THE GARDEN AT HOME 



Half a crown or eighteenpence will buy a packet of 

 good seed, and to buy poor seed is indeed " Love's 

 Labour Lost," since the worthless seedlings demand as 

 much care and attention as those that are worthy. And 

 how vexatious when they bloom to find that one could 

 have bought plants just as good (or just as bad !) from 

 the coster's barrow the mention of which reminds me 

 what a wonderful fellow the coster is. So that I might 

 write from experience, and not repeat what is really 

 common knowledge, I have bought plants that were 

 sworn by all the laws of the costermonger to be true 

 Mrs. Sinkins Pinks, pure white and double, and none other. 

 I have planted them in the sure expectation of finding one 

 sunny June morning that they would produce poor single 

 flowers in rose and magenta shades, and I have not been 

 disappointed ! But the labelling of the coster's Carna- 

 tions is really the most wonderful thing about them. 

 When the discerning amateur is offered the golden yellow 

 Marechal Niel, or the red Henry Jacoby, labels and all, 

 then, of course, it may be presumed that if he buys he 

 buys with his eyes wide open, but really many hundreds 

 of such rubbish are sold annually to a gullible public, or 

 the itinerant vendor would not re-appear each spring as 

 he does. 



The seed is preferably sown in some shady corner of 

 the greenhouse in March ; but if no such luxury is avail- 

 able, a shady border out of doors will do just as well. 

 Those in doubt as to the method of sowing small seeds 



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