SEPT.] FLOWER-GARDEN. 493 



Transplant Perennial and Biennial Flower Roots. 



The latter end of this month is a very proper period for trans- 

 planting the various kinds of seedling perennial, and biennial flow- 

 ers, out of the flower-nursery into the beds, borders, and pleasure 

 grounds, where they are designed to bloom. You may likewise 

 slip and plant out double catchfly, pinks, London pride, lychni- 

 deas, Dracocephalums, sweet-william, thrift, scarlet-lychnis, Virgi- 

 nian spiderwort, double rose-campion, double rocket, virginian lung- 

 wort, creeping Greek valerian, and every other kind of hardy 

 fibrous-rooted perennials that are past bloom. 



Cut down the stalks of such flowers as are decayed, and where 

 they are not to be transplanted, dig the ground about them and add 

 some rotten dung or fresh earth to the borders, which will greatly 

 strengthen their roots. 



This will also be a very good time to collect from the fields, 

 swamps, and woods, some of the favourites of the MOST-HIGH, 

 which he has decorated with such a profusion of lustre and beauty, 

 that, " Solomon in all his Glory" was not equal to. These are tt 

 be taken up and treated as directed in page 461. 



The various kinds of tuberous rooted flowering-plants may now 

 be propagated by slipping or parting their roots, such as Pceonias, 

 Spirxa Filipendula, flag-Irises, Helleborus hyemalis or winter 

 aconite, &c. This last should have its roots planted in small 

 clusters; for small solitary flowers scattered about the borders, are 

 scarcely seen at a distance, but when these, snowdrops, crocuses, 

 and dwarf Persian Irises, are alternately planted in bunches, they 

 will have a very good effect, as they flower at the same time and 

 are much of a size. You may also divide and transplant the roots 

 of the Helleborus niger, or Christmas rose. Helltborus viridis,or 

 green Hellebore, Helleborus ranunculinus, and H. fcetidus, stinking 

 Hellebore, or Bear's-foot. The Helleborus lividus, purple, or 

 great three flowered black Hellebore, is a very desirable plant, it is 

 usual to keep this in the Green-house, where it will flower in 

 February and continue a long time in bloom. It may now be pro- 

 pagated in like manner as the other species. 



The fair Maids of France. 



The double flowering variety of the Ranunculus aconitifolius^ 

 Aconite-leaved Crowfoot, or Fair Maids of France, is greatly es- 

 teemed for the delicate beauty of its numerous flowers. It is per- 

 fectly hardy, and grows, generally, from a foot and a half to two 

 feet high, the stalks branching out at top into several divisions, at 

 each of which there is one leaf of the same shape of the root leaves, 

 divided into five lanceolate lobes each ; the four side-lobes are upon 

 foot-stalks coming from the side of the principal stalk, and the 

 middle one terminates it ; they are deeply serrate, and have seve- 

 ral longitudinal veins. The flowers are pure white, very double, 

 each standing upon a single foot-stalk. The root is perennial and 



