 
No. 2.—A still more delicate tint, resembling the pure 
colour of the Caen stone, and well adapted for a large 
building with many beaks of outlines, may be mixed thus:— 
Yellow Ochre, two pounds ; 
Vandyke Brown, quarter-of-a-pound; 
Indian Red, quarter-of-a-pound; 
Chrome Yellow, No. 1, half-a-pound to every one 
hundred pounds of Lead. 
DESULTORY NOTES. 
EDGINGS FOR WALKS AND BORDERS. 
Mr. Beaton struck a welcome note on this subject 
the other week. There can be no question as to the 
trouble and expense of narrow grass edgings. I should 
never like to see them narrower than from fifteen to 
twenty-four inches, and if wider, all the better. Jobbing 
gardeners will owe our friend a quantity of thanks. 
There is nothing that small proprietors grudge more 
than the keeping of such edgings, and the truly indus¬ 
trious man is very apt to be considered a nick-nack 
fritter. Some time ago, a gentleman sent me the length 
and width of such edgings he possessed, duly reckoned 
up into so many square yards, and the, to him, uncon¬ 
scionable time taken up in their management. He was 
no stranger to many gardening operations, and had even 
handled a scythe in his younger days; so I advised him 
to try a dozen of yards, and the result was that the gar¬ 
dener was praised, instead of blamed. I am at present 
alluding to edgings for pleasure-grounds; for kitchen- 
gardens nothing beats tiles, stones, and slates, the last 
being neatest and best, though Box-edgings, cut twice a 
year, look well. In the case referred to above, as well 
as that of many others, I have recommended, and seen 
introduced, verges of Box, of Ivy, and the smaller Peri- 
i winkles. These all do admirably in roughish, wild 
! scenery, or where the opposite side is not bounded by a 
fine kept lawn. In such a position, notwithstanding its 
expense, something more than mere prejudice would 
f seem to advise the glass verge. I have never seen the 
Berberry tried, but I have no doubt it would answer 
well. Frequently, long lengths of these troublesome 
grass verges are to be found bounding the sides of walks, 
with shrubberies on each side; and in such cases, all 
such edgings as Berberry, Ivy, &c., would be more ap¬ 
propriate than grass, and cost nothing in comparison in 
keeping. In very many cases, such shrubberies would 
be improved, if, instead of a. narrow raked border, the 
Ivy, &c., was allowed to go right up to the shrubs, and 
thus produce a green carpet of uneven breadth as the 
shrubs approached and receded from the walk. 
I hardly think I should have alluded to this subject, 
if a gallant Admiral, lately returned from Paris, had not 
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