148 ON DOUBLE SWEET WILLIAMS. 



amiss to suggest to the Conductor whether it would not be most 

 acceptable to the numerous readers of the Cabinet to insert occa- 

 sionally some of the communications discussed at the Gardeners 

 Mutual Instruction Societies, some of which are no doubt valuable. 



[Any forwarded to us of the character named, we will insert with 

 pleasure. — Conductor.] 



ARTICLE III. 



OBSERVATIONS UPON DOUBLE SWEET WILLIAMS. 



BY CLEIUCUS. 



For the last four years, I have been collecting and growing all the 

 varieties of double-flowered Sweet Williams I could obtain. I have 

 eighteen very dissimilar and beautiful varieties, varying in gradation 

 from a white ground spotted with red, crimson, and purple, through the 

 various shades of pink, rose, lilac, purple, scarlet, and crimson. I 

 need not attempt to eulogize the flowers of this beautiful and ovely 

 tribe ; all admire Sweet Williams, and especially the double kinds. 

 By proper attention in culture, I have my flowers not only very 

 double, but three-quarters of an inch across; and these produced in 

 fine corymbous heads, give a fine effect, especially so when the fine 

 colours are so distinctively arranged as to have the best contrast. 

 They are beautiful, whether grown in masses or singly, and well 

 merit a situation in every flower-garden. 



I grow mine in a good, moderately rich, loamy soil, upon a dry 

 subsoil. I increase them by taking off slips in July : these soon 

 strike root in pots placed under a hand-glass, or in a frame, insert- 

 ing them in a moist, yellow sand : they would most likely root as 

 well in sandy loam or sandy peat. I pot them singly towards the 

 end of September, and keep them in a dry cool frame during winter 

 turning them out entire at the end of March. 



I can strongly recommend these lovely flowers to the notice of all 

 persons who desire to have beautiful dwarf flowers for ornamenting 

 the flower-garden. Some of my varieties I procured at nursery 

 gardens, and others I met with in the gardens of various friends, 

 to which I have added eight splendid seedlings of my own 



