The Pansv 



135 



White, Purple, and Magpie varieties ; Cloth 

 of Gold, Great Eastern, and a very quaint 

 and variable kind, called Belgian Seedling, 

 to be obtained from a packet of Belgian 



seeds. The Cleveland Yellow and Cloth of 

 Gold make very interesting summer beds 

 when formed of April-struck cuttings only. — 



WALLFLOWERS. 



TEN acresof Wallflowers and Violets emit 

 a perfume that should satisfy the most 

 fi.astidious sense of smell, while there is some- 

 thing almost romantic in the association of 

 these scented spring flowers, speaking to us as 

 they do, though somewhat metaphorically, of 

 love and sweet words, or of protecting man- 

 liness and lowly beauty. But we horti- 

 culturists are not prone to indulge in sen- 

 timent, even when surrounded by the most 

 beautiful of flowers. Our constant aquaint- 

 anceship has rubbed out of us too much of 

 that virtue ; and when we gaze, for the first 

 time perchance, upon some lovely floral gem, 

 we should find it difficult to get up in reality 

 a display of sentiment corresponding to that 

 so apocryphally ascribed to Linnaeus. Just 

 so with myself, when I walk though my 

 neighbour's 10 acres of sweetly scented 

 flowers. In spite of the perfume, "shop" will 

 come uppermost ; and questions relating to 

 cultivation and selection and colour, and, 

 finally, of sale, must all be answered before 

 I can spare time to fall into ecstasies, and 

 even then I won't assure my readers that the 

 sentiment was forthcoming. I prefer to deal 

 with the practical, and therefore my first 

 question related to the time of seed-sowing, 

 because large numbers of these wallflower- 

 plants were in bloom at the end of February. 

 Well I find that an open dry time early in 

 March, just when the early Broccolis and 

 Brussel Sprouts are sown, is the time to sow 

 Wallflowers, if you want them to flower early 

 in the succeeding year. Then there are 

 other matters of moment to be attended to 

 if you want early flowers ; chief amongst 

 which is the selection of some of the very 

 earliest-blooming plants of one year to pro- 



duce seed for the next year's sowing. Then 

 the selected plants should have a good 

 flowering habit, which is not to the market 

 gardener necessarily a dense bushy habit, 

 but rather a habit that sends up all the 

 flower-stems evenly and at once, so that the 

 whole may be clean cut, and the plant 

 pulled to make room speedily for a succeeding 

 crop. Then a good, stout, well-expanded 

 pip is needed, and, finally, the deepest and 

 richest possible colour. To all these re- 

 quirements my neighbour has a keen eye, 

 and as we walk through the flowery field, a 

 stick is placed here and there by the side of 

 some specially good plants, and these remaia 

 to produce in a future year one of the finest 

 strains that are grown around London. 



To come back to cultivation: as soon as 

 the seedling plants are 6 inches in height 

 they should be planted out with a dibbler, 

 either into a well-manured piece of ground 

 expressly prepared for them, or in between 

 the rows of Violets, as is the case with my 

 neighbour's plantation. Beyond an oc- 

 casional look over to make good losses, and 

 a frequent application of the hoe, no other 

 attention is required until the cutting time 

 arrives in the succeeding spring. 



Colour is a matter of grave importance to 

 the grower, as the Cockney tastes are entirely 

 in favour of the darkest flowers that can be 

 produced, and to procure a strain that has 

 this requirement so much care has been 

 exercised that the world yields no better dark 

 varieties than are grown for the London 

 market. Young's famous blotched kinds are 

 not superior in colour, and are decidedly 

 inferior in habit of growth and in texture of 

 petal ; Saunders's resemble in habit, but are 



