HINTS TO JUVENILE GARDENERS. 247 



spring, and your border always look neat and pleasing. Box is 

 not so desirable, as it is a long time growing, and produces no 

 flowers. Grass bordering is very well on a large scale, but it is 

 difficult to be kept in order without the scythe. 



Xow we have provided the border, let us give some consideration 

 to the interior. 



These little plots of ground are best suited to the cultivation of 

 small and delicate plants ; and care must be taken that what is put 

 therein is not suffered to increase and spread too much, so as to 

 draw all the nourishment from its neighbours. It should be one 

 of the amusements of youthful cultivators, to remove carefully 

 any superfluous suckers from the plants under their care, leaving 

 only two or three stems, which will be far more vigorous and 

 beautiful than if the plant is left to throw out eight or nine. There 

 is, beside, more room for variety. It is likewise desirable to know 

 what plants grow and blossom freely in the shade ; as some change 

 their colours, become sickly, and actually die, if planted under a 

 tree, or beneath a north wall. 



Polyanthuses, Violets, Primroses, double and single Cowslips 

 and Snowdrops, not only flourish in the shade, but prefer it. So 

 do the whole tribe of the Narcissus, the beautiful Lily of the Val- 

 ley, Grape Hyacinths, Blue-bells, and Cyclamens. This last is 

 well worthy of attention ; it is a scarce, but a remarkably beautiful 

 flower, and singular in all its habits. I do not mean the large 

 Persian Cyclamen, that is commonly seen in pots, in the spring 

 of the year, a costly and cherished inhabitant of the green-house, — 

 but a small English species, that grows wild in many parts of 

 England. It has a large, oblong root, as large as the largest 

 Potutoe, and when cut it lias the appearance of the flesh of thu 1 

 root. The Cyclamen has no footstalk, but every flower and leaf 

 ends in a radical filament, by which it is fastened to the large 

 fleshy bull; that is its principal root. The leaves are, perhaps, 

 limiv beautifully marked than any other vegetable production; 

 they are irregularly heart-shaped — large — of a dark green, — 

 figured all over with a variety of the most beautiful patterns, in 

 light green, black, and white ; the reverse of the leaf is of a bright 

 carmine colour, veined, and shaded with light green. The flowers 

 are debt ate, and worthy of the closest examination. Some are 

 white, shaded with lilac at the bottom; and another sort is bright 



