262 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



With respect to their propagating, it is not necessary to say much, 

 because it is not a question of much importance to the amateur, for 

 one good specimen of each species will be quite sufficient ; there is 

 however, very little difficulty in increasing the stock ; for when 

 grown vigorously the plants will flower and seed very freely. The 

 flower-scapes when they make their appearance above the surface, 

 and are in proper condition, should be brushed lightly over with a 

 soft camel's-hair brush, to insure the flowers setting. After this 

 they should be left alone, and the seed will drop into the water, and 

 soon take root in the soil. Some of the seeds will root suspended 

 in the water, and float about some time before acquiring fixture. 

 It is of little use to attempt to gather the seed when ripe, and then 

 sow, for there wall be little else but failure ; but if left alone, there 

 will be no difficulty experienced in raising a young stock. 



VIOLAS AND PANSIES FOR BEDDING. 



BY A IlfiAD GAEDENEE. 



ETER the lamentable failure of Viola cormita, and its 

 congener V. lutea, as bedding plants, it is a most difficult 

 matter to persuade people that any of the violas, or their 

 near relatives the pansies, are adapted for the embellish- 

 ment of the flower garden during the summer months. 

 Yet there can be no doubt in the minds of those who have paid any 

 attention to thsm that several, with proper management, are most 

 valuable bedders. In some soils and situations, both the pansies and 

 violas succeed most satisfactory, and produce a succession of bloom 

 throughout the summer season ; but in others they make but slow 

 progress, and go out of bloom just at the moment they should be at 

 their best. They all require during the summer season a moderately 

 moist and comparatively cool soil, and to attempt to grow them in 

 soils of a naturally dry and hot character would be most unwise. 

 The only way to ascertain whether they will thrive in certain soils 

 and situations is to plant a few of each of the varieties that will be 

 mentioned in a trial bed, and then if it is found that they do well a 

 stock should be propagated. This season has been very favourable 

 to this class of plants, and our beds of violas have been the admira- 

 tion of all who have seen them. They were also especially good last 

 year, notwithstanding the summer being one of the hottest and 

 driest within the memory of the present generation. The staple 

 soil of the flower garden does not differ materially from that of 

 hundreds of other flower gardens, for it is neither very light or very 

 heavy, and moderately deep. The preparation of the beds is effected 

 in a very simple manner ; they are dug up to a moderate depth and 

 a barrowful of old hotbed manure, and the same quantity of decayed 

 vegetable refuse, incorporated with the soil of each bed, eight feet in 

 diameter; smaller beds, of course, have less, and larger ones more. 

 The beds that are to be filled with violas or pansies are not planted 

 with spring-flowering plants because the two former classes of plants 



