II.] SWEET VIOLETS SOD FRAMES 143 



The old plants should be torn to pieces in March, April, 

 or May, retaining all healthy pieces which have some 

 fibrous roots ; replant in good, deeply-dug, and well 

 manured soil (16 inches apart for the larger sorts, and 12 

 inches for the double and smaller leaf kinds), with their 

 roots well down, so that they may not suffer in dry 

 weather. If at all times the runners are kept cut in, the 

 beds may, with advantage, be retained for the second 

 season, and the crop will be scarcely inferior to that of the 

 first year. 



CHAPTER II 

 SCILLAS AND GENTIANS 



IT has been often observed what a rare, and perhaps for 

 this reason, attractive feature good blue flowers are in 

 every garden. Scillas are particularly welcome for their 

 spring colouring. In some rock borders the beautiful 

 Chionodoxa Lucilli<z (the Glory of the Snow) will cover 

 whole patches of several square feet, having sown itself 

 during previous dry summers. All the Squill family thrive 

 well with us, and ought to be cultivated much more widely 

 in our rock gardens. 



In April and May the Gentians are in full bloom. 

 Few more beautiful objects can be imagined than a 

 group of G. acaulis in the early part of the day, when 

 its intensely blue, erect bells open to the morning sun. 



