The following references are to the general plan (fig. 75.): - 101, Hearteases of different colours, and Maurandya Barclayana, blue and white; Tropï¾µolum peregrinum, yellow; Sollya heterophylla, bright blue; Tropï¾µolum pentaphyllum, red and yellow; Calampelis scaber, red; Lophospermum scandens and erubescens, red, trained on wirework. Alyssum saxatile, and Indian chief calceolaria, yellow ochre. 102, bis, Iberis sempervirens, and Frogmore scarlet geraniums. Stocks of sorts. 104, Phlox Drummondii. Lupinus polyphyllus, blue; and Lysimachia verticillata, yellow. Lupinus nootkatensis and nanus, with a border enclosing it of Achillea tomentosa, yellow. 107, Calceolarias of sorts. Wallflowers, iberises, and alyssums; clarkias, collinsias, and Antirrhinum caryophylloides. Wallflowers and scarlet geraniums. Cheiranthus alpinus, and clarkias, eutocas, gilias, nemophilas, and petunias. 111, Geraniums of sorts. Iberis saxatilis, and scarlet geraniums. Nemophila insignis, and Verbena Tweediana. 114, Alyssum saxatilis, and Calceolaria angustifolia. Noisette roses. Groups round trees, consisting of alyssum, aubrietia, cheiranthus, and heartsease of sorts. Iberis saxatilis, and Gilia tricolor. Alyssum saxatile, and dwarf nasturtium. Aubrietia purpurea, and Nemophila insignis. 120, Collomia coccinea, and Fuchsia globosa. The basket in the centre of the compartment is planted with Lobelia gracilis, in the middle of which is a plant of Fuchsia globosa. 121, Small garden, with rockwork, planted with alpine plants, similar to those enumerated for the rockwork I, in fig. 79. Little difficulty will arise in procuring and preserving the plants enumerated in the foregoing list. Many of them are hardy perennial herbaceous plants; and most of the others, which are annual, will, if allowed to stand to ripen their seeds, sow themselves. The kinds which will require most practical knowledge are those which are generally termed green-house plants; but which are so hardy as to produce as splendid a show in our flower-gardens during the summer months, as they would do if they were in their native countries. As it is with this latter class of plants that we have most to do in filling flower-gardens during summer, it will here be my object to show how they may be preserved during winter, without the aid of green-houses. The pits in which such plants should be kept, will require to have their walls of 14 inch brickwork, and pigeon-holed; with tiles half-inch thick, set on edge, 2 in. from the wall inside, to be carried as high as the pigeon-holes; in which small apertures may be left, in order that a little steam may be admitted into the pit, from dung linings or dead leaves, if necessary: but no heat from dung linings will be required, except in the most severe weather, and then only just sufficient to keep out the frost. The heat of the dung or leaves, applied to the outside of the walls, will readily penetrate into the pit, having nothing to oppose it but the thin tiles set on edge. September will be quite soon enough to begin putting in cuttings. The soil in which they are to be inserted should consist of equal portions of peat earth and silver sand; and those of them that are subject to damp off may have a greater proportion of the sand. The pots or pans in which the cuttings are put should be well drained; because it was only by having the wood of the cuttings thoroughly matured, that I was enabled to preserve such plants in pits during the intense frost that we had in the winter just past (1837-8); and, for the same reason, I would recommend that no shading should be used while the cuttings are rooting, but that they should be kept sufficiently near the glass to accelerate their rooting, and yet not so close as to occasion their flagging; which distance must, of course, be regulated by the degree of obliquity at which the sun's rays strike the glass. If the lights, as well as the frames, were placed more vertically than usual, in the spring of the year, when the sun's rays are oblique, the cuttings might be potted off as soon as the very intense frost was past; which would prevent their damping off, and at the same time forward them for planting out in the flower-garden. Bedford Lodge, June, 1838.
