32 NAT. ORDER. — PRIMULACE.E. 



March, or April. The seed should be sown over the surface quite 

 thick, and covered in very lightly, and the boxes or pots placed where 

 they may have a little of the morning sun, but avoid the mid-day 

 heats. The plants may be much forwarded by plunging the pots or 

 boxes into a mild hot-bed ; in the spring, when dry, tliey should be 

 frequently refreshed with water, in very moderate proportions at a 

 time, removing the plants more into the shade as the heat advances, 

 as it soon destroys them. 



It is necessary, in order to keep up a good stock of plants, to 

 raise new seedling plants every two or three years, as tiie old plants 

 mostly decline in beauty after the third year. In the latter method, 

 the roots should be parted in the beginning of the autumn, as soon 

 as the flowering is over, and it may likewise be done early in the 

 spring ; but the former is the best time, as the plants get stronger 

 and flower better in the spring. 



In performing the work the plants should be taken up out of 

 the ground, and each branch divided into several slips, not too small, 

 unless where a great increase is wanted, being careful to preserve 

 some root to each slip ; they are then to be planted in a fresii dug 

 border, enriched with dung as above, setting them live or six inches 

 asunder, giving them water directly, and repeating it occasionally, 

 till they have taken good root. All the approved sorts may in this 

 way be easily preserved. 



These plants, it has been observed, are very liable to the depre- 

 dations of snails and slugs, in the spring of the year ; the plants and 

 pots therefore should be carefully examined on all sides early in the 

 morning. But their worst enemy is a small red spider, or Acarus, 

 ■which in summer forms its web on the under side of the leaves. — 

 These little insects are scarcely visible without a magnifying glass : 

 they cause the leaves to become yellow and spotted, and eventually 

 destroy the plant ; they multiply with such rapidity as to take pos- 

 session of a whole collection in a very short time. Such plants as 

 appear infected should therefore be selected from the rest, taken up, 



