1883 .] 
PHACELIA CAMPANULARIA.-BEDDING VeVSUS HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
145 
PHACELIA CAMPANULAEIA. 
[Plate 595.] 
W E received the specimens from which 
our figure of this charming new 
& nn ual was prepared, from Mr. W. 
Thompson, of Ipswich, by whom it 
was introduced from California, where it has 
been found in the counties of San Diego, and 
San Bernardino. It is a dwarfish plant 
branching from the base, in its wild state 
growing about six inches high, the branches 
stoutish, and bearing stalked subcordate 
irregularly dentate leaves, and scorpioid 
racemes of bell-shaped flowers of the richest 
gentian blue, having a greyish throat marked 
by five oblong white blotches ; the lobes of 
the limb are broad rounded and spreading, 
and the anthers projecting beyond the tube of 
the corolla. Some idea of its beauty may be 
formed from the fact that it has won from the 
Royal Horticultural Society’s Floral Com¬ 
mittee—a body not too much addicted to the 
encouragement of annuals—the award of a 
First-class Certificate. 
The plant bears a certain degree of re¬ 
semblance to the old Whitlavia grandiflora, 
now called Phacelin Whitlavia, but is altogether 
different in the splendid blue colour of its 
blossoms, w 7 hich is fully as intense as in the 
smaller-flowered Eutoca viscula now Phacelia 
viscida. The experience one has had with 
these old favourites is suggestive that in its 
successful cultivation the new-comer must 
have a dryish, that is, a thoroughly well- 
drained soil of a free open pervious texture, 
and it will probably be found that manures 
must be used with great caution so as to avoid 
too sappy and succulent a development of the 
branches. The name Phacelia campanularia 
w r as given by Dr. Asa Gray, and is that 
adopted by Mr. Sereno Watson in the Botany 
of California (ii. 467).—T. M. 
BEDDING versus HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 
TT is not unusual now-a-days to read in some 
(I of the gardening periodicals paragraphs 
7 a disparaging all kinds of Bedding, in¬ 
cluding the Ornamental Planting generally 
in use in our Flower Gardens, and eulogising 
the 1 much-neglected’ herbaceous plants as they 
are termed. If, however, we carefully examine 
the question, we shall find that both are neces¬ 
sary in their proper positions, and that the 
one c|ould not, without great disadvantage, be 
substituted for the other. For instance, who 
would venture to place herbaceous plants in a 
well designed flower garden on a terrace, on 
grass in front of the drawing-room windows, 
or in close proximity to the house ? Their 
brief season of flowering, their inequality of 
growth, the different periods in which they 
produce their flowers, and the untidy appear¬ 
ance of the plants as soon as the flowering 
season is over, however carefully they may 
have been selected, would render them quite 
unfit for any such positions. 
Many gardeners of the present day can well 
remember the old flower gardens which were 
in existence previous to the introduction of 
the so-called bedding plants, and their un¬ 
satisfactory condition before the summer was 
half over. The flower gardens of those days 
were mostly placed in some sheltered spot on 
the Lawn, and far away from the house; or if 
near, they were hid away from the windows 
by a belt of evergreen shrubs—no doubt on 
account of the difficulty of keeping them in 
an interesting condition. I well remember 
filling up ugly gaps with greenhouse Pelar¬ 
goniums—there were not many scarlets in those 
days—and the best kinds of Annuals, but with 
all these adjuncts they made a very sorry ap¬ 
pearance in comparison to the flower gardens 
of the present da} 7 , which can be kept in per¬ 
fection until they are destroyed by frost. 
Herbaceous plants are most interesting when 
a good selection is made, and a proper position 
assigned to them, but they are totally unfit for 
geometrical flower gardens. If, however, they 
are planted in front of shrubs, and kept beyond 
their influence in a w r ell prepared border on 
the skirts of the lawn, they look very well, 
and many of them are very useful for furnish¬ 
ing cut flowers for the use of the house ; but 
I would prefer making the herbaceous borders 
in the kitchen garden, especially if the latter 
is in close proximity to the house, as by taking 
the borders on each side of the central walk 
an ornamental appearance is given to the 
garden, which creates a favourable impression 
K 
