U4= THE GARDENER. [Oct. 



are to be grown, it is a point of some importance, especially if no 

 natural means of affording the plants a little shade are available. 

 Whether it is open to the east, the west, or the south, is of less import- 

 ance than the necessity of placing them where they will enjoy slight 

 shade either in the morning or afternoon. My own experience is most 

 favourable to placing them on a west border, where they will be 

 sheltered from the rays of the sun during the earlier hours of the day. 

 It is well, however, to have the stock designed to bloom out of doors, 

 growing in different aspects, as by that means there will be less danger, 

 in exceptional seasons, of total failure. A very important point in their 

 culture, by the practice of which I have always been rewarded with 

 good results, is to lift and divide the plants annually, cutting away all 

 old and weak crowns and runners and trimming the roots, trenching and 

 manuring the ground, and replanting them. The best time for doing 

 this is immediately after the flowers are over, about the middle or end 

 of April or the beginning of May. It is bad practice to leave them 

 undisturbed for several years in the same place ; the ground becomes 

 exhausted, and the plants too ; and it is always difficult, often impossi- 

 ble, to get a vigorous stock from plants so treated. The Neapolitan, a 

 more tender variety of the Sweet Violet, is best adapted for culture in 

 pots, to be sheltered in cold frames, in a sunny airy place in winter, or 

 forced according to requirements. These may be grown planted out 

 in rich ground in the same way as the others till September, when 

 they may be lifted and potted or planted in frames closely, 

 and afterwards merely protected from severe frost, and kept well 

 aired in all open weather. Of course, if they are intended to be 

 placed about rooms, they must be put in pots at the time they are 

 removed from the open air, and they may be forced in mild bottom-heat 

 with much more convenience if the plants are in pots than if they are 

 planted out in frames. All the varieties are easily increased by cut- 

 tings made of the stout short runners, rejecting all that are wdry and 

 hard ; and they should not be taken off plants that have been forced, 

 as these are deficient in vigour. Plant them in rich fibrous very sandy 

 soil, in a frame facing northwards ; keep them close till they begin to 

 grow, then give air, a little at first, gradually increasing it till the 

 lights may be dispensed with wholly till the return of winter, when 

 they will require to be put on, and the plants protected during frost. 

 In the beginning of April they must be planted out, and everything 

 possible done to encourage vigorous growth, on which depend the 

 quality and quantity of bloom more than anything else. Some raise 

 their stock from seeds sown annually; and it is a good plan, but more 

 troublesome in the matter of attention, and requiring more labour, 

 than either division or cuttings, while the result in bloom is nothing 



