170 



THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



HARDY PERENNIAL HERBACEOUS PLANTS 



Many of these may be easily raised from seed sown in the 

 early summer, and it is suggested that half a dozen species should 

 thus be raised in the school garden each year. Boxes or pans are 

 rilled with a mixture of equal parts of leaf-mould and sand 

 loam, previously moistened. The seeds should be sown very 

 thinly, and just covered with the fine sifted mixture which is 

 lightly pressed down over them. The pans or boxes are placed 

 in a sheltered position, and care must be taken that the soil 

 is kept moist, but not wet. If the thinning has been thorough 



the young plants may be left in 

 the pans until ready for planting 

 out in permanent quarters in the 

 following spring. Or, as in the 

 case of biennials, they may be 

 planted out from the pans into 

 good soil in a well-sheltered posi- 

 tion in September, being again 

 transplanted in the spring. Of 

 perennials, w r hich may be grown 

 from seed without much difficulty, 

 the following are the best : - 

 Campanulas, Delphiniums, Geum, 

 perennial varieties of Coreopsis, 

 Flax, Lobelia and Gypsophylla, 



Jacob's Ladder, Lychnis chalcedonica, Malva moschata, and 

 Salvias. 



It would be a difficult matter to name all the hardy perennials 

 which might be grown in a school garden, and since, as has been 

 more than once hinted in these pages, the school garden may 

 have to depend for a supply on gifts from kind sympathisers, 

 a list is hardly necessary. It may be useful, however, to some 

 readers if we transcribe here a list of fifty best hardy perennials 

 which was given in the Times of i8th April 1908. These are 

 beautiful plants, suitable for a border, quite hardy, easily grown, 

 and perennial for some years. 



FlG. 66. Planting. A, right depth 

 to plant ; B, too deep. 



