THE BALSAM. 55 
deep soil. We have put them at two feet apart, and they 
have met long before the season was over; but, for a 
general rule, perhaps one foot distance may suffice. Give 
them plenty of water in dry weather, and that ¢s ald you 
need do to them. 
In the event of requiring nice specimens in pots, it 
will be advisable to sow in March, and start the seeds on a 
hot-bed; then proceed as advised in raising plants for a 
bed, but instead of planting them out, keep shifting into 
larger and larger pots, until it is time to stop, and allow 
the plants to flower. Asa rule, an eight-inch potis large 
enough for a very fine plant, and a dozen or two in pots of 
six to eight-inch size may be turned to good account in 
the conservatory. When grown in this way, they must have 
good living and plenty of water, be protected from cold and 
drying winds, and excessive heat, but always have the fullest, 
daylight and plenty of air. If they appear rather too long in 
the stem, put them down a little in potting, and the buried 
portion of the stem will soon throw out roots to the ad- 
vantage of the flowers that are coming. They require no 
stakes and no shading, and if the foregoing brief directions 
are fairly well carried out, that is all you need do to them. 
The reader may be ready to exclaim, “I see nothing 
peculiar in this,” and the reader who so exclaims is quite 
in the right. But turn to the books, and you will find a 
complicated process prescribed, and so in balsam growing 
the lover of complications may be gratified. Here is an 
extract from a respectable book of reference, and there is 
really something in it :—“ When you cannot accommodate 
any but the best flowers in the greenhouse, adopt the 
following method. After pricking out into three or four- 
inch pots, and plunging them in the bed, allow the pots to 
