276 GARDEN MANAGEMENT. 



the heart-shaped ivy ; also the oak, the maple-leaf, the horse-shoe geranium, 

 and an endless variety of others. Beds so formed have this advantage, that 

 they can be called by the name of the dififerect trees, shrubs, and plants from 

 ■which they have been taken. 



746. Cross-shajjed Beds.—The various sorts of crosses also form very orna- 

 mental beds, and have this advantage over fanciful figures, that they may 

 easily bo designated by their particular names. Nothing is more bi'illiant 

 than a Maltese-cross bed, filled in each separate compartment with different 

 shades of verbenas, or in the opposite compartments with the small dark blue 

 lobelia and Gazania splendens. The St, Andrew' s-cross also forms a nice bed, 

 and so do the different forms of upright crosses, when the stem and the trans- 

 verse are filled with flowers of such shades and colour as contrast well with 

 each other.— H. P. D. 



747. Su-eet Herls.—The olitory, or herb-garden, is a part of horticultm-e 

 somewhat neglected, and yet the culture and curing of simples was formerly a 

 part of a lady's education. There was not a Lady Bountiful in the kingdom 

 but made her dill-tea and diet-drink from herbs grown under her own eye ; 

 and there is a neatness about our thyme, sage, spear-mint, and marjoram, 

 that might again justify their transfer to the patronage of white muslin, 

 or, as these are days of sisterhoods, "grey weeds." They are all pretty, and 

 a strip of ground halfway between the kitchen and the flower-garden would 

 keep them more immediately under the eye of the mistress. This would 

 probably recover, for our soups and salads, some of the neglected tarragons, 

 French sorrel, pm-slain, chervil, dill, and clary, which are only found now in 

 the pages of the old herbals. Laid out after a simple geometric design, the 

 herb-garden might be rather ornamental than otherwise. Most of the herbs 

 are propagated by slips in the autumn. Basil, burnet, and other herbs, 

 require to be sown at this season, on slight hotbeds of about two feet in depth ; 

 but many cultivators leave them till next month, and sow in the open ground, 

 unless they are wanted early. Thyme, marjoram, savory and hyssop, chervil, 

 and coriander, may be sown this month in dry mild weather, to be transplanted 

 by-and-by, in such a strip as we have indicated for them. Sow in shallow 

 drills about half an inch deep and eight or nine inches apart, and cover in evenly 

 with the soil. Mint may also be propagated this month, by separating the 

 roots, and planting them in driUs drawn with a hoe six inches asunder, 

 covering them with an inch of earth, and raking smooth. They will quickly take 

 root, and grow freely for use in the summer. This method mat be applied to 

 the several sorts of spearmint, peppermint, and orange-mint, 



74S. The whole family of borage, buniet, clary, marigolds, orach-root, 

 carduus, dill, fennel, buglos, sorrel, and angelica, may be sown about the 

 middle of the month, when the weather is open. Sow them moderately thin 

 in drills or beds (each sort separate), in good light soil ; if in drills, six inches 

 apart ; some of the plants to remain where planted, after a thinning for early 

 use ; others to be planted out in the summer. 



749. Parsley. — Full crops of parsley should now be sown in drills along the 



