104 MAY. 



ROCKETS. 



- yielding a balmy fragrance 

 f day, when other plants exhale 



At close o 



A noxious fragrance." 



These are beautiful garden flowers, which, as they 

 grow in a spiral form, do not spread and suffocate 

 the adjoining ones. The single kinds having little 

 beauty, when compared with the double, are seldom 

 cultivated by florists, but they are hardy and will 

 thrive in a shady border. The double Rocket is a 

 biennial, and has purple and white varieties, of great 

 beauty and fragrance. If propagated by seed, the 

 plants will flower in the second season. The fol- 

 lowing remarks, with directions for its culture, are 

 given by Robertson : " The double Rocket is a 

 beautiful plant, rather scarce, owing to florists not 

 being acquainted with a successful way of increas- 

 ing it. I had a few plants of Rocket under my care, 

 and I did them all justice, as I thought, but all would 

 not do ; I lost them all. I tried to part their roots, 

 but being small and weak, the slugs eat them up in 

 a short time ; I tried to increase them by cuttings in 

 the common way, with as little success. This led 

 me to try another method, which I would recom- 

 mend as a never-failing way of propagating this 

 beautiful flower. If a person has but one plant of 

 Rocket, and is anxious for its flowers, the first thing 

 is, after the flower is beginning to fade, to cut down 

 the stalks, and divide them into ordinary lengths of 

 cuttings ; next to cut off the leaves and smooth the 

 ends ; then to make three slits with a knife, in the 

 bark or rind, lengthwise, so as to separate or raise the 

 bark for half an inch in length. When the cutting 

 is inserted in the ground, the loose bark naturally 

 curls up ; and it is from this bark that the young 



