BEDDING PLANTS. 
61 
Their propagation is managed by separating the root-stocks, 
either when they are taken up in the autumn or in March, when 
they are repotted to prepare them for the following season ; 
through the winter they should be kept rather dry, or at least, 
in a dormant state. 
Perhaps no other genus presents such a meeting of opposite 
characters as are observable in the plants just mentioned and 
those little creeping species equally well known as varieties of 
L. erinus and L. gracilis, the difference is so great as to lead to 
the supposition that a misnomer must exist in one section or 
the other. For bedding purposes the creeping kinds are much 
esteemed, as they may be introduced immediately at the front of 
large mixed beds, or wher every small ones occur these little plants 
can be used without outraging the proportion that should always 
he observed in the relative size of the bed and the plants it con¬ 
tains ; erinus, and the varieties grandijlora , alba, compacta, and 
c. alba are most frequently used; compacta is a particularly close 
growing plant, very neat in its appearance, but does not bloom 
so freely as the others, its greatest height does not exceed three 
inches, while the others often reach twice that stature. 
If a few plants of these are preserved in a pit through the 
winter they may be multiplied to almost any extent in spring, 
by striking the cuttings in a gentle hotbed. 
Nierembergia. The whole of the four species included in 
Nierembergia are handsome, little, free-flowering plants, well 
suited for the smaller beds; their silvery-white flowers, having a 
purple centre, are produced so profusely, and in such long suc¬ 
cession, as to render at least one of them quite indispensable in 
every flower garden ; the plants are distinguished by their slender 
branching stems and neat habit. They are preserved and pro¬ 
pagated in the usual manner of greenhouse plants. In the beds 
they should be planted one foot apart. 
(E not her a macrocarpa, with very large yellow flowers, Drum- 
mondii, yellow, and taraxacifolia, white, should always be 
grown, as they are dwarf-spreading plants and excellent bloomers. 
They require a light airy situation in a good pit through the 
winter, or they are liable to injury from damp; propagation is 
usually effected by cuttings, though seed is sometimes produced 
in sufficient quantity. Each plant will cover two feet of space. 
