This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V20", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
Of beds of any size and shape, where may be used Datura Knightii, Cycas revoluta, Dimorphanthus manschuricus, Eucalyptus globulus, and E. mar-ginatus, Phormium tenax, and P. t. fol. var.: Dracaenas, Yucca aloifolia variegata, Y. gloriosa, Cordyline Rhumphii, Chamaerops humilis,Phoenix dactylifera, Coryphe australis, Ferdinanda eminens, Zea Japonica for. var., Erythrina crista galli, Araucarias, Abutilons, and Acer Japonica in varieties.
Specimens - Tree Ferns, Palms, etc., make an excellent impression when planted (plunged in the ground) as specimens or groves, or they may be made to represent undergrowth to large trees, where especially the ferns delight in the shade. The size and character of the plants on hand may somewhat rule the manner in which to place them. So, for instance, will a Panda-nus, Latania, Seaforthia, or Phoenix, if four or five feet high, appear well as single specimens on the lawn at a bending and ten feet from the walk; while if seven or eight feet they are striking objects on some distance behind the flowerbeds; such as Dicksonias, Lomarias, and other ferns, by the edge of a brook. Yuccas and Agaves are in place at the foot of rocks; and ferns might be planted in natural or artificial tree-stumps with Lysimachia numularia or such like to droop down around the sides.
Arrangement of specimens, as well as almost every other variation, has been for some years much admired in the public parks of London, especially Battersea, Victoria and Hyde Park, where some of the carpet-bed designs originated. These parks are acknowledged by most travelers as taking the lead in Europe; but as we know everything there is not adaptable here; and to describe an arrangement of plants to prove equally successful all over this extensive country would be impossible.
It will be seen and understood that it has not been my object to go through the whole list of bedding plants considered good, but merely to show how those mentioned may be combined and arranged.
 
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