170 THE PLEASURE, OR [FEB. 



mums or ice plants, Browallia's sensitive plant Ipomcea Quamoclit, 

 and many others. 



Therefore, provide some new horse-dung, and let it be thrown up 

 in a heap, and in eight or ten days it will be in good condition to 

 make the bed. Let this be made about three feet high of dung, 

 levelling the top, and then set on the frame and glasses. When the 

 burning heat is over lay on the earth, observing that, for this use, it 

 must be rich, light, and perfectly dry, and broken pretty small by 

 rubbing it between the hands ; the depth of earth on the bed must be 

 about five or six inches, making the surface level and smooth. 



The seed may either be sown on the surface, observing to sow each 

 sort separate, covering them about a quarter of an inch, or rather less, 

 with light earth ; or you may draw some shallow drills with your 

 finger from the back to the front of the bed, sow the seeds therein, 

 and cover as above ; or you may sow them in pots and plunge these 

 into the earth of the hot-bed. But if you intend sowing in pots, and 

 you have the convenience of tanner's bark, lay on eight or nine 

 inches, or a foot deep of it all over the bed in place of the earth, to 

 plunge your pots therein, in which case two and a half feet deep of 

 dung will be sufficient. 



As soon as the plants appear, admit fresh air to them every day 

 when the weather is any way mild, and let them have now and then 

 gentle sprinklings of water. Mind to cover the glasses every night, 

 and in bad weather with mats ; or if boards are first laid on, and then 

 covered with mats, they will afford an additional protection. 



But in raising the above annuals, if it is required to be saving of 

 hot dung and trouble, and there are cucumber or melon hot-beds at 

 work, you may sow them in pots and place them in these beds to 

 raise the plants ; which may afterwards be transplanted or pricked 

 into other pots in the same, or into a nursery hot-bed, to forward 

 them to a proper size. For the further management of these plants, 

 see March and April. 



SOWING TEN-WEEK STOCK AND MIGNONETTE. 



The ten-week stock is a beautiful annual; none makes a more 

 agreeable appearance in pots, and in the borders, &c., and it con- 

 tinues a long time in bloom. The mignonette imparts a sweet and 

 agreeable odor, for which purpose it is extremely worthy of cultiva- 

 tion. 



When these plants are wanted in early perfection, the seeds of 

 either may be sown, towards the end of this month, in a slight hot- 

 bed, or in a very warm border, to be covered with a frame and 

 glasses ; but by sowing the seed in the former it will bring the plants 

 on much sooner, though, in the latter, they will be tolerable early, 

 and being raised in a more hardy manner may be planted out into 

 the borders with better success ; yet, when they are wanted for an 

 early blow in pots, the hot-bed is preferable. 



Sow the seeds either in pots or on the surface of the bed, covering 

 them with light, dry earth about the eighth of an inch deep, or a 

 little more, and give them gentle occasional waterings, and the neces- 



