i& The Flower Garden [Chapter 



it is not present it should be supplied and added to 

 each year, as the heavy manuring which Roses require 

 constantly reduces the relative proportion of clay. 

 For the Pansy bed nothing better than leaf-mould 

 from the woods can be procured. For this bed re- 

 move six or eight inches of earth, spade in a good 

 supply of old, well-rotted manure from the cow-stable, 

 top-dress with several inches of leaf-mould. You 

 will have a bed that will give magnificent Pansies and 

 few weeds. For the Salvia, Canna, Ricinus, Caladium 

 and other strong-growing plants no soil is better than 

 the muck or peat of swamps soil composed of partly 

 carbonised vegetable matter decomposed by the action 

 of water. Leaf-mould consists of vegetable matter 

 which has decayed without being submerged, and it 

 usually contains a liberal quantity of sharp, white 

 sand, to which it owes its friable, non-adhesive char- 

 acter. Leaf-mould is commonly found around de- 

 cayed stumps and in hollow places in the woods, where 

 the leaves have drifted and decayed. It is ready for 

 immediate use. Muck or peat, however, which is 

 found in bogs and swamps, is unfit for garden use 

 when freshly dug except for aquatic plants being 

 tough and fibrous. It should therefore be dug during 

 the summer, thrown in a heap and left for the winter 

 frost to rot and render tractable. For immediate use 

 the best method is to place it in a deep hole in the bed 

 and cover with several inches of loam, or old muck. 

 If this is kept worked or mulched to exclude air and 



