88 FLOWERS AND THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



appearance shows itself in the leaves, cut away the 

 affected part of the root, fresh pot it, and remove it to 

 a cool shaded place. 



The Polyanthus is cultivated much like the auricula, 

 but it is a hardier and stronger plant, and only very 

 choice kinds are grown in pots. A fine flower should 

 be flat, round, a little scalloped at the edge, and three- 

 quarters of an inch across. It should be divided in five 

 or six places as if into petals, each division cleft in the 

 centre, so as to give it a heart shape, and the indenta- 

 tions not reaching to the yellow edge. The edge must 

 be the same colour as the eye ; the ground colour must 

 be clear and well defined. The tube, the eye, and the 

 ground colour should all be of the same width. 



The seedlings vary so much that raising them is very 

 interesting. Sow the seed as soon as it is ripe in July, 

 in a shady border r in pots, very slightly covered. 

 Seed sown as soon as it is ripe will produce plants 

 which may flower at the end of a year, but which will 

 be sure to do so the following spring twelvemonth. 

 Treat the young plants like auricula seedlings. The 

 polyanthus is, I believe, a sport from the primrose. 



Primroses, delicate and pretty as they are, have an 

 additional value from coming out so early, when flowers 

 are scarce. There are double kinds, in different colours, 

 for the garden, but none can rival the chaste beauty of 

 the sweet wild flower, which has a merit that few wild 

 flowers have ; we can transplant it from its native wilds, 

 and it will grow and bloom, and still delight us as it 

 does when it peeps out with modest beauty in the wild 

 woods. The pretty Chinese primrose is a greenhouse 

 plant, of which there are varieties with flowers of 

 different shades of lilac, white, and pink: there are some, 

 too, double, as well as the fringed Chinese primrose, all 

 valuable from flowering through the winter. They are 

 biennials. New plants should be made every year, by 

 cuttings struck in sand, on heat, under a bell glass, or 

 by seed. The pots in which they are grown should be 

 well drained with crocks, and they should be grown in 

 very rich earth, mixed with a little sand. 



