4 ON THE DISPOSITION OF FLOWERS IN MASSES. 



thin out all superfluous buds ; those in the centre are the best to be 

 taken away. 



New varieties are raised from seed ; and, if you wish to be suc- 

 cessful, take seed only from those kinds which possess good 

 properties. When the seed-vessels begin to open the seed is nearly 

 ripe, and every day you must gather such heads as are brown, or else 

 you will in all probability lose the best of your seed. The seed should 

 be spread upon paper, and perfectly dried before it is laid by, to be 

 kept in that state until the last week in January or first week in 

 February, when it must be sown in small pots, and the seeds 

 covered with soil about the thickness of a shilling, then covering the 

 pot over close with a glass. The plants will make their appearance in 

 about six weeks. When they are large enough, transplant them into 

 other pots, about one inch apart, and in June or July transplant into 

 other pots. When they require watering, do it with a brush by rubbing 

 your hand over it, so that it may fall upon the soil like a heavy clew. 



ARTICLE III. 



ON THE DISPOSITION OF FLOWERS IN MASSES, 



BY LUCY. 



The system of disposing plants in masses, so frequently and ably advo- 

 cated in the Floricultijral Cabinet, is becoming very general, and 

 certainly produces a much better effect than the tedious monotony of an 

 indiscriminate mixture. In the practice, however, of this superior 

 method, it should be remembered, that the groups and masses ought 

 to be considered as parts of a whole, and as such, should harmonise 

 and unite with each other, with regard to form and colour. Without 

 attention to this point, the several disunited and independent parts 

 will no more form a gardenesque landscape, than the colours ar- 

 ranged on the painter's palette will of themselves form a picture. 

 I have known more than one small garden spoiled by a disregard of 

 proportion, the shrubs and flowers being disposed in groups of far too 

 large a size. In such a situation, a single plant, or a group of two or 

 three, must be considered to bear the same proportion to the whole, 

 as much larger masses or groups bear in the case of a park. Although 

 I approve, as I have said above, of the principle of placing different 

 species in groups and masses, I think that there are cases in which, 



