THE FLOWER GARDEN. 103 



kalmias, and such like, should have a Led to themselves, and 

 that bed should he peat. The bed ought to be dug out 

 eighteen inches deep, and filled mtli tui'fy peat, chopped 

 up tolerably small. The plants should then be j laced at 

 proper distances, allowing them room to grow, keeping the 

 collar of the root as high as it had been in its former place 

 of growth. They require moisture, and this must be given 

 with the watering pot. When their flower buds begin to 

 swell they must never be dry, and after the blooms have 

 begun to decay, and the plants begun to grow, they must be 

 copiously supplied until their growth is complete and flower 

 buds are formed. They may then be considered at rest, and 

 water may be withheld, unless the weather proves extremely 

 dry. Generally, however, they may be left to the weather, 

 which will supply them well enough. In forming American 

 beds we must avoid the unnatural fashion of heaping up the 

 soil into a mound ; the soil should in no part be raised higher 

 than the verge, and were it not for the appearance the plants 

 would do better if it v/ere considerably lower, because water 

 would then remain and soak where it fell, but if the ground 

 rises in the middle the plants on the highest part lose a good 

 deal, while the side plants get more than their share. All 

 these plants will, if not well supplied with water while making 

 their growth, fall short of completing it, and not form their 

 terminal bloom bud, and it is very common for them to fail 

 alternate years. They will flower abundantly one year, and 

 this so delays the after growth that they have hardly time to 

 complete it before the cold weather pinches them. The next 

 year, as there is no bloom, the growth commences earlier, and 

 they complete it all over. However, this want of flower may 

 be prevented by removing the decaying blooms doAvn to the 

 buds below, for the swelling of the pods of seed delays the 

 growth, whereas by removing them as soon as they fade the 

 buds push directly, and if the plants are kept moist they 

 will make all their growth and set their buds before the cold 

 weather afiects them at all. 



Nursery Gardens, — Nurseries are departments in which 

 trees and shrubs are raised to make and mend plantations and 

 keep up the timber of large estates. In these departments 

 tree-seeds, nuts, and berries of all sorts are sown, and when 

 the plants are large enough they are put out in nursery rows. 

 In time they want to be removed to give them more room, 



