ON THE CULTURE OF PINKS. 13 



three young plants since May. I take off the cuttings at two joints, 

 and insert them in the same compost, kept a little moist, shaded 

 and stimulated by the heat of the cucumber frame. They can be 

 struck from single leaves only, but I have never tried the experi- 

 ment. 



ARTICLE VIII.— ON THE CULTURE OF PINKS. 



BY A PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



This Flower, though it has nothing mysterious in its cultivation, 

 has furnished some authors with so large a subject to write on, that 

 they have composed whole Volumes on it. They have discovered 

 wonders in every particular, even to the least action they imagined 

 within themselves that nature wrought in these flowers, which has 

 carried them to very prolix considerations thereon, and to reflections 

 rather chimerical, than backed with the least appearance of truth. 



Works of this nature in point of instructions, are of the numbei 

 of those we call specious ; and where the authors, by endeavouring 

 to make out too plainly what they advance, are lost in imagining 

 spaces, and puzzle themselves more and more. 



To what purpose is it to make a wonder of a thing that is all na- 

 tural, plain and easy ? Can they believe, that the shortest way tc 

 instruct, is to descend into particulars, which, far from encouraging 

 us to cultivate a flower, disgust us rather, and dishearten us from it ? 

 Besides that, these pretended rules are most of them merely visions, 

 and arguments good for nothing but to swell a volume; nor can any 

 advantage be gained from them : We, therefore, without further pre- 

 face, will come at once to the point. 



To follow the natural Order in the culture of Pinks, reason re- 

 quires us to begin, by giving rules for the method of sowing them, 

 since seed is the first principle of all vegetables. 



Without going so much about the bush, to come to the method of 

 sowing of Pinks, I say, we sow them in the naked earth upon hot- 

 beds, or in pots of earth, or wood, in autumn, or in the month of 

 March. 



We sow them in the naked earth, having first traced out a bed 

 according to the rules of gardening, and of the size we think fit; 

 upon which, we scatter mould at least an inch thick, but, not till 

 after we have made the earth as tangible and easy to work as possible. 



If it be upon a hotbed, we need use no other ceremony; for the 

 mould that is there will be enough of itself, having a sufficient quan- 

 tity of salts to give this plant its requisite growth for planting. 



