FOURTH WEEK IN MAY 



pyrethrums, great marguerites in glowing carmine, pure 

 white, apricot, and deep pink, some being double and 

 others single flowers. 



Aquilegias are now in full beauty, their blossoms being in 

 many shades of blue, yellow, red, and creamy white, with 

 the long spurs which give them an orchid-like appearance. 

 Few flowers are more suitable for decorative purposes. Their 

 foliage, too, is light and pretty, and these plants are not too 

 particular as to soil or situation. But these new aquilegias 

 cannot be trusted to sow themselves in the garden like the 

 old-fashioned columbines ; and it is necessary to obtain fresh 

 plants every year or two to keep up the stock, especially of 

 the blue Rocky Mountain aquilegia (coerulea), which seems 

 less vigorous than the rest. A. baikalensis is an extra large 

 blue variety ; A. canadensis nana is in apricot and scarlet, 

 with dark foliage ; and A. chrysantha is a pure yellow 

 flower. When once a good selection of aquilegias has been 

 put in it is easy to keep it up by sowing seed yearly, in a 

 shallow box of good soil in May (which may stand in a cool 

 greenhouse or a frame), hardening the young plants as the 

 season progresses, and planting them in their flowering 

 positions during the following October. As they will soon 

 disappear for the winter, care is needed that they are not 

 then disturbed ; and they are safest during their first season 

 in a nursery bed, from which the plants which bear the finest 

 blooms can be selected for planting in the garden. All 

 inferior forms should be rooted up at once, as the seed of 

 the rest easily deteriorates through the action of the bees in 

 carrying pollen from one to another ; where care is taken to 

 eliminate all but the finest varieties many beautiful new forms 

 and tints will be observable amongst them. Seed may also 

 be sown in the open ground in May, but a moist position 

 is necessary, as the young plants are easily destroyed by 

 a drought. 



Agrostemma Walkeri is a new lychnis in the richest 

 crimson, blooming in June. This is a decided improvement 

 on many of the lychnises, the colour being free from a 

 magenta tint ; Lychnis Haageana and L. fulgens are, how- 



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