Sept.] FLOWER GARDEN. 505 



them too close above, but clip the top oft' regularly to retard the 

 luxuriant shoots, and cause them to branch out and thicken the 

 hedge, and also to give the moderate growths an equal advantage 

 of air and room to advance as equally as possible.: cut the sides 

 with similar care but closer, and always sloping inwards or nar- 

 rowing towards the top; for by thus exposing the sides and bottom 

 of (lie hedge to the influence of the air, rain and dews, all parts are 

 equally encouraged in growth, and the whole becomes close and 

 well furnished, but when the top overhangs the bottom, the lower 

 branches, for want of those advantages, decay, and the hedge be- 

 comes thin below, and consequently much more unlit to answer the 

 end than if judiciously trained. 



Grass and Gravel- Walks, and Lawns. 



Continue to treat your grass and gravel-walks and lawns as 

 directed in page 400, and let the rough edges of all grass lawns, 

 &c. adjoining gravel-walks and principal borders, be cut close and 

 neat with a very sharp edging iron, &c, which will give an addi- 

 tional neatness and becoming appearance to the whole. 



Preparing for Planting. 



Prepare now, at all leisure hours, the different beds, borders, 

 and composts for your plantations of choice tulips, hyacinths, ane- 

 mones, ranunculuses, and other flower roots which are to be 

 planted next month; also for the various flowering shrubs, &c. that 

 the hurry, of business may not press upon you too much at once, 

 and that you may be the better able to do every thing in its proper 

 season. 



Transplanting Evergreens. 



In the last week of this month, should necessity require, you may 

 transplant such evergreens as seem to have ceased growing, pro- 

 vided you can remove them with balls of earth, or that they are to 

 be planted in shaded places; but in either case it will be necessary 

 to water them occasionally in dry weather for three or four weeks 

 after planting; however, if the season proves hot and dry it will be 

 better to defer that work till October. 



The Vallisneria Americana. 



Some account of the Vallisneria Americana may not prove un- 

 acceptable to the curious, the more especially as it tends to cast 

 some light on the "loves" and sexes of plants. 



This extraordinary vegetable production grows in the river Dela- 

 ware, not far from Philadelphia, and may, with care, be introduced 

 by means of seeds or roots, into rivers, ponds, and canals, &c. 

 Another species, the Spiralis, is found in the East Indies, in Nor- 

 3 Q 



