88 FAMILY RECEIPTS. 



seldom please. A simple parallelogram, divided into 

 beds running lengthwise, or the larger segment of an 

 oval, with beds running parallel to its outer margin, 

 will always please." When your ground is ready, mark 

 out a bed according to the number of kinds you have 

 to sow; we will suppose you have forty, a little bed, ten 

 feet six inches long by two broad, will hold them, (when 

 there is plenty of room of course more can be taken.) 

 Fasten your line on each side; begin at six inches from 

 one end, have a square stick, longer than the width 

 of the bed, with a mark near each end and one for the 

 centre; lay it across the bed, and place the number- 

 stick with the name of a sort on each side exactly in 

 the middle; draw a shallow drill with your fingers; 

 take two sorts, and sprinkle one along the drill on one 

 side of the number-stick, and one on the other; press 

 them gently down, and cover them about a quarter of an 

 inch: then move your stick six inches from the drill, 

 put in the number-stick, sprinkle, cover, and proceed 

 till you have filled the bed. You will now have twenty 

 rows, and two kirds in each rcvr. Half a row will 

 contain as many plants as you Avill vrant of one kind, 

 that space being sufficient for twenty or thirty dahlia 

 seed, and of the smaller kinds two or three times that 

 number. At the latter end of April or the beginiiing 

 of May, the seed must be sown: in about a month, more 

 or less, many of them will be fit to transplant. Take 

 advantage of cloudy and rainy weather for this opera- 

 tion; move the plants carefully with a transplanting 

 trowel, the smaller kinds set in front, the larger in the 

 rear, taking care to arrange them alternately according 

 to their color and time of flowering: but if the sky be 

 unclouded and the sun bright, give a little water, and 

 it will be safest to cover them with a flower-pot or 

 something else for a few days. Any thing may be 

 transplanted that we know of, except the Poppy and 

 Lupin, and these we believe to be impossible; they 

 must therefore be sown where they are to flower. 



The Convolvulus minor, with its beautiful azure, open 

 to the morning and closing with advancing day, pene- 

 trates deeply, and cannot easily be moved, and it should 



