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THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



leaves, they are pricked out into 

 pans, from which they are in due 

 time potted into thumb pots, and 

 then into 60-sized pots, to be 

 ready for turning out at bedding 

 time. Those who have no conve- 

 nience for raising them early in heat, 

 may, nevertheless, grow Perillas ; 

 and there is good time now to have 

 fine plants in the open ground by the 

 first week in June. 



Procure a shilling packet of seed, 

 which will produce about three hun- 

 dred plants. Sow the seed thinly, 

 in shallow pans filled with fine earth, 

 and cover it very lightly. Place 

 these pans in a frame or pit, or under 

 the stage of a greenhouse, and lay 

 over each a sheet of glass, and shut 

 them up close and warm. If the 

 soil is sufficiently moist before the 

 seed, is sown, no more watering will 

 be required till the seeds have germi- 

 nated, as the glass will prevent 

 evaporation. As soon as the seed- 

 lings appear, remove the glass and 

 place the pans in full light, but 

 where they can be slightly shaded 

 during hot sunshine. They will 

 grow rapidly ; and when they have 

 three rough leaves — that is, three 

 leaves from the centre, not counting 

 the original seed leaves — carefully 

 pot them into thumb pots, in a mix- 

 ture of leaf-mould, dung rotted to 

 powder, silver sand, and loam, equal 

 parts. When potted and watered, 

 shut them up in a frame quite close, 

 and let them remain so, without air, 

 for three or four days ; then give air 

 for an hour or two in the morning; 

 and in the course of a few days give 

 air freely, and shut up close towards 

 three o'clock in the afternoon. The 

 plants will make rapid progress ; and 

 when they have quite filled the pots 

 with roots they may be shifted into 

 60-sized pots, and by the time they 

 fill those with roots it will be time 

 also to plant them out in the beds 

 and borders they are to occupy. 



Two other plants which we asso- 

 ciate with Perilla Nankinensis as 

 equally valuable where richly co- 

 loured foliage is required, are Atri- 

 plex hortensis rubra, or purple orach, 

 an old-fashioned plant belonging to 

 the spinach family, and Chenopodium 



atriplicis, also of the same family as 

 spinach. These two plants produce 

 the most richly-coloured foliage of 

 any plants in our gardens, and every 

 gardener should be acquainted with 

 their uses and management. The 

 purple orach created quite a sensa- 

 tion in the horticultural world when 

 first used in beds with Flower of the 

 Day Geranium at the Crystal Palace. 

 There were very few, even among 

 professional gardeners, who could 

 determine the name and history of 

 those robust-looking, hastate-leaved 

 herbaceous plants, which from head 

 to foot were of the colour of port 

 wine, and not a tint of green any- 

 where visible. When the sunshine 

 streams through the leaves of the 

 purple orach the effect is charming, 

 and we may search in vain for any 

 similar effect among the colours of 

 flowers. But this is of less value 

 than perilla as a bedder. Perilla 

 grows more and more beautiful the 

 whole season through, and will bear 

 a few degrees of frost unhurt. If it 

 is desired to plant beds with it in 

 July, or later, to take the place of 

 annuals or other plants that have 

 passed their heyday, the stock can 

 be obtained by taking cuttings from 

 the perillas six or seven weeks or 

 more before they are required for 

 planting out, and those cuttings 

 will root without heat, by being 

 shut up in a frame for a fortnight, 

 and kept shaded. There is no limit to 

 the extent to which perillas may be 

 propagated from a mere pinch of seed 

 in the first instance, and the only 

 limit to its endurance is that imposed 

 by the weather. On the other hand, 

 Atriplex hortensis rubra, the claret- 

 coloured spinach, will not last the 

 season through, and it cannot be kept 

 on from cuttings when it has passed 

 a certain stage of its growth, and is 

 beginning to produce seed. When 

 young it may be topped and struck, 

 but the cuttings rarely make good 

 plants, and it requires a brisk heat to 

 cause them to root ; and heat destroys 

 their rich colour, and causes the new 

 growthto become adingy green, so that 

 the plants must have time to recover 

 in a cold frame before they are fit for 

 bedding. While it lasts, however, it 



