( UNIVERSITY j 



with partial shade in high summer, and a rich, moist, sandy 

 soil. Notwithstanding all this, the Pansy will grow almost anywhere 

 and anyhow ; but as we prize fine flowers of this old favourite, it 

 should be treated with reasonable care to do justice to its great 

 merits. 



A thick sowing is very liable to damp off: therefore sow thinly, 

 either in pots or boxes, in February and March. The thin sowing, 

 moreover, renders it possible to take out the forward plants without 

 disturbing the remainder. Make up the requisite number of pans, 

 and in a short time transfer the plants to some cool corner, where 

 the soil has been prepared with a heavy dressing of manure. When 

 they have become stocky, remove to beds or borders, with balls of 

 earth attached to the roots. Should the surrounding soil become 

 set by heavy rain or by watering, a slight stirring of the surface will 

 prove beneficial. 



Seed sown in the open ground during the summer months will 

 readily germinate, and the seedlings need no attention beyond thinning 

 to about six inches apart until they are ready for transferring to their 

 proper positions, where they will produce a mass of bloom in the 

 following spring. 



The Pansy puts forth its buds very early in the year. Whether 

 they are particularly tasty, or the scarcity of young vegetable growth 

 gives them undue prominence, we know not, but certain it is that 

 sparrows show a marked partiality for them. And having once 

 acquired a taste for the buds, these impudent marauders will not 

 "leave them alone ; they evidently regard Pansies as the perfection of 

 a winter salad. Their depredations can be prevented by an applica- 

 tion of water flavoured with quassia or paraffin oil, which must be 

 repeated after rain. 



PELARGONIUM 



Greenhouse perennial 



ALL kinds of Pelargonium may be raised from seed with the cer- 

 tainty of giving satisfaction if the work be well done. An amateur, 

 who contributed to the production of symmetrical flowers in the 

 Zonal section, found that under ordinary treatment Zonals began to 

 bloom in one hundred days from the date of sowing the seed, and 

 some of those that flowered earliest proved to be the finest. The 

 cultivator will soon discover that one rule is important, and that is to 



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