CHINA ASTERS. 79 



a hot-bed in the month of March, and when sufficiently 

 large transplant into two inch pots and return them to the 

 hot-bed to be re-established, and these plants can be either 

 transplanted, without disturbing the roots, into the open 

 ground, or if intended to be flowered in pots you must con- 

 tinue to repot from time to time, as the roots fill them, un- 

 til you come to five inch pots, the one intended to flower in. 

 For a second crop you must sow the seeds in the open ground 

 in April, and transplant them into a bed prepared for their 

 reception. It would be advisable to make the following 

 compost, if you wish extra flowers, but will grow in almost 

 any soil; one bushel of good garden soil, one peck leaf 

 mould, half peck old manure, three quarts sand. These 

 ingredients should be well incorporated and laid in a heap 

 for some time prior to using it. You can either put this 

 compound in trenches in the garden, or in flower pots, and 

 great attention is required to keep this plant well watered 

 in dry weather. 



CRAPE MYRTLE. 



(LAGEE.STRCEMIA INDICA.) 



This is a fine half hardy favorite shrub, a native of the 

 East Indies, requiring little or no trouble, will grow twenty 

 feet high in the Southern States, and will stand out all the 

 winter if protected ; is readily propagated from -cuttings 

 planted in the ground in spring in a shady situation, and 



