326 Anemone. 



which in the broad petals should not quite extend to the 

 margin. 



The seed being light and downy, must be gathered from 

 time to time as it opens, for it will otherwise be blown away 

 by the first breeze of wind. In summer a bed of good mould 

 should be prepared, and the seeds being mixed with sand, to 

 prevent their falling in lumps, must be strewn as regularly as 

 possible, and then some earth should be lightly sifted over the 

 bed about a quarter of an inch thick. If the season should 

 prove dry, the bed must be watered in the most gentle manner 

 so as not to wash the seeds out of the ground. For which 

 purpose a watering pot should be used, the nose of which 

 should be perforated with very small holes that will discharge 

 only line streams of water. It is advisable to cover the bed 

 with a mat during the great heat of the day, but always 

 attending to its removal at sunset, so that the bed may have 

 the advantage of the moist dews and gentle showers. The 

 young plants appear about ten weeks after they are sown, and 

 will require great care to protect them from severe frosts which 

 will often injure them in the months of February and March, if 

 not screened by some fence from the cutting winds of the 

 season. In the following autumn the beds should be carefully 

 weeded, and about a quarter of an inch of additional mould 

 placed over them, and they will flower the second year ; after 

 which the roots may be taken up as before directed. 



Phillips closes his history of the Anemone with an anecdote 

 related by a Frenchman, who states that a Parisian florist 

 having procured some beautiful specimens of these plants from 

 the east, kept them to himself in the most miserly manner for 

 ten years, during which time, neither friendship nor money 

 could obtain the least root of one of these rare plants from the 

 selfish owner. A witty member of the French parliament, 

 vexed to see one man hoard up for himself what ought to be 

 distributed to beautify gardens in general, paid a visit at his 

 country house, where, in walking round the garden, and 

 observing the Anemones were in seed, let his robe fall upon 

 them as if by accident ; by this device he swept off a consid- 

 erable number of the little feathery seeds, which stuck fast to 

 it. His servant, whom he had purposely instructed, wrapped 



