GENERAL DIRECTIONS. 



PLANTS are annual when they spring up, flower, bear 

 fruit, and die the same year ; biennial, when they 

 spring up one summer, bear fruit and die the next ; and 

 perennial, when they continue many, or more than two 

 years. 



The soil should be a deep loam ; it must be kept 

 rich, and often stirred. It ought to be supplied with 

 manure every year ; this may consist of a compost made 

 up of decayed leaves and vegetables, yard manure, 

 ashes, and common earth or loam. If this be inconve- 

 nient to procure, we may substitute four parts of common 

 garden earth, a little wood ashes, say half a part, and 

 about one part of yard manure. The kinds of manure 

 and proportions mentioned, it must be recollected, are 

 those which are considered the best, though plants will 

 grow and look tolerable well, in common garden earth, 

 without any additional materials. 



The time for sowing annual, biennial, or perennial 

 flower seeds, is in the months of April and May, ac- 

 cording to the forwardness of the season. The smaller 

 seeds may be covered half an inch deep in moist earth ; 

 those as large as a pea, to the depth of an inch, or per- 

 haps a little more. Seeds of very delicate plants should 

 be planted in flower-pots, and the earth kept moderately 

 moist, by pouring water into the pan which contains 

 the flower-pot. The earth contained in the flower-pots 

 should be rich, and sifted through a coarse sieve made 

 for the purpose. 



Transplanting of annual plants, should be performed 

 in June, that of biennials and perennials, in September, or 

 early in October. We should always take up as much 



