124 ON THE PINK. 



stays long after all nourishment is gone, and poisons the soil, and 

 both together eventually destroy the plant. The only method to keep 

 the Mimulus healthy, with regard to water, is to keep it in as shaded 

 a position as possible, and to supply water moderately whenever it is 

 required, yet always to allow the superfluous moisture to drain away. 



Raising new Varieties. — When the plants are all in bloom, select 

 the best coloured ones, and cross them upon the largest, and vice 

 versa, for the two principal features in a good Mimulus are colour 

 and size. If the operation be properly performed, the pods of seeds 

 will begin to swell in a few days, and soon after they will turn brown 

 and be ready for gathering. After sufficient good seed is collected, 

 it should be sown in pots or boxes, sprinkling it on the surface of the 

 soil, for if covered, the seeds will decay and never vegetate. When 

 the young plants have acquired two or three sets of leaves, they 

 should be transplanted into larger boxes, where they will bloom, or, 

 if it be summer, into the open ground, where they make the most 

 healthy plants. When they are in bloom, the best may be selected 

 from the rest, and increased by cuttings, which easily strike. The 

 principal properties, as I have said before, are size and colour, with 

 the two lips forming a good circle. The plants raised from these 

 cuttings should be preserved during winter in a cold frame, as they 

 are more tender than the varieties of old standing. When the 

 following spring arrives, they must be treated as directed above 

 for old varieties ; and if these new ones be crossed by each other, and 

 so continued for a few seasons, in a little time as fine a progeny will 

 arise as can possibly be expected. 



Durham, May 16th, 1842. 



ARTICLE III. 



ON THE PINK. 

 By J., of Sheffield. 

 There is no class of flowers which, in this neighbourhood, is so 

 ardently admired and cultivated, by the amateur and working-class 

 of florists, as that which forms our present subject, — the Pink. And, 

 indeed, when we consider the comparative facility which attends its 

 growth, and its real merit and beauty when properly cultivated, we are 

 not surprised at its being thus noticed in the 'working-man's garden, 



