136 FLOWERS AND TIIE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Several of them require in winter the protection of fir 

 boughs or moss among the plants, from London north- 

 Jvard, and with such it is best to make sure of saving 

 the kind, by making cuttings to keep over the winter, in 

 51 frame. To propagate, divide the plants in the spring, 

 when the growth commences, or take cuttings of the 

 young shoots any time in spring, summer, or autumn, 

 and strike them under a hand glass, in a mixture of 

 sandy loam and leaf-mould. 



There are many other useful perennials well deserving 

 attention. The Spidervvort (Tradescantia), with its rich 

 purple flowers, golden yellow anthers, and sweet scent, 

 the Michaelmas Daisy (that intruder so difficult to keep 

 within bounds), the Eose Campion, Feather Grass (Strtpa 

 pmnata), Balm of Gilead, the common Ribbon Grass, 

 showy in garden and nosegay, all come in well in help- 

 ing to keep up a good variety as to heights of various 

 plants for different positions on the borders, time and 

 habit of flowering, and colour of the flowers. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



GARDEN ADJUNCTS THE GREENHOUSE AND THE WINDOW, 



To keep a garden well supplied with plants, and to 

 furnish a succession when needed, some facility for 

 providing plants to be ready for planting out as they are 

 wanted is almost a necessary to the amateur florist. 

 Without such convenience it will be late in the season 

 before we can have the flower garden in full vigour of 

 vegetation and gay with flowers, because our springs are 

 often chilly, and our seasons backward, and plants, even 

 of the hardy kinds raised in the open borders, will 

 necessarily be many weeks behind those which can be 

 reared in a greenhouse, in a pit, under a frame on a 

 hot-bed, or inside a window of the dwelling-house. In 

 most parts of England, too, fuchsias and geraniums, and 



