66 TREE MIGNONETTE. 
minds, turn heedlessly from the delights around them. To that class 
of your readers who, like myself, have no facilities for the cultivation of 
flowers beyond good windows and airy sitting-rooms, a few directions 
often prove very useful, such, for instance, as appeared in the Decem- 
ber Number, pages 298-305, and 315. Will you state more par- 
ticularly whether the plants referred to in those articles may be 
cultivated with any degree of success by those who have neither 
greenhouse, hot-beds, &c., at their command, perfect specimens of 
floriculture not ‘being so much the object as a succession of flowers 
throughout the year? and are they (the winter ones especially) suitable 
to the window before alluded to? I ought, perhaps, to have added that 
there is not so much light as could be desired. 
THE RANUNCULUS. 
A wRITER in the Florist, who has had twenty-seven years’ experience 
in cultivating the Ranunculus, states, that the varieties degenerate 
with age, and bloom weakly in proportion, and that such degeneracy 
is more the cause of failure in blooming this beautiful tribe than any 
other cause. During the first seven years he had procured roots of all 
the best kinds, but being disappointed with the bloom, he had nearly 
given up all future attempts at cultivation. -Observing, however, a 
bed of seedlings in vigorous bloom in Mr. Tyso’s garden, he resolved 
on an annual sowing, selecting out the best sorts for future cultivation. 
He has done it for the last twenty years, and during that period has 
had a fine vigorous bloom every season. Some of the flowers of his 
earliest raised seedlings now begin to bloom much smaller than for- 
merly, and he believes: no change of soil or climate could bring them 
back to their former vigour. He advises the purchasing of youthful 
seedlings, or annually to raise seedlings. He annually refreshes his 
beds with a few barrows of maiden earth, mixed with pig or horse dung. 
To be a successful grower, procure seed or youthful seedlings. ‘To 
save good seed, as soon as the bloom ceases, place a cover over the 
stem to protect the head from -wet, as moisture prevents the seed 
ripening. Seedlings bloom well the second season. 
TREE MIGNONETTE. 
Tue Reseda odorata, or common sweet Mignonette, treated after the 
following manner, forms a real treat in the conservatory during the 
winter and spring months, 
Sow in spring in a number of small 4-inch pots. When up, clear off 
all the plants but one in the centre ; as it grows train it upwards to a 
stick until it is a foot high, or two, if you please; do not allow any side 
shoots to grow on the stem, and remove all leaves to within a few 
inches of its top. When the plant gets as high as you wish it, top it, 
and then it will throw out side branches; as they advance, pinch off — 
their tops until you have formed a nice bushy head to your plant, and — 
above all things do not allow any bloom to appear until it has become — 
strong, which will be by winter, if it has been well attended to. For — 
