CHAP. XV A^LLA GARDENING 91 



iiutumu again. To have Violets in abundance should be the aim 

 of all ; aud if we do not want to gather them, they will fill the 

 air with fragrance. To this end they should be planted freely, 

 filling up spare corners in the shrubbery border, even beneath the 

 shrubs if the shade is not too dense. The common Russian is 

 quite at home in such positions ; but Violets that have become 

 naturalised, so to speak, in the shrubbery, do not flower so early, 

 nor are their flower stems so long, as the cultivated plants ; and 

 this latter point, where the flowers have to be gathered and tied 

 in bunches, is an important one. For producing a large quantity 

 of blossom in autumn and winter, frequent renewal is necessary. 

 In no case should the plants be permitted to occupy the same site 

 more than two years, and the best plan is to raise a lot of young 

 ones annually, especially all that are required for plotting or 

 placing in frames. The side shoots pegged down in April, and a 

 little fine light soil scattered over the runners, will produce 

 quickly any niunber of plants, which should be lifted and planted 

 in beds till the autumn. A friend who grows Violets largely has 

 a low long pit, which he fills with plants raised in this way lifted 

 from the borders in autumn, and from which immense quantities 

 of fine blossoms are gathered all the winter. There is a hot-water 

 pipe along the front of the pit, which is a great help in wet or 

 cold weather, as even Violets enjoy a genial warmth when opening 

 their blossoms. The best varieties for forcing are the single 

 Neapolitan and the double Marie Louise. The coloured Prim- 

 roses, again, are nice to gather for the rooms in winter, and we 

 find that by transplanting and dividing the roots frequently they 

 become more precocious — more perpetual in their habit of bloom- 

 ing. A position in the full sunshine is not a good one for any of 

 this sweet retiring family ; indeed, their home in the woods or in 

 the thick hedge bottoms would suggest as much. Polyanthuses 

 and alpine Auriculas are very sweet for picking in early spring, 

 and are easily raised from seeds or by division. Another race 

 of plants which are indispensable for cutting early in the season 

 is the Anemones. The double scarlet is a grand plant to be 

 grown in large beds for its flowers alone, and it travels and keeps 

 its petals for so long a time. Whilst many of the hothouse flowers, 

 about which so much fuss is made, perish in a few hours, the 

 Anemones will last days, and if gathered before the blooms are 

 quite open they will last more than a week — by changing the 

 water occasionally, or keeping a few bits of animal charcoal in the 

 vase. The varieties of Anemone coronaria are also beautifvd for 

 cutting, and on a warm border they flower with us all the winter. 

 Seeds gathered from the best flowers and sown in spring germinate 



