MAPLE. 



310 



MARIGOLD. 



vegetable refuse, including roots of 

 weeds, can he charred ; and this char- 

 coal, saturated with urine, is one of the 



AFRICAN MARIGOLD. 



best fertilisers. It may be usefully drilled 

 in with seeds, in a dry state. The scour- 

 ings of ditches, scrapings of roads, decayed 

 short grass and weeds, half-rotten leaves, 

 soot, and every bit of solid manure that 

 can be got, should be collected and 

 thoroughly mixed together. The excreta 

 of most animals are too rank and strong 

 for flower-garden purposes, applied in a 

 pure state ; by mixing, however, with 

 the various substances named above, the 

 bulk of the manure may be quadrupled ; 

 it will be sooner available, and much more 

 valuable. There are many very useful 

 fertilisers now supplied for garden and 

 greenhouse use, and among these With's 

 *' Improved Universal Carbon Manure," 

 to be obtained from the Hereford Society 

 for Aiding the Industrious, Bath Street, 

 Hereford, and Jensen's " Norwegian Fish 

 Potash Manure" appears to be the most 

 valuable. 



Maple and Chief Varieties. 



Of the maple, Acer, Acer campestre, the 

 common maple, is a showy tree, beautiful 

 in growth and foliage ; but there are 

 several others which are even more 

 beautiful : A. macrophyllum, the long- 

 leaved maple, is very striking ; and so, 

 also, are A. laciniatum^ the cut-leaved 



variegated, and A. rubrum, the scarlet or 

 swamp maple ; also A. striatum, the 

 snake-barked variety, which almost rivals 

 the cork tree. 



Marigold (nat. ord. Composite). 



Well-known, free-flowering hardy and 

 half-hardy annuals with handsome double 

 flowers, of rich and beautiful colours, 

 producing a splendid effect, whether 

 planted in beds, borders, or ribbons. 

 These annuals were in former years very 

 much in request; but, as many very beau- 

 tiful and once popular garden flowers 

 have done, in common with the mari- 

 gold, have been well-nigh forgotten for a 

 time, and have had to give place to 

 others which have had in reality but 

 little to recommend them beyond the fact 

 that they are "novelties," and so cannot 

 fail to be worthy of notice. But just as 

 the wheel revolves and the spoke which 

 is pointing to the ground is presently 

 brought into a direction directly oppo- 

 site, so the marigold, now greatly im- 

 proved by culture, is rapidly regaining 

 popularity and resuming its former posi- 

 tion among the favourites of the garden. 



The common marigold (Calendula offi- 

 cinalis) has large daisy-shaped flowers 

 varying in colour from pale yellow to 



KRKNCII MARIGOLD. 



deep orange. They are grown for the 

 sake of the flowers which are dried and 

 map\e. A. alba variegatum, the white ' used in broths and. soups. The African 



