346 



NEW ENGLAND FARRIER. 



July 



air by setting out the box at noon every fair day 

 after the middle of April. Always take a damp, 

 cloudy day to transplant, and shade the young 

 plants for several days by spreading newspapers 

 or cloth screens or baskets over them during 

 the grcates-t heat. To sow seeds : level and press the 

 soil of the bed with the back of the jpade, a 

 shingle, an old flatiron, anything of light weight 

 and smooth face ; mix fine seeds with sand and 

 then scatter them upon this surface; sift a very 

 little loam and sand mixed over them, and if the 

 weather is dry and windy keep them covered with 

 papers, kept in place by large stones, or with cloth 

 screens, for some days, — don't sow on a windy day. 

 The larger seeds may be covered a third of an inch 

 deep, with the sand and loam ; such as petunias, 

 portulacas, poppies, need no cover. Wherever seed 

 is planted set a label. When the plants have their 

 second leaves thin them out— be sure to allow them 

 room enough ; when full grown no plant should 

 touch its neighbor. 



A rustic seat, an arbor, or a summer house, are 

 attractive objects in a garden. Very elegant and 

 expensive ones are too often seen. Simpler struc- 

 tures are generally more appropriate, (any man or 

 large boy can make some sort of a substantial 

 frame from strips of board, laths, or the branches 

 of trees,) which when ingeniously covered by 

 training vines over them are veiy handsome. 

 These should not obtrude upon the sight, yet not 

 be hidden entirely from view, and will afford de- 

 lightful retreats for those who enjoy the quiet con- 

 templation of Nature. 



A rockery, for the growth of such plants as 

 love the shade and need little soil, is in its 

 way very beautiful. If you can spare three or 

 four square yards of land in a sequestered spot, 

 — or, you can make it so by setting trees in its vi- 

 cinity, — collect there all the rocks and large stones 

 that cultivation throws out of your ground ; and 

 procure others from the roads and pastures, of all 

 sizes and shapes, from the biggest and roughest 

 rocks to pebbles. Dispose them in hillocks, mounds, 

 or grottoes— any way to look picturesque — with 

 soil around and upon them, some half hidden, 

 others lying nearly bare. And in the interstices 

 and crevices set ferns and mosses and young juni- 

 pers ; pines, or hemlocks ; roots of the partridge 

 berry, wintcr-grcf n, ground-ivy, violets, anemones, 

 hepaticas,houstania, saxifrage, straw-bells, colum- 

 bines, the trailing arbutus, wild geraniums, tre- 

 foils, crowfoots— any, or all of these wild flowers ; 

 and then among them, in pots hidden by moss, or 

 in some richer, deeper portion of the soil, verbenas, 

 of various colors — to be taken into the house be- 

 fore winter; also ivies and nummularia, the same. 

 This little picture of forest life you and your 

 children can make upon three or four yards of 

 ground, but ten or twelve will of course be better, 

 and such work is a source of endless delight. 



Now for our flowers. The list however must 

 be short and our notice of them brief. Among 



shrubs you will first look for Roses. These 

 we can have of all colors except blue; and of 

 numberless kinds, from the tiny Burgundy, only 

 a foot high, with blossom scarcely an inch in di- 

 ameter, to the Queen of the Prairies climbing to 

 the chimney-top of a cottage with its heavy clus- 

 ters of flowers each over six inches in circumfer- 

 ence ; but don't forget the sweet-briar, with its de- 

 liciously fragrant foliage, if it a wilding; nor yet 

 its aristocratic cousin, the moss-rose, the loveliest 

 of all. Roses need a deep, rich soil, but drj' ; they 

 do better when not exposed to the full heat of the 

 sun, and they want a plenty of room. They are 

 increased by layers, or division of the root. Start 

 them in the autumn. The more tender kinds need 

 a covering of mats or straw tied about them 

 through the winter. 



Of early spring shrubs we have the wild Rhodora 

 canadensis, with its crimson flowers before the 

 leaves, in May. Take it, with the bog earth upon 

 its roots, from the meadows, in the autumn. Then 

 come the Rhododendron of the gardens, with its 

 pink shaded blossoms, — it needs a light, rich soil, 

 rather moist, and flourishes best in sheltered situ- 

 ations ; the double-flowering cherry and peach, — 

 these are trees, but exceedingly beautiful for the 

 flower-garden, as also the Siberian crab-apple; the 

 CydoniaJaponica — the Japan quince — with its glow- 

 ing scarlet flowers ; the Dierrilla rosea — generally 

 called Wiegela; the Amygdahts nana — Dwarf 

 Flowering Almond — covered with tiny pink blos- 

 soms like roses. Then the Philadelphns grandi- 

 iiorus — Mock Orange — and its sister, P. coronarius 

 — the Syringa ; Viburnnm opulus — the Snow ball, or 

 Guelder Rose ; — these with white flowers. Kerria 

 Japonica, or Corchorus, yellow flowers ; Ribes ait- 

 reum — Missouri Currant, yellow also. Syringa 

 Persica — the Persian Lilac — and S. vulgaris— ihQ 

 common Lilac — white and purple ; Pconia moutan 

 — the tree Peony — red, purple or lilac, and P. pa- 

 paveracea — the Poppy-flowered Tree Peony — 

 white flowers. Then Lnnicera Tartarica — Tarta- 

 rian Honeysuckle — pink and white ; Deutzia sea- 

 bra — white ; Althea or Tree Hibiscus — white, pink, 

 and purple ; the Jasmine with its white, yellow 

 and puq>le stars. All are easily raised from cut- 

 tings or layers in good garden soil. Like roses, 

 they should he divided and new soil given them 

 every three years. The Euonymiis Americanus, 

 Burning Bush, or Strawberry Tree — with red ber- 

 ries, Symphoricarpus racemosus, the Snowberry — 

 white berries, from seed, layers, or suckers, — the 

 same cultivation. 



Of Lilies: earliest in the spring, Convallaria 

 majalis, Lily of the Valley needing a shady, damp 

 situation ; latest, in the autumn, Funkia sub-cor- 

 data, the white Day Lily, F. ovata, blue Day Lily. 

 In June the yellow and the copper-colored. But far 

 above all others, stands the white lily of summer, 

 Lilium Candidum ; in beauty and fragrance, the 

 chief. These need a sandy soil well mixed with leaf 

 mould. Raise lilies from bulbs, set early iu Sep- 



