82 THE FLORIST. 



For a beginner to be successful in this floriferous enterprise, it 

 is indispensable to have a few plants each of the very best varieties 

 of Bizarres, Flakes, and Picotees; and fcr this purpose I select strong 

 healthy plants of the finest colours, the most distinctly marked, and 

 that are not overcrowded with petals. With these perfections the 

 earliest blooms are exceedingly desirable ; which having procured, 

 1 carefully plant them out, if the weather be mild, not later than the 

 last week in March or the first in April, about a foot apart, upon a 

 nice border prepared for the purpose, and in the most open part 

 of my garden, that has a tolerable shelter on the west, though not 

 too near them ; and in case of any boisterous weather, I place two or 

 three short twigs about them, or tie each plant carefully to one, to 

 prevent them being injured or stunted in their growth by the wind 

 beating them about ; and in planting them I always take care to 

 place each of the different classes together in the rows for the con- 

 venience of inoculation; or if a large roomy garden be the lot of the 

 cultivator, I recommend that each class shall be placed a considerable 

 distance from the others, say at least ten or fifteen yards, for the 

 greater certainty to have the seed of each distinctly entire. 



As they begin to push, I remove the small twigs, and place one 

 of my painted sticks for the support of each plant, which I make 

 secure by a band of soft matting. I examine them frequently to see 

 that the bandages are not too tight, and that they will rise with the 

 plants as they advance in their growth ; for I have occasionally had 

 one or two, when the bandage would not slip, bent, and the stems 

 broken at a joint, by the force of their growth in one night, which 

 has of course deprived me of one year's produce of seed. I look 

 them over daily to see that all is going right, and take care to dis- 

 lodge all the aphides (with a small brush of a score bristles tied 

 together,) and other insects from among them till they are coming 

 into full bloom, which I consider the most anxious time in their 

 progression. 



I then watch them hourly ; for I have frequently observed nume- 

 rous small insects, apparently of the beetle tribe, upon them, eating 

 away the farina the very instant the anthers are opened ; therefore 

 I find it necessary to be as cautiously expeditious as possible in de- 

 spatching my business of fertilisation, which is effected by carefully 

 removing one or two stamens at a time with a very neat pair of slen- 

 der pliers from one bloom ; and lodging all the farina they contain 

 lightly upon the styles of another bloom of the same class, but of 

 another family : this is called 'crossing,' for the purpose of improve- 

 ment. A very little will be effective, if properly applied. 



I also extract all the stamens from the blooms intended for inocu- 

 lation before the anthers burst, to prevent the possibility of mixture. 

 The styles are those that rise from the seed-vessel, and appear like 

 horns above the centre of each flower. 



The stamens rise from among the petals like short threads, and 

 at the top of each is a small pod containing the farina or fertilising 

 powder, and these pods are called the anthers. The whole of these 

 are generally existent in every bloom. In some seasons I have found 



