200 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



BIGNONIA VENUSTA AND JASMINOIDES. 



These are greenhouse climbers, which only do well as 

 permanent rafter plants, usually not flowering until they 

 are two or three years old ; by that time, however, they 

 usually cover the rafters to a length of twenty or thirty 

 feet. B. venusta is bright orange ; B. jasminoides is 

 purple and white. The flowers are formed in immense 

 clusters and are extensively used during winter. The 

 colors of both, although entirely different, are novel 

 additions to our usual colors of flowers. 



SWEET ALYSSUM. 



Sow in August in a cold frame, thin out so that the 

 plants will stand six or eight inches apart, and leave 

 without the covering of the sash until frost is expected in 

 September or October ; these plants will flower abundantly 

 until January, if covered up by sash and mats so as to 

 exclude the frost ; or they may be sown in August or 

 September, and grown in pots and flowered in a cold 

 greenhouse during the winter months. 



MIGNONETTE. 



The following article on Mignonette is copied from the 

 "American Florist " of November, 1886, written by Mr. 

 Charles Bird, Arlington, N. J., who has for years been 

 one of the most successful growers of Mignonette in 

 winter for the New York market : 



" I will first describe what I consider the proper kind of 

 a house to grow this plant in ; afterwards the treatment. 

 The house should be a low one, without benches, as 

 experience has demonstrated to me that sufficient soil 

 cannot be accommodated upon a bench to allow the roots 

 of this plant the freedom and depth necessary to properly 

 develop itself. I would prefer to have the house running 

 from north to south ; that is, having one side facing 

 east, the other west, and of eleven feet in width. Dig 

 out a walk in the centre about eighteen inches deep, brick 



