116 THB FLOEAL WOELD AND GAEDEN GUIDE. 



on this subject;. The length of the bed being thirteen feet, by 

 deducting six inches at each end, twelve feet clear will be left avail- 

 able for this purpose. The seeds should be sown in drills three 

 inches apart ; this will give forty-eight drills of upwards of a foot in 

 length, and the quantity of seeds which can be raised on this space 

 will be more than sufficient for the supply of any suburban flower 

 garden. If a few choice varieties are selected to be grown, then two 

 or three rows can be devoted to one sort. The annuals which we 

 would recommend for this purpose are as follows : — 



Argemone mexicana, grandiflora, and ochroleuca ; China Asters 

 of the best German selected varieties ; Brachycome iberidifolia ; 

 Clintonia elegaus and pulchella ; Collinsia bicolor and grandiflora ; 

 Eutoca multiflora, viscida, and Wrangleana; Hibiscus Africanus 

 major ; African and French Marigolds of the most choice varieties ; 

 Phlox Drummondi ; Chinese Pink ; Schizanthus pinnatus, Grahami, 

 and retusus ; Ten-week, Brompton, and Queen Stocks of the finest 

 selected German varieties ; Viscaria oculata and Zinnia elegans, 

 with its finest varieties. These are a few half-hardy annuals, which 

 may be sown in this position. They may all be sown about the last 

 week in March or first of April, but not too thickly. When they 

 have grown so much as to begin to crowd each other, they must be 

 pricked out into rows all round the east, north, and west sides, 

 which should first be also covered in the same way with soil as we 

 directed for the south side ; after remaining there till they have 

 acquired some degree of strength, they may be removed to the places 

 they are intended to occupy in the flower garden. 



Having now concluded our remarks on the employment of the 

 garden frame in forcing, we will in the next number turn our atten- 

 tion to the next most important use to which it is applicable, 

 namely, for propagation. 



(To he continued.) 



PLANTS IN OUR DWELLINGS— AEE THEY 

 BENEFICIAL Oil NOT ? 



BY JOHN K. MOLLISON. 



|E have here a very important question to consider, that 

 is, whether it is beneficial, wholesome, or otherwise, to 

 have flowers in our dwellings ? I have heard it said by 

 people who pretended to know, that you should not 

 have flowers in your house at all, as it is greatly against 

 the health of the inmates, because the noxious gases they give out 

 have a baneful effect on the air, especially if they are in the sleeping 

 apartments. I hope to be able to show you that such an idea is to 

 a great extent chimerical. 



All plants absorb through their leaves carbonic acid gas from the 

 air around them. Now this carbonic acid gas is composed of carbon 

 and oxygen. During the hours of daylight the plant retains the 

 carbon and releases the oxygen — giving it out to the air again. 



