MIC 



[ 004 ] 



MlCI 



TKRRESTIAL OR GROUND. 



M. Ba'nksii (Banks's). New Zealand. 



me'dia (middle-sixed) . 2. Pale green, white. 



King George's Sound. 1823. 



parvifto'ra (small-flowered). 1. Pale green, 



white. September. PortJackson. 1828. 



EPIPHYTAL. 

 3/. pa'llida (pale). Pale yellow. Sylket. 



MIONONETTE. Resc'da odora'ta. 



Soil. Light loam, well drained, and 

 manured with leaf-mould. 



Sowiny in the open ground from the 

 end of April to the beginning of July, 

 will produce a sure succession of 

 blooms through the year. If allowed 

 to seed and the soil suits it, mignonette 

 will continue to propagate itself. If not 

 allowed to ripen its seed, the same 

 plants will bloom for two or more sea- 

 sons, being a perennial in its native 

 country. 



For Pot- Culture and the production 

 of flowers to succeed those of the open 

 ground plants, and to bloom in winter, 

 sow once in August, and again in Sep- 

 tember. The soil as above, well 

 drained, and pressed into five - inch 

 pots ; cover the seed a fourth of an 

 inch. Thin the seedlings to three in 

 a pot. Water sparingly. When mig- 

 nonette is deficient of perfume, it is 

 because the temperature is too low. 



Tree Mignonette. About the end of 

 April is the best time to sow seeds for 

 this purpose ; and as the little tree of 

 mignonette will be expected to last in 

 good health for half a dozen years at 

 least, lay a good foundation to begin 

 with. A good rich compost of rich 

 mellow loam and one-third very rotten 

 cow-dung, with a little sand ; and to 

 keep this from getting too close, a 

 handful of dry lime mortar added to 

 each pot of six -inch diameter, and so 

 in proportion for larger or smaller 

 pots ; the mortar to be in lumps of the 

 size of peas. Bones, charcoal, or even 

 powdered crocks, would answer the 

 same purpose, only the mignonette is 

 so much sweeter from the lime rubbish 

 or dry mortar. Cow-dung being very 

 liable to turn sour, the mortar is a bet- 

 ter corrector of this than even the 

 charcoal. Take as many :i-inch pots 

 as you want plants ; drain them with 

 pieces of mortar, and over that a little 



! of the roughest of your compost; till 

 : up nearly level with the top of the pot, 

 and place three seeds in the very mid 

 1 die of each pot, and nine or ten seeds 

 ; all over the surface ; if you just cover 

 i them with earth it is enough, and 

 press them down very tight. Water 

 them, and put them up in the 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 would 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 after- 

 wards, 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. Wlien 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 

 stein. 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 



