256 THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



tails ; each thong should be three or four inches long, and as thick as a common 

 lead pencil, or nearly so. Plant these thongs (top end up, of course) in nrtvs, with 

 the aid of a thin stick for a dibber. The rows should be two feet apart and the thongs 

 one foot apart in the row. In planting, take care the holes are not made too large; 

 let the top of the cutting or thong he about an inch below the surface, and the earth 

 ■ closed in firmly and neatly. In a very short time little purple sprouts will appear, and 

 perhaps a lot of weeds as well. Hoe the ground between them carefully twice, to make 

 the surface loose and kill down the weeds, and then leave the kale to grow in its own 

 way; it will require no further care until required for forcing. When taken up in 

 November the crop will consist of fine roots, as good as are commonly sold as three- 

 year-old kale at 12s. to 15*. a hundred. At all events we obtain fine roots with full 

 crowns by this system of cultivation, and have given up the use of seed entirely. We 

 destroy all except such thongs as are required for the next crop as soon as forcing is 

 over, and we take the precaution to cut off and store away in dry earth in a shed a 

 sufficient number of thongs before commencing to force any, but thongs from forced 

 roots answer very well if no others can be got. If you cannot obtain thongs, 

 your next best plan will be to make cuttings from the thick portion of the roots. Cut 

 the roots into lengths of two or three inches each, and plant them right way up as 

 advised for thongs, but take care in future years to grow from thongs only. Ou the 

 management of seed and all the routine of forcing, etc., etc., we have on former 

 occasions given abundant information. It is one of the most profitable vegetables 

 that can be grown in a garden if liberally treated, but perhaps not profitable if 

 badly grown. Your best way to begin will be to buy a lot of freshly dug roots in 

 November or December next, which store in dry earth until you intend to force 

 them. 



The Bog Pimpernel. — On occasion of visiting the College Botanic Gardens 

 lately (says a writer in the Irish Farmers' Gazette), and passing through the cool 

 conservatory, in which there are many interesting plants, our attention was at once 

 arrested and fixed on two — a palm and a Dracana— not exactly on their own 

 account, but by reason of the beauty with which our little Anagallis tenella clothed 

 the surface and sides of the pots in which they grew. The pots were large — one, 

 indeed, of the largest size — and the surface of the soil in hoth was cushioned with, 

 and their sides beautifully draped and almost hidden by its very long thread-like 

 stems that dropped perpendicularly from the rims. Each of these stems was 

 prettily strung with its double row of round head-like leaflets, and glistening for 

 nearly half its length to the point with its exquisite little flowers; numbers fully 

 expanded, and others, perhaps not less beautiful, in the bud. We may remark 

 here, in passing, that pretty as are the flowers to the naked eye, they are still more 

 so under the lens. The delicate transparent wool-like processes that surround and 

 enclose the anthers are specially deserving of examination, as, instead of being the 

 simple hairs they appear, the glass shows their beautifully jointed or necklace-like 

 structure. Mr. Bain informed us that the Anagallis was not grown in these pots 

 with any special preparation or cultural care, with a view to increasing its vigour 

 and development. A patch or two of it had been merely planted in these pots, 

 together with an occasional plant of another of our loveliest wildings, Pinguicula 

 grandiflora, to have at hand for botanical purposes. We should therefore apprehend 

 that, treated specially, it would he perhaps even more effective. At all events, no 

 one could look on it as growing in the College Garden and not admit that in it all 

 have at baud one of the prettiest and most effective little things possible for growing, 

 suspended or otherwise. To keep it well supplied with moisture from below would, 

 of cour-e, he always necessary. The little Campanula hederacea we also noticed 

 growing in other pots, and its elegant appearance, apart from the consideration of 

 its being one of the many interesting plants our country calls her own, and perhaps 

 from agreeable associations connected with its native haunts, at once suggested 

 it as one of the prettiest and most interesting things possible for a hanging 

 basket. 



