256 WINTER CULTURE OF THE MIGNONETTE. 



their garden-seeds, or they will never grow, from being buried 

 too deep : the seeds should be sowed on the smooth top of a 

 little hillock, and as much straw or moss laid over it as shall 

 barely hide the soil, and on the ends of this straw or moss 

 four stones should be laid, as in Fig. D ; these stones keep the 

 top of the hillock moist, and shelter and guard the seedlings ; 

 and where Rhododendrons are planted out from seed-beds the 

 small plants should be surrounded with stones for the same 

 reasons. Game will rear themselves and preserve themselves 

 better than gamekeepers can do if they are furnished with such 

 food and lodgings as I have proposed, and I look forward to a 

 time when wine and game will be part of the produce of an 

 English farm, since it is quite as easy to rear partridges and 

 pheasants as it is to rear geese and turkeys. 



XXXVI.— On the Winter Culture of the Mignonette. By Mr. 

 J. B. Whiting, C.M.H.S., Gardener to II. T. Hope, Esq., 

 F.H.S. 



(Communicated August, 1846.) 



Few flowers are more esteemed for bouquets in winter and early 

 spring than the sweet-scented mignonette {Reseda odor ata) ; it 

 is also very useful for the decoration of the drawing-room and 

 conservatory at those seasons of the year. Although the migno- 

 nette is not a delicate plant, yet it is not generally seen in the 

 perfection to whicii it might be brought by the simple method of 

 culture I am about to describe. To flower at or soon after 

 Christmas the seed should be sown in the beginning of August, 

 in pots of any convenient size. The soil should be good loam, 

 moderately enriched with rotten dung, and kept open by a pretty 

 liberal intermixture with old mortar or lime rubbish. It is essen- 

 tial that the pots be thoroughly drained, and upon the drainage a 

 handful (more or less, according to the size of the pots) of one 

 year old pigeon's dung should be placed. After sowing the seed, 

 set the pots where they will not require frequent waterings, too 

 much moisture being extremely injurious to mignonette ; for this 

 reason, tlierefore, it will be safer to place the pots in a frame or 

 pit, where they may be covered by the liglits in rainy weather. 

 As the plants increase in size they should be gradually thinned, 

 ultimately leaving three or five in each pot. The principal point 

 to be attended to now is judicious watering ; by this I mean giving 

 water only when the plants really require water, and then in suf- 

 ficient quantity to moisten the whole of the soil — not dribbling a 

 few drops over the plants to-day to prevent them from being dry 



