THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 4 , 1859. 
section of tlie Geranium tribe to -which the Nosegays 
belong. When Sir Joseph Paxton wanted to bring them 
out by liberal prizes, when the Crystal Palace Company 
began their Shows, he could get no Nosegay at all; but 
some sent Uniques and Citriodoras, and their allies, as if 
belonging to the Horseshoe breed! It was then deter¬ 
mined to cancel the prizes for Nosegays till the Company 
should teach, not young ladies, but old practical growers, 
-what Nosegays were, and how to use them. Their 
lesson reached this season, from A. B. C. to words of one 
syllable—single beds ; but the book of chapters is in the 
press, and will be issued next season in fourteen times 
the bulk of the elementary lessons. And, as if to com¬ 
plete their industry in that branch, they have got pos¬ 
session, at last, of the original Crimson Variegated Gera¬ 
nium, which is mentioned in Miller s “ Dictionary as 
one of the first sports from Geraniums, and that sport 
began the Nosegays. Is there more than one Duke, or is 
there one in our peerage who possesses this crimson, 
the key to Nosegay hybrid perpetuals? Or rather, is 
there a Duchess in the land who could take objections to 
the mode in which the chains and the upper terrace 
between them were planted this season ? As surely as 
the crimson sport of Miller’s time was the key to the 
treasury chest, from which to supply the necessary colours 
as soon as the artistic mind of the country could be so 
led as to appreciate the value of ribbon planting, and 
planting after the fashion of the make of ribbons, so 
surely did that terrace represent the key to successful 
planting this season. The" whole bottom line of twenty 
oblong beds, more or less, and each bed eighteen feet 
long by six feet wide, more or less, were planted in three 
colours only, and they on the true principle of ribboning 
so managed as to read both ways, straight a-head from 
end to end, and then across the ends as you went along. 
A grand start that! But without actually seeing them 
it is simply impossible to conceive the richness of the 
three colours, when each colour had its legitimate portion 
of the breadth of the pattern. 
At the beginning of the civilisation in gardening, 
people called them ribbons, and were content with so 
many rows of different kinds planted on a border. But 
this was soon altered for the better, and we had never 
more perfectly adjusted the true proportions than was 
done this season on the grand scale on the centre of the 
terrace at the Crystal Palace. The colours—crimson, 
scarlet, dark purple, and orange yellow, or, according to 
tlie weather, deeper or lighter than the tint of the orange. 
A broad band of the so-called Trentham Scarlet, better 
colour, better habit, and a much more free kind to 
bloom ; but no one could make out which was which of 
the two, if in pots, and not in bloom. Tom Thumb is 
not worth more than Is. 6c?. a dozen, while this is not 
dear at Gs. for the same number. Purple King Verbena, 
and Tropceolum elegans outside, standing at one end, the 
distance would carry the eye,—say, over 600 feet, and 
the richness of the colours deceives the eye so far as, for 
a moment, not to account for the spaces between the 
beds, nor even the main centre walk which cuts them in 
the centre. The old disciples of the “ ocular delusion,” 
who planted the scarlets and the yellows in the centre of 
their plots, could not have a better thing to show them 
how they reduced the size of the place than a glance 
from one end of this bottom pattern. By-the-by, how 
would broad stripes of scarlet, purple, and orange, look 
on the bottom of the petticoat when the roads get soft, 
and compel the outer dress to be lifted ? 
Twenty of these oblong beds, and ten of them on each 
side of the cross-walk, with a beginning and an ending in 
a circular bed six feet across, giving eleven circles and 
ten oblongs to each half. I only read off one of the 
halves, as the other half is sure to be duplicate. Each 
circle has a standard Rhododendron, or the Umbrella 
Acacia in the centre ; and when a standard is placed in 
the centre of a circle it changes the nature of it, as it 
were. No matter where it is, it is cut off from depending 
for support from the rest of the beds all round it, or right 
and left of it. These beds, standing on their own merits 
only, received a most appropriate name at the hands of 
the ladies. They call them “ pincushion-beds,”—“most 
convenient things, and you can stick an} , lung into them.” 
