BABY'S BREATH. See MUSCARI. 

 BAERIA. [Composite. ] A pretty hardy annual, thriv- 

 ing in any garden soil, from seeds sown in May. 



B. chrysostoma (golden-mouthed); hardy annual ; i foot ; flow- 

 ers yellow, in June ; California ; 1835. 



BALM. See MELISSA. 



BALSAMINA. Balsam. [Balsaminaceae.] Tender annu- 

 als. The garden Balsam, of which numerous handsome va- 

 rieties are grown, is B. hortensis. This requires a rich com- 

 post of loam and vegetable mould. Sow the seeds in pots, 

 about March, and put them in a cucumber-frame or melon- 

 bed. As soon as they are up, and before they have time to 

 draw, let them be potted out, one in a pot three inches 

 across, and put in a declining or very moderate hot-bed, 

 where they must have air to prevent their being drawn up, 

 and must be so placed that the tops shall be near the glass, 

 and the plants must be shifted every time the pots fill with 

 roots ; and in this way you go on moving them from one 

 pot to another as they fill with roots. The heat of the bed 

 must not be neglected ; and the pots will have to be lowered, 

 or the frame raised, as the plants increase in size. Some 

 of the plants may be hardened off in May, and in June 

 turned into the borders, where, if the soil be rich, and the 

 situation sheltered, they make a very pretty show, and seed 

 freely. Those in pots have to be put into the greenhouse 

 when they have grown too large for the frames ; and, if the 

 house is a lean-to, they should be turned every day, that 

 60 



