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PEREXNIALS. 



Perennials are flowers of many years' duration ; 

 and ihey multiply themselves most abundantly by 

 suckers, offsets, parting the roots, &c. They re- 

 quire little trouble beyond taking care to renevv the 

 soil every year or two by a somewhat plentiful sup- 

 ply from the compost heap ; and by seperating the 

 offsets, and parting the roots in autumn, to strength- 

 en the mother plant. When the flowers are past 

 and the stems have decayed, then the operation may 

 take place. Choose a showery day for transplant- 

 ing the roots, or give them a moderate watering to 

 fix them in their fresh places. When you trans- 

 plant a flower root, dig a hole with your trowel suf- 

 ficiently large to give the fibres room to lay freely 

 and evenly in the ground, 



I have, throughout my little work, laid great 

 stress upon posessing a heap of compost, ready to 

 apply to roots and shrubs every spring and autumn. 

 Wherever the soil is good, the flowers will bloom 

 handsomely ; and no lady will be disappointed of 

 that pleasure, if a compost heap forms one essen- 

 tial, in a hidden corner of the flower garden. If 

 you raise your perennials from seed, sow it in the 

 last week in March, in a bed of light earth, in the 

 open ground. Let the bed be in a genial, warm sit- 

 uation, and divide it into small compartments ; a 

 compartment for each sort of seed. 



Sow the seed thin, — and rake or break the earth 

 over them finely. Let the larger seed be sown 

 half an inch deep, and the smaller seed a quarter of 

 an inch. Water the beds in dry weather often with 

 a watertng pot, not a jug. The rose of the water- 



