

m 



FLOWER-BASKET. 



It is much the fashion in this our day to adorn the garden with 

 vases, stands, baskets, &c. of flowering plants ; and the main thing is 

 to have them well filled throughout the season ; in fact, they should 

 form a perfect bouquet, on which the eye may ever repose with plea- 

 sure. To attain this early in spring, you may make use of white and 

 yellow Alyssums, Primulas, and Cinerarias, in pots, until the half- 

 hardy annuals are ready, and it is safe to expose them ; then let the 

 outside be well planted with Nierembergia, trailing Lobelias, and 

 blue Anagallis ; and, if your stand is large enough, a Maurandya here 

 and there will have a very good effect. Behind these, Verbenas of 

 various colours, Tom-Thumb Geraniums, a Petunia or two, and a 

 good common yellow Calceolaria, with a Heliotrope to shed a grateful 

 perfume, will fill your box with a tolerable and pleasing variety ; but 

 much will depend upon the taste displayed in the grouping of your 

 flowers. An eye for colour, like an ear for music, is the gift of 

 nature — it cannot be acquired. I have seen men of no education, 

 who, from possessing this faculty, Mould distance all competitors in 

 the arrangement of a border or a box of cut flowers. 



The stand, box, or basket may be ornamented as profusely as you 

 like ; and much taste and ingenuity have I seen, particularly in the 

 various modes of coaxing even climbing plants to exhibit their evolu- 



