Mia 



MIL 



tlie window, or greenhouse, and if the 

 seeds are good they will be up in less 

 than ten days; give them abundance of 

 air, and no forcing. When the day is at 

 all fine, put them outside the window 

 from ten to three in the afternoon. They 

 will not stand much water; a gentle 

 shower with a rose wouM suit them very 

 well, and the best time to give it them is 

 in the morning, when you turn them out 

 side, as they will have time to drain and 

 dry properly before you take them in for 

 the night. If the three seeds in the 

 centre come up, the weakest of the three 

 must be pulled out as soon as you can 

 get hold of it ; the rest to be thinned one 

 half. The reason for sowing so many 

 seeds in one pot, and for thus thinning 

 them out afterwards, is to make sure of 

 one good plant ; if the middle one turns 

 out to be so, that must be selected ; but 

 if not, you must choose the strongest and 

 most promising from among the rest; 

 yet be in no great hurry to pull them all 

 out but one ; as long as three or four 

 have room, leave them. When you have 

 fixed on the one that is to form the future 

 tree, place a neat little stick down by the 

 side of it, a foot long, and pushed down 

 to the bottom of the pot. When the 

 plant is two inches long, tie it loosely to 

 this stick with a piece of worsted thread. 

 Keep tying it as regularly as it grows, 

 and when it reaches the top of the stick 

 give it a longer one, that is, if you wish 

 a long stem. Some people grow them 

 up to three, or even four, feet and more. 

 Suppose we say only a foot high for a 

 couple of them, as they must all go in 

 pairs; eighteen inches for the next 

 couple, and two feet for a third lot ; you 

 would then be better able to judge which 

 size would suit your window best ; and as 

 soon and as often as side-branches issue 

 forth from the stem of your tree, you 

 must stop them at the second joint. 

 Some people, who do not know the value 

 of leaves, cut off the side-shoots close to 

 the stem at once ; but the substance of 

 the stems and trunks of all trees, and 

 mignonette-trees among the rest, is first 

 formed by the leaves. In the second 

 year you will cut off more than the half 

 of these side-spurs, beginning at the 

 bottom, ajid only taking off a pair at a 

 time, and in ten days or a fortnight 

 another couple, and so on progressively. 

 There must be no flowers the first 

 season, at least as long as there are 



some out in the borders. After the 

 middle of October you may let your 

 trees bloom all the winter, but before 

 that nip them off as fast as they appear. 

 When the first little pots are full of roots, 

 say about Midsummer, shift the plants 

 into 5-inch pots, which is the next largest 

 size; and if they have done well they 

 may want another shift by the end of 

 July, but never shift them after the 

 middle of August, because, if we should 

 have a cold autumn, they would not fill 

 the pots with strong, healthy roots. 



MIKA'NIA. (Named after J. Mikan, 

 professor of botany at Prague. Nat. 

 ord., Composites [Asteracese]. Linn., 19- 

 Syngene&ia l~JEqualis. Allied to Eupa- 

 toriura.) 



Stove evergreen twiners, with white flowers, 

 blooming in August, except where otherwise 

 mentioned. Cuttings of half-ripened shoots in 

 sand, under a beli-glass, and in heat; rich, sandy 

 loam. Winter temp., 48 to 55; summer, 60 

 to 80. 



M. uma'ra (bitter). 6. Guiana. 1813. 



Gua'co (Guaco). 6. Pale blue. S. Amer. 



1823. 



opi'fera (opium-bearing). 6. Brazil. 1823. 



sca'ndens (climbing). 6. N. Amer. 1/U. 



suave'ulens (sweet-scented] 1 . 6. S.Amer. 1823 



MILDEW, whether on the stems of the 

 wheat, or on the leaves of the chry- 

 santhemum, pea, rose, or peach, appears 

 in the form of minute fungi, the roots of 

 which penetrate the pores of the epi- 

 dermis, rob the plant of its juices, and 

 interrupt its respiration. There seems 

 to be every reason to believe that the 

 fungus is communicated to the plants 

 from the soil. Every specimen of these 

 fungi emits annually myriads of minute 

 seeds, and these are wafted over the soil 

 by every wind, vegetating and reproducing 

 seed, if they have happened to be de- 

 posited in a favourable place, or remain- 

 ing until the following spring without 

 germinating. These fungi have the 

 power of spreading also by stooling, or 

 throwing out offsets. They are never 

 absent from a soil, and at some period 

 of its growth are annually to be found 

 jpon the plants liable to their inroads. 

 They are more observed in cold, damp, 

 muggy seasons, because such seasons are 

 peculiarly favourable to the growth of all 

 'ungi. The best of all cures is afforded 

 by the application of flowers of sulphur 

 n some form, either by dusting the 

 sulphur over the parts affected, or a 

 sulphur paint, for which a recipe is 

 given at page 233; merely clay, water, and 



