TO THE FLOWER GARDEN, 



29 



times conspicuous. No plant is better adapted than this for 

 remedying that bare, dismal aspect which is usually borne by 

 shrubberies in the winter season, owing to the predominance 

 of deciduous plants. Common garden soil. Propagated by 

 cuttings or by layers. 



AURICULA. See Primula. 



AVENS. See Geum. 



AZALEA. [Ericaceae.] Handsome, low, hardy and 

 .greenhouse shrubs. 



The American or hardy Azaleas {A. Pontica, calendulacea, 

 niudiflora, and viscosa, with hosts of garden varieties bred 

 I from them) are inhabitants of all our best shrubberies, and 

 i have been so wonderfully improved by seedling culture as to 

 throw into the shade the original species. There are now to 

 be selected twenty or thirty varieties better than the very best 

 of the original American species. Every year, too, adds to 

 the diversity of sorts, and to the size of the flowers, which 

 is one of the characteristics of the improved kinds. In many 

 places they thrive in the common soil of the garden, but in 

 general they require peat earth to be dug in with the natural 

 soil ; and where there is to be any quantity grown, or a nur- 

 sery of them made, beds of peat earth, or compounds of the 

 greatest part of turfy peat earth, miust be made up. They 

 are raised from seed sown in beds in the open air ; but, from 

 its extreme diminutiveness, many prefer sowing in pans and 

 wide-mouthed pots. When they are large enough they 

 should be planted out in peat beds, six inches apart; the 

 second year every alternate plant may be taken out and 

 planted elsewhere to make room ; and as they increase in 

 size they should have more room. They are propagated 

 chiefly by layers, but cuttings of the last year's wood will root 

 readily in sand. 



The Indian Azaleas (A. Indica) are evergreen greenhouse 

 shrubs of great beauty, raised by cuttings in sand under a 

 bell-glass, and with moderate bottom heat. In preparing 

 these cuttings, let them be cut up to a joint — the base of a 

 leaf — the lower leaves for an inch stripped off", and the stem 

 fixed an inch into clean silver sand, which should lie on the 

 top of some sandy peat soil, with which, after the drainage, 

 the pot should be filled to within that inch ; the bottom of the 



