■^q± The Gardener's New Director. 

 nloLis Dodor IVilliam Houjion, to be a fpecies oi the Co>i- 

 vohulus. But lo return to the culture of this plant, 

 called in the Dutch catalogues, MirabiUs Peruviana, I 

 ufcd the following nieiliod, which by experience I found 

 to exceed all oth.ers: Having procured good feed ot a 

 variety, i foucd thcr.i in /Jpril upon a moderate hot- 

 bed • and V hen ihey were four inches high, I tranf- 

 planied fome of them into pots in a light, rich, Tandy 

 foil, and fomeot them into a warm border, inuring thofe 

 in pots by dtgrecs to the open air in June : and thofe 

 which I planted in beds upon a very v.'arm border, i al- 

 ways tied their branches up to reeds, to prevent the 

 winds from dafhing, waving, or breaking them: By this 

 method they will flower late in the year ; but the firft 

 ■year's flowers are not much to be regarded. As foon as 

 the froft has pinched their ftalks and flowers, take their 

 roots carefully out of the pots, and borders, keep them 

 all the winter among dry i'and, in a place where no man- 

 ner of frolT; can get at them, and tlie fucceeding March 

 plant them into pots, which mud be funk into a mode- 

 rate hot bed of tan bark, obferving in good weather to 

 give them air, that they may not be too much drawn, 

 which would fpoil their bloflbms; by June you may take 

 them from the hot bed, fetting them for ten days in the 

 ffreen-houfe, or for want of one, in a (haded place, but 

 not under the dropping of trees. When you take them 

 into the fhade, water thofe you intend to keep in pots, 

 giving new earth to them as far in the pots as you can, 

 without touching their main or top roots; thofe you in- 

 tend to plant in borders, fhould have much water the 

 evening before you tranfplant them, that the whole ball 

 ci earth may come out of the pot with fhem ; then tranf- 

 plant them into pits made m tiie borders, and fill the pits 

 up with the fame earth as in the pots: They are one of 

 the No^ificrous Plants ; for as foon as the fun's rays are 

 gone ofr them, they expand their blofloms, and fliut 

 them again when his rays fhine upon the plants ; the feeds 

 inuil be carefully looked to every day when they begin 

 to ripen, they being then very apt to drop; and where 

 they fall, they fpring in autumn, and are thereby 

 deftroyed in winter. It is bed lo fave the feed of the 

 variegated kind, they fek'oai dcgenciating from their 



variega- 



