AUGUST. 
171 
profit. Soon some of these began to show evidences of the hot sun proving 
too much for them, and the flaccid shrunken foliage told the old tale of some¬ 
thing being wrong. It was a case calling urgently for prompt measures. 
Carefully removing all foliage showing signs of decay, I gave the plants a 
sprinkling, then inverted over them some 24-sized flower-pots, and, going a step 
further, environed these with laurel sprigs to shield even the pots from the 
sun’s direct rays. By this method I have succeeded in arresting their down¬ 
ward course. Some cool weather coming opportunely greatly helped my 
efforts; and now with but one exception, and that by no means a hopeless one, 
the plants look as if getting towards convalescence, having been snatched from 
the very jaws of death. 
Now, whether this somewhat rude theory will accord with the practice of 
any one else or not I do not know, but it will do no harm to broach it. How 
does it commend itself to Mr. Fleming, of Cliveden, who is, I suppose, com¬ 
pelled to bed out late, as his splendid system of spring gardening would tend 
to postpone the bedding-out process ? I say, Plant early—as early as it can 
possibly be done ; and great care should be taken that the plants be not too 
much pot-bound, as sometimes when this is the case an excess of moisture first 
soddens and then destroys the outer roots. Calceolarias root very quickly into 
a light sandy soil, and a little should be used when the plants are placed in the 
beds. Carefully open out the roots of pot-bound plants. Do not plant them as 
unconcernedly and as carelessly as if they were so many brickbats. I have seen 
bedding-out performed in a way that would excite the indignation of a bishop. 
In August it is possible to go among flower-beds where work has been slovenly 
and thoughtlessly done, and pull up dead Calceolarias as full of vitality about 
the roots as drumsticks; and then a stupid gardener laments the devastation, 
wrings his hands, and wonders at the cause. 
I say, Bed out early; and to that I add, Bed out intelligently. There will 
be less fadures, and less of those great eyesores—beds filled up at the eleventh 
hour with any kind of odds and ends, no order, no taste, and hanging like a 
millstone round the neck of the unhappy gardener, who trembles over the 
uncertainty of his tenure of office. 
Quo. 
ON MOSSES. 
Is there no way of rendering Mosses better adapted for ornamental pur¬ 
poses than they generally are at present ? No one who gazed upon those 
splendid pans of Lycopods, comprehending so many kinds, exhibited at the recent 
great International Horticultural Exhibition, could fail to be struck with the 
thought that, beautiful as they were, full of luxuriance, and a credit to their 
growers, yet there was such a sameness, such a lack of varied colouring about 
them, that one good look sufficed to take in all their charms, and the gazer speedily 
passed on in search of something more varied and pleasing. 
Now, Mosses may be grown in a variety of ways, whether in small pans or 
pots, to stand in front of or amidst flowering or ornamental-foliaged plants, 
where they have a very pleasing and effective appearance. It is, however, 
generally understood that to grow Mosses well, and especially for exhibition, 
they must be in as large pans as possible, forming dense masses from 18 to 
30 inches in breadth, and almost invariably offering a flat surface, devoid of 
flowers or coloured foliage to give relief, and they thus present anything but 
that varied aspect upon which the eye delights to rest. 
Having this season grown a few rather larger pans than usual of such as 
Selaginella denticulata, Martensii, formosa, and a few others, and being struck 
