In those gardens where the old-fashioned style of bedding alone is carried out, the season just past will have been a rather disappointing one. In our own case we planted out extra-strong flowering plants of Geraniums and other semi-tender bedders the first week of June, in weather which, for its intense heat, had not been reached for many years previously; and on the 10th of that month had frost which cut down Tropaeolums and damaged dwarf Ageratums; and from then till now, we cannot report having experienced any summer weather. The behaviour of Coleus, Alternantheras, Zeas, and other tender plants, put out at end of June, might very properly be characterised as a continual state of uncertainty whether they should brave it out or succumb at once. Coleus have had to be twice planted, and finally to be replaced by a hardier substitute. Up till the memorable week of the Edinburgh Review, the beds and borders were, notwithstanding the cold weather, as satisfactory as could be desired : Calceolarias had been a mass of bloom for three months, Geraniums and others effective for two, beds of mixed Geraniums and Violas from the day the former had been planted out. Since that time no tender-flowering plant has been effective, with the exception of dwarf Agera-tum, which only gives in to frost.

Calceolarias have been, perhaps, quite gay enough, and the Geraniums we use for flowering alone (only seven beds) have been about half this latter time without flower; but when kept clean, and the withered trusses removed, it is wonderful how two or three days of dry weather brightens them up again. The beds and borders planted with leaf-plants are quite as effective now as they have been throughout the summer, and these alone would be a good foil to the slight enforcement of greenery we have been obliged to put up with. For hardy flowering plants this has been a good autumn : in addition to the regular autumn bloomers, quantities of those whose usual flowering season is early summer again coming into flower now. Such very effective plants as Pentstemons and Phloxes have continued without cessation, and are still throwing up fresh flowering shoots. Double Pyrethrums, too, are flowering more freely than I have ever before had them do the second time. Dahlias are quite a host in themselves. Carnations and Picotees have continued to throw up successions of flowers. Tritomas are just now in their most flaming dress, early-flowering Chrysanthemums at their best, and the pretty pink Sedum spectabile in its finest colour.

We have two 9-foot borders surrounded with grass, planted down the centre with Tritomas, round which is run a band of white and red Dahlias, planted alternately. A 2-foot band of Sedum spectabile comes next the Dahlias, and an edging of variegated Dactyllis next the grass. Looked at fifty or one hundred yards off, I don't know that it would be easy to match this border at this season. Rougher in outline, but also telling, is a border backed by a terrace wall. The plants here are mixed, and consist of Tritomas, Single Dahlias, mostly all white, Salvia fulgens and patens, with the reversion of Phloxes and Delphiniums, which had their duty to perform earlier in the season as the main back plants; and in front of these, patches, closely together, of white Picotee and Duke of Wellington Carnation, Chrysanthemum "Precocite," and "Alexander Pele," Pentstemons, Antirrhinums, Marigolds, Gladiolus brenchlyensis, and OEnothera Lamarckiana planted well to the front, are the plants which lend a character to this border. Every half-foot of ground in a border like the above requires to be filled to have effect, and every plant used for the purpose must be selected to tell its tale. No other style of planting mixed borders will ever do for gardeners to take in hand.

In the kitchen-garden, again, where the borders adjoining the principal walk are kept for flowers, though nothing can be more suitable than hardy plants, still, if a long continued and late display of flowers is wanted, only a few kinds must be employed to give effect. Of course we can do without the amount of flower in this garden which we must have in the flower-garden proper, and so admit the best hardy flowers; and by a selection of plants prominently introduced, which it is known will give effect at certain times, still have a sufficient amount of flower when it may be required. I think, also, that at this season much more brightness might be obtained in gardens, were this class of flowers more used for filling detached beds. For instance, there is nothing to rival Sedum spectabile for a pink bed just now; Chrysanthemum "Precocite," again, cannot be equalled in the brilliancy of its yellow flowers when massed; and Tritoma uvaria is simply unapproachable for effect; while with Phloxes, Antirrhinums, Japanese Anemones, Aster longifolius formosus, A. amellus, and Salvia patens, quieter beds can be indulged in. But with these, as well as with ordinary bedding plants, I think it a mistake to dispense with edgings.

Beds of all kinds, and borders as well, without an edging, at least show a want of finish which I do not like. If, for instance, we plant a bed of the Chrysanthemum above-named in a bed cut out in grass, and instead of filling to the edge with the same flower, we run a 9-inch ring of Santolina incana round as an edging, and inside that a band of Sedum spectabile, we at once obtain a foil to the main flower, which improves its effect, at the same time that any harshness in the colouring is counteracted, and the eye obtains a more pleasing impression from the shading which it unconsciously feels in passing from this particular colour to another. Where flowers are required late, it is certainly worth while, every way, to introduce some of all of the above-named plants. They nearly all require high cultivation - all are decidedly the better for it. In seasons when Geraniums and others of that class are in disgrace, these will be found to shine so much the more. It is well worth every means being taken to continue a display of bright flowers as late into the closing year as possible, as the shorter and darker the days, the brighter look the flowers. Try what you like and what you can, nothing better fitted for this purpose than these can be found.

I often feel how inadequate one's pen is beside the flowers themselves in pressing their claims to attention. Repeatedly people come here, see some arrangements they like, or some particular class of flowers, and forthwith go and cultivate them for themselves. In writing, you want entirely these living illustrations to enforce what you know your readers would otherwise be glad to follow; and one cannot help feeling that, in consequence, their labour may be in a great measure in vain.

Allow me to point out, in closing, that the article which Mr Hinds furnished in last month's issue on "Subtropicals" is very local in its range. We are warmer here than a great portion of Yorkshire and the most northern English counties are, and only one year out of seven have we found Ricinus make a satisfactory growth. Cannas and Balsams are of no use whatever; Variegated Maize does in good seasons. I imagine the extreme south of England has been kept exclusively in view when he writes of these covering 6 feet of ground in as many weeks. And so with hardy plants, the picture is most certainly over-coloured. In local instances Mr Hinds's experience may be, doubtless, all against these, but we do not find a good selection of these at all a bad thing to have; and I rather imagine most of the "too, too" writing about these has been dropped for the past twelve or eighteen months. Hardy plants have a place to fill in gardens, and they are unquestionably filling it, quietly, and without the extinction of other forms of vegetation being ostracised, as one might have expected from the "flare up" there was about them for a few years.

R. P. Brotherston.