MIGNONETTE. 



201 



MIGNONETTE. 



are regularly watered every day, 

 till the following March. The seeds 

 of the plants which are to come into 

 flower in March to succeed them, 

 should be sown in pots at the latter 

 end of August, and the pots may be 

 placed in a spare bedroom, or in 

 any open shed, or other situation 

 under cover, whei-e they will have 

 plenty of light, and can have air 

 occasionally. Early in November 

 they should be thinned out, or 

 transplanted, so as to leave only six 

 or eight plants in a pot, and these 

 pots should be plunged into a shallow 

 box or packing-case, half filled with 

 coal-ashes, and placed in a cellar, 

 or back-kitchen, or, in short, any 

 place where they will not have much 

 heat, and yet be protected from 

 frost. While in this situation, they 

 should be regularly watered once or 

 twice a week ; and as no light is 

 better than only a little, they may 

 be covered with a piece of old 

 carpeting, or an old ironing-blanket 

 supported by a few sticks stuck in 

 the earth, so as to prevent it from 

 crushing the plants by its weight. 

 In this situation, though they will 

 become quite blanched, they will 

 grow freely, and be well-shaped 

 plants ; while, on the contrary, if 

 they had not been covered, as they 

 could not be put in a window on 

 account of the danger from frost, 

 they would have become etiolated, 

 or drawn up, with weak, ill -shaped 

 stems, in the efforts they would 

 have made to reach the light. Be- 

 sides, the blanket will save them 

 from being injured by fr-ost. About 

 a fortnight before they are wanted 

 to flower, the blanket may be taken 

 off, and the box removed to the 

 window of the kitchen, or some 

 place where there is a constant 

 fire ; when the plants will soon 

 become quite green, and will form 

 flower-buds. The pots may then be 



taken out of their box, and removed 

 to the room where they are to flower, 

 having been first put into other 

 pots, somewhat larger than them- 

 selves, and the interstices between 

 the two being stuffed with moss, 

 which may also be laid on the 

 surface of the earth in the inner 

 pot ; or, if moss cannot be easily 

 obtained, double pots vdW suffice, 

 the outer one being only just large 

 enough to admit the inner one. A 

 third crop may be sown in Feb- 

 ruary, in pots which may be kept 

 under shelter till all danger is over 

 from frost, and which may be then 

 set out on window-sills, or in any 

 other situation in the open air, and 

 which will flower in May, June, and 

 July, continuing in flower till they 

 are succeeded by a fourth crop sown 

 in April, in the open ground, or in 

 pots in the open air, which will 

 come into flower in July, and con- 

 tinue till November. 



When it is wished to obtain a 

 plant of Tree Mignonette, a healthy ; 

 vigorous plant of ^Mignonette sown j 

 in April should be placed at the j 

 proper time for transplanting in a ! 

 pot by itself, and the blossom-buds i 

 should be taken off as fast as they j 

 appear. In autumn, all the lower 

 side-shoots should be cut off, so as 

 to shape the plant into a miniature 

 tree, and it should be transplanted 

 into a larger pot, "wdth fresh soil, 

 formed of turfy loam broken small, 

 but not sifted, and sand. It should 

 then be removed to a greenhouse, or 

 warm room, and by being regularly 

 watered every day, and kept tole- 

 rably warm, it will remain in a 

 growing state all the winter, and by 

 spring its stem will begin to appear 

 woody. It should be treated in the 

 same manner the following year, all 

 the side branches being cut off as 

 they appear, except those that are 

 to form the head of the tree ; and 



