■Si; THE CHRONICLES OF A GARDEN. 



specimen, I could not bring myself to make a prisoner, or 

 l)ut to death, our beautiful visitor. Moth-hunting may 

 sometimes be successfully carried on indoors on a summer 

 evening, the light in the sitting-rooms attracting them in 

 at the open windows ; but unless the lights are shaded by 

 glass, the moths are apt to injure themselves so as to be 

 useless as specimens — a consideration that seems to weigh 

 very little with these infatuated insects. 



But it is time we turn from these desultory uses and 

 enjoyments of the garden, to some notice of the more 

 practical parts of gardening ; although all we can attem[)t 

 to do, is merely to suggest some few favourite flowers, and 

 give a slight notice of their culture. 



The early part of summer is a very busy time, when the 

 task of filling up beds with the small seedlings or other 

 hedding-out plants commences. In most gardens, some of 

 the beds have been filled with early tulips, hyacinths, 

 ranunculuses, &c., &c. Some of these may scarcely be 

 ready for removal in June, when the summer planting-out 

 commences. The roots must be very carefully lifted, the 

 foliage as little injured as possible, and the plants or bulbs 

 should be buried in sand till the leaves decay, before drying 

 the roots for storing them away. The beds must then be 

 <lug up, fresh compost added, and the plants put in, gently 

 watered, and pegged down, or tied to stakes, as they may 

 require. Annuals for these beds must of course be sown 

 ill spring, so as to be ready for planting-out now, and, as a 

 general rule, tlie small seedlings may be planted pretty 

 thickly, as some die out and leave unsightly blanks. 



