THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 69 



culturalists wlio grow flowers for the supply of the London markets 

 only, and which is quite a distinct branch of business to the nursery 

 gardens, as the growers for market do not care to sell excepting in 

 the markets. The care with which the plants are produced, with 

 their three little stakes and band of bass to hold the leaves in secu- 

 rity, shows that the cultivation must be remunerative, and it does 

 one good to see the flower merchants, as they would be styled in 

 Paris, but in our commonplace language " hawkers," call from house 

 to house with their basket of plants in the stereotyped pot for Lon- 

 don windows, viz., five inches in diameter, the ruddy purplish-red 

 and snowy-white blossoms, with their gauff'ered edges, showing up 

 brightly and distinctly just above the foliage, putting one in mind 

 of schoolboy days, when the stiffly-starched frill used to seriously in- 

 terfere with the quick locomotion of the vertebrae of the neck. Our 

 readers, however, will like to know how they are produced in such 

 spick-and-span style, all a-growing and all a-blowing, as the Cockney 

 vendor describes them. 



The single varieties are raised from seed, sown from May to 

 July, according to the.period at which you wish your plants to be in 

 perfection both as to flower and foliage. If you wish to have them at 

 Christmas, sow in middle of May ; if in February, sow in June ; if 

 in March and April, sow in July. The compost we usually sow our 

 seed in is composed of flbrous yellow loam, old leaf-soil, and silver 

 sand passed through a fine sieve, and well incorporated ; three parts 

 loam and one part leaf-soil will be the proper proportion, using suf- 

 ficient sand to keep it porous. If leaf-soil cannot be procured, peat will 

 answer the purpose, but it is not so good. The pot we use is a five or 

 six-inch one, filled one-third of the way up with broken crocks for 

 drainage, then fill with the compost nearly to the top, water with a 

 fine rose thoroughly, sow the seed, and sprinkle a little silver sand 

 on the top, barely enough to cover the seed ; cover the pot with a 

 pane of glass, and place it as near the light as possible in a shady 

 part of the greenhouse or a frame, shading from the intense rays of 

 the sun. In two or three weeks you will have a nice crop. As soon 

 as large enough to handle easily, transplant singly into small thumb- 

 pots, using the same compost, and place in a close cool frame for a 

 week or ten days, gradually giving air to harden the young plants, 

 and prevent them from drawing up weak and spindly. As soon as 

 well established, repot into their blooming pots, using the compost 

 in the same proportions, only passing it through a coarse sieve 

 instead of a fine one, adding a small quantity of well-decomposed 

 manure — the older the better. If you have a half-spent hot-bed to 

 stand the plants on at this potting, it will assist them materially, as 

 the grand secret is to keep them growing from the time the seed 

 germinates until they are in bloom ; allowing them to become pot- 

 bound or checked in any way, will so injure your plants that a very 

 unsatisfactory bloom will be the consequence. About the middle of 

 September, they should be placed either in a nice warm greenhouse, 

 with ample means for ventilation (by this we don't mean cold 

 draughts of air, but the ventilation so arranged that the air shall be 

 heated to the temperature of the house before coming into contact 