Now, when one can stick in any plants without spoiling 
the eflect of a pattern, it is indeed most convenient; and so 
are the twenty-two circular pincushion-beds on the lower 
side of the centre of the grand terrace at the Crystal 
Palace. Yet have a proper understanding of my meaning. 
It is only by using the w-hole line of oblong beds on the 
same pattern that the circles could not interfere with it. 
Let the beds be each of different plants and colours, as 
the grouping system is at Kew, and the circles must be 
made to depend on what is right and left of it. It is ten 
times more convenient as it is, or say rather ten times 
more simple and eleven times more convenient, there 
being eleven beds in each half. If you fully comprehend 
the principle you cannot find fault with the planting of 
any of them on principle. It may or may not be to your 
taste ; but your taste, or their taste, or my own taste, is 
no more law in the face of principle than law is logic in 
the face of the world. 
The first pincushion-bed was on this wise :—Blue and 
white Lobelia speciosa and Flower of the Day, dwarf 
plants. The 2nd, Brilliant and variegated Alvssum, 
“ plant for plant,” all over the bed, and dwarf Fair LLelen 
to give more green and vary the tints ; and the edging of 
Grossnlaricefolia, very young plants, as the edge was not 
over three inches high. 
Capt. Mangles introduced G rossulari afoil a first at Sun¬ 
ning Hill: and the Minimums I spoke of last week are a 
very improved race in the same style. No. 3 was mixed. 
Verbenas and frosted silver plant, Cineraria maritima. 
4th, a Cedar of Lebanon in the centre ; Lobelia speciosa. 
all over, and white variegated common Hydrangea for 
edging, very young little plants out of thumb-pots, or 
small sixties—a most capital idea. 5th, all of Lmperatrice 
Josephine, the variegated Verbena pulchella, a favourite 
with most ladies. 6th, all blue Lobelia, edged with 
Grossulciricefolia Geranium. 7th,all Nierembergia gracilis. 
8th, Cedar again, and all blue over the roots. 9th, red 
Verbenas edged with Heliotrope pegged close down. 
10th, Blue Lobelia and Flower of the Day, edged with 
blue Campanula Carpatica; and the 11th, of blue and 
Dandy, half and half—the very prettiest bed I ever yet 
put my eye on. I never saw anything that way one half 
so good—a decided hit, in fact. 
The circle, or rather the half circle, of Araucarias round 
the top of this part of the terrace has seven of these noble 
Araucarias in each half, and pedestal-beds between them. 
All the Araucaria-beds are covered with Lobelia speciosa, 
the finest I have seen, and all from seeds saved in the 
garden. The pedestal-beds are of Village Maid Geranium 
and Trentham Scarlets alternately, both being edged with 
variegated Geraniums inside and outside the circles; the 
pedestals filling the centre. These are noble masses ; 
but the successor of Tom Thumb outshines the Village 
Maid and all others of his race. 
The Araucarias are in the height of vigour, and out¬ 
strip the Deodars in growth. On the outer half of the 
half-circle of Cinerarias, and next the chain patterns, are 
seven oblong beds with eight pedestals between—four tall 
ones with figures on them, and four low ones with flower- 
vases. The same on the corresponding side. There being 
seven oblong beds in the range gives an odd one, the 
fourth, for a key-bed to be differently planted ; the rest 
in three pairs of match beds—three beds on the right of 
the key-bed, and three corresponding ones on the left. 
Highly artistic and scientific planting this. The fourth, 
or centre, or key-bed is planted with a good kind— Lucia 
rosea Geranium, which does remarkably well in all parts 
of the garden. Next to it, right and left, are a match 
pair of tgnescens superbum, the second pair of Tropceolum 
