122 FLOWERS AND THE FLOWER GARDEN. 



better to sow in March, and give a little heat. Tnt 

 pretty composite flower comes out in June or July, but 

 it does not last very long. 



Lupines are of all colours and all heights. The 

 seed is sown in the ground in February or March. 

 Mutabilis and M. Cruickshanki are splendidly branching 

 plants, which, if sown early in autumn and kept in a 

 frame for the winter, make fine plants. The perennials 

 are good bushy plants for a large garden, and are in- 

 creased by seed, or division of the roots. Love in a 

 Mist (Nifjella) is hardy, compact, and pretty, some- 

 thing like larkspur in habit of growth ; the different 

 kinds producing flowers of various colours. The seed 

 may be sown in the open ground after the middle of 

 March. The Collinsias are pretty, and may be treated 

 like Coreopsis. The Pheasant's Eye (Flos Adonis), so 

 pretty from the way in which the bright crimson flowers 

 peep from amongst the feathery foliage, grows from seed 

 in common soil, and flowers from summer into autumn. 

 The Adonis has other sorts, several of which are peren- 

 nials, and are increased by division of the root or by 

 seed. 



Ten- weeks Stocks fully deserve attention from their 

 beauty and fragrance. Such fine varieties and colours 

 are grown from the German and Russian seed supplied 

 by first-class seedsmen, that it is better to purchase 

 than to save seed. Use vegetable loam, with one- 

 sixth part of river sand ; sow from March to May for 

 summer flowering, and in August and September to 

 stand the winter and flower early. Sow the seed far 

 apart and only thinly covered, and place the pots near 

 the glass. When the young plants get several leaves 

 each, they may be potted singly, or planted out in groups 

 or beds. To get fine plants it is best to plant them out in 

 pots, and turn them out into the borders when the pots 

 have good balls of root in them. Stocks like a chalky 

 soil. It is said the strongest seed is most likely to pro- 

 duce double flowering plants ; therefore, leave very few 

 seed pods on a plant, give it high cultivation and plenty 

 of sunshine. 



