The Subtropical Garden; or, beauty of form in the flower garden.

List of Plants for forming mixtures and carpets beneath Subtropical Plants.

Trees and Shrubs of remarkable foliage suited for the Subtropical garden.

[The trees of this Selection will for the most part display much greater beauty and size of foliage if kept in a dwarf simple-stemmed condition by being cut down every year. Conifers are, of course, excepted.]

A Selection of Conifers for association with flower-garden Plants.

Conifers most suited for the surroundings of the flower-garden and pleasure-ground—kinds which, though noble and graceful as can be in many instances, are yet too large for anything but the framing of the picture, so to speak.

A Selection of Gourds.

Amongst the most beautiful are the Turk’s Cap varieties, such as Grand Mogul, Pasha of Egypt, Viceroy, Empress, Bishop’s Hat, etc; the Serpent Gourd, Gooseberry Gourd, Hercules’ Club, Gorilla, St. Aignan, Mons. Fould, Siphon, Half-moon, Giant’s Punchbowl, and the Mammoth, weighing from 170lb. to upwards of 200lb.; while amongst the miniature varieties the Fig, Cricket-ball, Thumb, Cherry, Striped Custard, Hen’s-egg, Pear, Bottle, Orange, Plover’s-egg, etc., are very pretty examples, and very serviceable for filling vases, etc. All these are well adapted to the climate of England, and there are many others equally suitable—a fact sufficiently indicated in one collection shown by Mr. W. Young, which consisted of 500 varieties, all English grown, the greater number of which were sown where grown, and came to maturity without the assistance of glass or any other protection. The ground being manured and dug one spit deep, the seed was sown the second week in May, and from first to last many of the plants had no water supplied to them through the season. Others, by way of experiment, had it in various quantities—the more water was given, the larger, the freer, and the better the produce. Sowing in a frame at the end of April, and exposing them to the free air during the day so as to prevent them being drawn, and then removing the frame altogether to harden them off before planting out, would be the best way to secure an early growth of gourds. Sowing in the open ground under hand-lights would also do, but not so well.

Ornamental Grasses.

List of Ferns that may be grown with advantage away from the fernery proper.

[Even should any of these thrive better in shade, it is usually easy to secure this for them in groups by wood-walks.]

List of hardy aquatics and bog-plants of bold and distinct habit suitable for grouping on the margins of lakes, etc.

 
THE END.

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET
AND CHARING CROSS.