310 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, AttGttSt 21, 1860. 
from the sun and heat of last year combined with the wet 
and damped air of this. The flower-beds for the million 
will astound some people; but everything is done at Kew 
to attract the million, and to draw the Londoners to pure 
air and pleasant sights, and not only so, but familiar 
sights too. Beds of Lilacs, beds of Guelder Boses, beds 
of Cydonia japonic a, beds of the dear old CorcTwrus 
japonicus, and beds of all the old Japonicas that were in 
use and vogue when Loudon was in long clothes down in 
the distant provinces. Cloves, Picotees, Wallflowers, and 
Sweet Williams, Powdered Beaus, and Ox-eye Daisies,* 
will follow on the margins of these and similar beds, as 
sure as the old volunteer spirit has revived on the heels 
of the fashion for having village gardening to allure the 
free citizens to the richest enjoyments of country life in 
its highest aspects and aspirations. Beds of Spircea 
Nobleanum, beds of Spircea Douglasii, beds of Spircea 
callosa alias Fortunii, beds of Spircea prunifolia flore 
pleno, beds of Pibes sanguinea, and so on till you get 
round to Japonicas again, have been done and planted 
since my last report, and the plants are looking as healthy 
and as much up in bloom, and for bloom or past bloom, as 
if they had been there three years at least, and all from 
the low, damp, dark atmosphere of this season, which 
sent some few Verbenas and all Petunias out of beauty 
altogether. The blue Lobelias did very well, but not so 
strongly as we had them in the Chiswick Experimental, 
where we got thirty-six names for gracilis and its branches, 
and over twenty names for erinoides and its descendants. 
But here at Kew and there at Chiswick one could not 
escape the dread of losing our very best kinds, if people 
will persist in rearing so many yearly seedlings of them. 
Lobelia speciosa at Kew, from the first seed-house in 
London, is getting wild already. Calceolaria amplexi¬ 
caulis is as good here as usual, and better than you see 
it anywhere else round London in the best season. All 
the variegated Geraniums are fine. Punch is their best 
scarlet; Cerise unique next best; then Tom Thumb, and 
then the Nosegays. 
The Variegated Mint is a perfect picture; and if all 
their stock of it were run out in one line it would be over 
a mile long, perhaps over two miles. It is as near as 
possible nine inches wide, and from three to four inches 
high, and not the slightest mark of a knife or shears cut 
in it. The s.ecret is this—not a cutting is ever made of 
it the year round, and no old root of it is ever planted 
out at Kew. How do you do it ? Lord Baglan is their 
best Verbena—I mean stood best; but Pur pile King is 
nearly as good in some beds, and in others not much to 
boast of. Cuphcea ignea is better than in hot summers. 
Cerastium tomentosum does beautifully ; but I must take 
to my notes, and give the degrees of goodness of all the 
kinds as we go. 
The terrace garden in front of the great Palm-house is 
full from end to end, but not such a growth as is usual 
here. Each half is complete in itself, and a duplicate of 
the other half. All complete figures in this terrace style 
read from the centre bed; and the centre is then the key 
bed, which must never be high-coloured for fear of at¬ 
tracting the sight to the centre, and so making the place 
look apparently much less than it is. The two key beds 
have been put under a bushel since I was last "there. 
A vase is placed in the centre of each of these beds, to 
complete a row of vases which occupy the centre line of 
the whole terrace, and thus two good ideas oppose each 
other, though ninety-nine persons out of hundred may 
never perceive it. Well, the centre, or key bed, has a vase 
of mixed colours, and round the pedestal is a ring of 
Perilla, then a body of Flower of the Day, a ring of 
Paronne Siegel, and then an edging of Cerastium, all 
looking very good. The pattern consists of three rows of 
beds, as it were, but not in reality, owing to the shapes of 
the beds. In the centre line, and right and left of the 
* The popular M'S for Auriculas and Polyanthuses about 1820. 
centre, or key bed, are two beds of Lord Paglan Verbena; 
and between these two bright scarlet beds, and on each 
side of the key bed, are two beds of Ageratum. In the 
centre line again, beyond Lord Paglan, right and left, 
are two beds of Purple King Verbena; then two beds 
of white Verbena, and at the ends two beds of Golden 
Chain. The end and corner beds on each side of the 
centre line are four match Tom Thumb beds ; and inside 
these, four match-beds of Calceolaria amplexicaulis. The 
next and last side-beds of the figure opposite the key bed 
are two, with the centres of Perilla and Brilliant Gera¬ 
nium round them. Without a plan of the beds this is 
not easily comprehended, but that is the best arrange¬ 
ment of the colours and the quantity of each that I know 
of in a composition within many miles of London. The 
accessories now in vases, grass, gravel, and round-headed 
bushes, and upright-growing ones are very complete, 
with the lake and fountain in front. Also, with its own 
accessories of vases all round, and at each end of the 
terrace composition, to complete the whole space, are 
four more oblong beds, two at each end, and these are 
planted differently from the pattern beds ; the colours in 
them run in broad stripes of purple, white, and scarlet 
across the beds, and in a line with the axis of the terrace— 
an artistic move to tell that these four beds do not belong 
to the general pattern. 
The Dahlias are in smaller patterns, placed across each 
end of the Palm-house, the two ends being duplicates, of 
course. In these two patterns the Dahlias occupy two 
large oblong beds in the centre of each end, and at each 
end of the Dahlia-beds comes a round bed. The Dahlias 
are dwarf kinds ; the centre line of them of dark kinds; 
a row of yellow kinds going all round, and the old 
Zelinda on the outside. Thus we have Dahlias at last 
planted on the system of keeping the colours together, 
or according to the rule of giving variety as opposed to 
the common way of mixing them up anyhow. 
The two round beds at the ends of the Dahlias have a 
tall Humea in the centre; then a collection of Gladio¬ 
luses, among which Verbenas are put to cover the sur¬ 
face, and there is a fine edging of Variegated Mint all 
round. Here, then, is a new move to admit the lovely 
Gladioli into our system of bedding. Bound these Dahlia- 
squares is a border of Grass, in which standard Boses 
occupy the centres of small pincushion-beds, into which 
one may stick in anything, so it is pretty. That is just 
how to dispose of odds and ends and novelties in a large 
garden; and if one or more of the pincushions fail, up 
with them, and down again with a fresh experiment; and 
who knows but that, or those plants, may prove their 
title to a premier-bed on the terrace another year ? 
On the other front of the big house comes the American 
garden in sunk panels in parts and ports on the general 
level, with a broad walk running through the centre of 
it, and through the pleasure-ground in part, and through 
the arboretum beyond, and on to the grand new lake, 
which you will see under sail and feather in the Illus¬ 
trated London News by anticipation, for it is yet as I 
shall tell you soon. But let us now keep to the flowers. 
Vv ell, in the centre of the sunk Americans, and on each 
side of that long walk stand a match pair of Araucaria 
imbricata on raised knolls, which have a deep level dia¬ 
meter, but not quite so deep as that of the Bose Mount 
at the Crystal Palace. The Araucarias come in the 
centre, as the flagstaff does there; and round the top of 
these knolls is a circle of flower-beds cut into four 
divisions—two of these, the opposite or match pair, are 
in Calceolaria amplexicaulis, with an edging of Perilla. 
The other match pair in Lord Paglan Verbena, edged 
with their charming way of doing the Variegated Mint. 
These are splendid, being the four best-to-do things they 
have, after the Variegated Geraniums. The run of eight 
long oblong beds on each side the walk through the 
American garden are on this wise—the first pair next the 
Palm-house China Boses edged with Cerastium, the Boses 
