ET CETERA. 107 



grance at eventide. With, abundant sunshine, and a 

 deeply spaded soil made rich with old manure and rotted 

 sod, they grow as luxuriantly as cucumber vines, a single 

 plant sometimes covering several square yards, if a joint 

 is now and then pegged down to furnish additional roots. 

 Avoid the common mistake of- setting them up straight 

 and stiff as grenadiers with nodding plumes. If you take 

 plants which have been grown in small pots until the 

 latter part of May, set the balls nearly three feet apart, 

 and about two inches below the surface of the soil in a 

 slanting direction, spread out the stems as widely as pos- 

 sible, and pinch off the flowers in order to help forward 

 the new growth. If insects appear, drench them with 

 tobacco water. No further labor will be required other 

 than cutting the flowers as they fade, -and guiding the 

 vines so as to cover all the ground. As to the profusion 

 of bloom, I can only say, that in the course of a few 

 weeks I once cut from a small bed several hundred flow- 

 ers, and then stopped counting. Indeed, the more they 

 were cut, the more abundant they seemed to be ; and 

 they gladdened us with their brightness even when the 

 leaves of autumn were thickly falling. 



And now for the other border, what shall the selection 

 be ? Phlox Drummondii, Balsams, Petunias, Heliotropes ? 

 It is hard to choose from so many favorites, but let us 

 suppose the first. They are easily grown from seed sown 

 early in the hot-bed, or in boxes in the house ; and the 

 flowers are wonderfully varied, beautiful, profuse, and 

 persistent. They are more serviceable for bouquets and 

 vases than Verbenas, and continue blooming quite as late 

 in the season. 



Perhaps you can make a place along the center of these 

 borders for a few double Balsams. They afford a strik- 

 ing example of the achievements of floriculture, many of 

 the flowers rivaling, both in form and color, the Rose and 

 the Camellia. With nearly all of the side branches pinched 



