TO THE FLOWER GARDEN. 31 



In May, when greenhouse plants are removed from the green- 

 house, these should be set to grow under a frame, to shield 

 them from heavy rains, and support some slight shading in 

 the hottest parts of sunny days, but not preventing the con- 

 stant circulation of air about them. The lights should be 

 off at night in all fine mild weather, and on dull cloudy 

 days, and only put on during heavy rains, and when shading 

 is necessary. Towards autumn the plants are to be returned 

 to the greenhouse. 



BA.CKHOUSIA. [Myrtaceae.] Greenhouse evergreen 

 shrubs. Soil, peat and loam. Propagated by cuttings of 

 half-ripe shoots in sand under a bell-glass. B. myrtifoUa 

 greenhouse evergreen shrub, flowers pale yellow, in 

 May. 



B^CKIA. [Myrtaceae.] Greenhouse evergreen shrubs. 

 Soil, sandy loam and peat. Propagated by cuttings, planted 

 under a bell-glass in sand. B. diosm(Bfolia, B. gracilis, 

 B. saxicola, and B. virgata, all flower white. 



BALM. See Melissa. 



BALSAMINA. Balsam. [Balsamiuaceae.] Tender an- 

 nuals. The garden Balsam, of which numerous handsome 

 varieties are grown, is the B. hortensis. This requires a rich 

 compost of loam and vegetable mould. Sow the seeds in 

 pots about March, and put them in a cucumber frame or 

 melon bed. As soon as they are up, and before they have 

 time to draw, let them be potted out, one in a pot three 

 inches across, and put in a declining or very moderate hotbed, 

 where they must have air, to prevent their being drawn up, 

 and must be so placed that the tops shall be near the glass ; 

 and the plants must be shifted every time the pots fill with 

 roots, and in this way you go on moving them from one pot 

 to another as they fill with roots. The heat of the bed must 

 not be neglected ; and the pots will have to be lowered, or 

 the frame raised, as the plants increase in size. Some of the 

 plants may be hardened off in May, and in June turned into 

 the borders, where, if the soil be rich and the situation shel- 

 tered, they make a very pretty show, and seed freely. Those 

 in pots have to be put into the greenhouse when they have 

 grown too large for the frames ; and if the house is a lean-to 

 they should be turned every day, that one side may not be 



