the sides of vases and baskets for weepers. They should be sown in February in a gentle bottom heat, and afterwards potted singly, two or three in a 4-inch pot, and forwarded in heat till strong and well rooted; then, when well hardened off, planted out about the end of May.

Besides these, the following are suitable for planting round the sides of vases and baskets:—

For winter weepers, all the more moderate-growing hardy evergreen climbers are suitable for planting round the edges of vases and baskets, such as Ivies, Helianthemums; while many of the Saxifrages, Aubrietias, Alyssums, and evergreen Candytufts, etc., furnish sufficient variety of lesser things for the edges of vases and baskets and raised beds.

The whole of the foregoing evergreen variegated and berry-bearing plants are exceedingly useful for mixed borders where winter and early spring effect is the object; and a good few genera can be selected from them to play an effective part in the winter and early spring, both in beds by themselves and in combination with what are known, and have been already treated of, as spring bedding plants. Where effect has to be studied immediately after the autumn flowers are removed, of necessity the chief portion of the plants used must be

evergreen shrubby plants. For however beautiful many of our spring-flowering subjects are in spring, they are, through a severe winter, oftentimes dejected enough in appearance. Some of the hardier-foliaged herbaceous plants can, however, be pressed into service, where winter effect is the point aimed at without reference to spring. When both seasons have to be studied, selections from both shrubby, bulbous, and perennial plants can be effectively combined. At the same time, where such has to be attempted, I would recommend, as is shown in the designs, that many of the beds, be composed exclusively of close-growing evergreen plants, such as the various Ivies, which are exceedingly beautiful for ground-works; and that into such beds, contrasting shrubs and other things, such as Coniferæ in a small state. Hollies of various-coloured foliage, Garrya elliptica, Yuccas, and berried plants, should be introduced. These, dotted into low closely-growing carpets of green and variegated foliage, would look exceedingly well, and have a distinct character, while these panel plants. might be removed in time, and specimen Pelargoniums and other summer-flowering and ornamental foliaged plants could take their place, and thus add a distinct and interesting feature to the summer garden. Spring flowers might also play their part in such beds, by introducing them round the edgings, where a space might be preserved for them a foot or more in width, which, in the event of its being planted with bulbs, might be mossed over, or have some evergreen twigs stuck into it till the bulbs came up. For this purpose many plants could be used as ground-works and panel plants. For instance: a permanent bed may be formed of Erica carnea, which flowers throughout the winter and spring, with such

a graceful plant as Yucca recurva pendula as panel plants; but as many such beds will be illustrated in a subsequent chapter, it is unnecessary to dwell more on them here, as a few illustrations teach this matter more fully and intelligently than words can.

CHAPTER XI.

ARRANGEMENT OF COLOURS.

It is probably a bettter understood, and in some respects an easier, matter to propagate and cultivate the necessary stock of plants to fill up a flower garden, than to arrange them according to the laws of colour, so as to produce effects that will satisfy the eye of taste. In many respects, even those who are best versed in the principles which ought to guide the gardener in this important matter have difficulties to contend with which are unknown to the most intelligent colour-theorist. One of those difficulties-and one that is not very easily overcome-arises out of the varieties of height and habit of the plants, which are to the gardener what paints are to the painter. Another very formidable one has often to be dealt with, in the unsuitableness of many garden designs, especially in the case of those where the beds are very large and too close together; or, what is equally unfavourable, they may be long and narrow, and much too near the points from which they can be critically viewed. Under such circumstances it is not unfrequently most difficult to apply the principles of either harmony or contrast of colours, and at the same time give essential prominence to symmetry.

Modification is therefore forced upon the gardener ; and consequently very much depends on good taste and

long and careful observation in combining plants of various heights, and in dealing with designs which are unsuitable for purely scientific arrangement. But at the same time there are few places-not even excepting the single bed of the cottager, or small group of the villa-which do not afford an opportunity to some extent for a definite system of arrangement. A single bed in an isolated position may be made to display the effects of either harmony or contrast, or both, in flower-gardening; and even where such difficulties as I have named exist, there is no doubt, as I have previously remarked, that glaring errors are to be avoided only by having a knowledge of the simple elementary principles which govern the harmony and contrast of colours. Experienced practitioners have generally by them a plentiful store of notes, carefully made in former years when the flowers were in their prime. Each combination of plants that, though not strictly according to scientific dicta, has been chaste and pleasing, has been carefully noted; and the planting of a flower-garden becomes to such a matter of much more ease and certainty than to the less experienced. But it is impossible to apply individual practice to a great variety of circumstances and designs, and for that reason theory is here of more than usual importance.

Arrangement of Colours according to the Law of Contrast. The experiment of admitting a ray of sunlight through an aperture into a dark room, and after it enters the apartment making it pass through a triangular glass prism on to a white wall at the opposite side of the room, analyses the light, and shows us the various colours of which it is composed. Immediately on passing through the prism, it is dispersed, and forms on the

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