168 GARDENING FOB YOUNG AND OLD. 



MIGNONETTE. 



The children should get half a dozen packets of Mig- 

 nonette seed with which to experiment. Let them sow a 

 little seed when they like, where they like, and how 

 they like. Wherever there is a little soil, two or three 

 inches in depth, they can grow Mignonette. It will not 

 grow in the oven or on top of the stove, because it is too 

 hot; it will not grow in a dark cellar, because it requires 

 light; it will not grow in the refrigerator, because it is 

 too cold; it will not grow in the ash-pit, because it is too 

 dry. But wherever there is a little fine, 

 mellow soil, and it can be kept moist, 

 in a moderately warm place, with more 

 or less sunshine, especially more, there 

 you can grow Mignonette. It does not 

 matter whether the soil is 

 in a beautiful flowerpot, 

 or in an old tin can with a 

 hole in the bottom. But of 

 course while Mignonette 

 will grow under adverse con- 

 Fig. 40. MIGNONETTE. ditioiis, it is better to have 

 everything connected with flowers neat and orderly; the 

 more simple, the better. A good plan is, to fill a box, a foot 

 wide, three inches deep, and just long enough to go upon 

 a window-sill, fasten it with wire at the southern or east- 

 ern window, in the kitchen, or in some room where it 

 never freezes. Fill the box with fine mould, or the finest 

 and lightest soil you can get; water the soil with warm 

 water, and sow the Mignonette seed, in rows two inches 

 apart, and two or three seeds to each inch, sift on a little 

 fine soil or pulverized moss, just sufficient to cover the 

 seed. Nothing more will be necessary until the plants 

 begin to grow. It will then be necessary to water the 



