Part II. DIANTfiUS. 197 



finer florists' varieties, it is desirable to give them a special little 

 bed in some convenient part of the garden — one of the beds in 

 a neat little nursery border in the kitchen-garden would do best ; 

 and if the natural soil be not a good sandy loam, it should be 

 made so by additions from a neighbouring pasture, and well 

 rotted manure should be added in any case. The bed should 

 be slightly raised above the alleys, say from six to ten inches, 

 according to the soil ; of course, the wetter and stiffer it is, the 

 more acceptable will a slight elevation prove, while the beds 

 should, generally speaking, be made in a dry and warm part of 

 . the garden, the spot to be well drained and the soil deep. The 

 ,best growers usually plant out about the end of September, 

 but, like most hardy evergreen or herbaceous herbs, they may 

 be safely transplanted at any time, either in spring or autumn. 

 The propagating of the Pink is always very much easier of 

 accomplishment in the beginning, middle, or end of June, say 

 about the 20th, than at any other time. It is effected by 

 pipings — ^another word for cuttings, the difference consisting in 

 the way they are made — pulled off from the shoot, the little 

 stem parting readily, and coming out from its embracing leaves 

 with a slender shank. There is no necessity for doing it thus ; 

 on the contrary, the better way is to cut off some of the side 

 shoots, trim them up a little way with a sharp knife, as you 

 do most cuttings, and place them firmly in pots or in a gentle 

 hotbed, where they will soon root, and should then be hardened 

 off. If put in pots, they should be placed in a gently heated 

 frame till struck, but the best plan is to put four or five inches of 

 sandy soil over a shallow, gentle hotbed, surface the soil with 

 a httle fine sand, and then put in your cuttings, covering them 

 with common, hand-lights, which must of course be shaded at 

 first ; then the lights may be taken off 'gradually as the plants 

 become rooted, and finally removed altogether. Thus treated, 

 the young plants will be in nice condition for planting out in 

 autumn. 



It is not desirable to enumerate what are considered the finest 

 kinds in a book of this character, inasmuch as they are liable to 

 continual change ; tastes vary, and occasionally varieties with 

 no names at all are superior to the florists' kinds for general garden 

 use. It should be generally known that a race of perpetual-flower- 

 ing Pinks, the result of a cross between that old favourite Anna 

 Boleyn and some of the florists' varieties, is now in existence, 



