PANSY, (Viola tricolor,) Nat. Orel. Violacea:. 



The Pansy is the little Heartsease of Europe, become somewhat naturalized in America, and 

 wonderfully improved by cultivation. It was about sixty years ago that this flower first attracted 

 the special notice of florists, their attention being called to it by the great 

 success of a lady amateur. We give an engraving of the Hearts-ease 

 as it is found wild. The French call it Pensee, and this is, no doubt, the 

 origin of the common name, Pansy. The Pansy is now a popular 

 ' flo\\er with both florists and amateurs, giving abundance of bloom until 

 after severe frosts, enduring our hard winters with safety, and greeting 

 us in the earliest spring with a profusion of bright blossoms. It will 

 flower better in the middle of the summer, if planted where it is some- 

 what shaded from the hot 

 sun, and especially if fur- 

 nished with a good supply 



of water, but in almost any situation will give fine 

 flowers in the spring and autumn. If plants come 

 into bloom in the heat of summer, the flowers will 

 be small at first ; but as the weather becomes cooler, 

 they will increase in size and beauty. Often plants 

 that produce flowers two and a half inches in diam- 

 eter during the cool, showery weather of spring, 

 will give only the smallest possible specimens 

 during the dry weather of summer. To have good 

 flowers, the plant must be vigorous, and make a 

 rapid growth. No flower is more easily ruined by 

 '11 treatment or adverse circumstances. Seed may 

 be sown in the hot-bed or open ground. If young 

 plants are grown in the autumn, and kept in a frame 

 during the winter, with a little covering in the 

 severest weather, they will be ready to set out very 

 early in the spring, and 

 give flowers until hot 

 weather. If seed is sown 

 in the spring, get it in as 

 early as possible, so as to 



have plants readf to flower during the spring rains. Seed sown in a 

 cool place in June or July, and well watered until up, will make plants 

 for autumn flowering. The Pansies make a beautiful bed, and are 

 interesting as individual flowers. No flower is so companionable and life-like. It requires no 

 very great stretch of the imagination to cause one to believe that they see and move, and 

 acknowledge our admiration in a very pretty, knowing way. 



PKRILLA, Nat. Ord. Labiatte. 



The Perilla Nankinensis is one of the best of the ornamental-leaved annuals. It has a broad, 

 serrated leaf, of a purplish mulberry color, and makes a well 

 formed plant, as represented in the engraving, and eighteen inches 

 or more in height. It is very desirable for the center of a bed of 

 ornamental-leaved plants, and we can recommend it also for a low 

 screen or hedge, and such hedges will be found exceedingly useful 

 in many situations. The Perilla is one of the plants that is good 

 for some special work, indeed, almost invaluable, but in an ordinary 

 collection of flower seeds would not be desirable. We are induced 

 V to mention this fact here, because, last season, a gentleman wrote 

 r us that we had better leave this plant out of our collection, as it was 

 no better than a weed and, perhaps, he was right, for a weed is 

 any plant out of place. An Aster among a bed of Petunias would be a weed. 



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