402 



THE GAKDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



long. Seeds sown in early spring will produce 

 flowers the following autumn, although, if the 

 season should prove uncongenial and tardy, the 

 plants do not flower till the early autumn frosts 

 "begin to set in. The seeds are sown thinly in 



limpid, 



" jj r 



rhinum majus. 



pans or shallow boxes of light, sandy soil, and 

 barely covered with fine soil. Placed in a 

 gentle bottom-heat, the plants appear above the 

 soil in a few days. They should remain in the 

 boxes until large enough to be planted out in 

 the open in good soil during showery weather. 

 As a severe winter is sometimes destructive 

 to the Snapdragon, it is well, as a matter of 

 precaution, to make a second sowing in July 

 and August, wintering the plants in a cold frame 

 and planting them out in March and April. 

 Those seedlings with light stems and leaves 

 produce light-coloured flowers; and those with 

 dark stems and foliage, dark-coloured. 



Snapdragons are most effective when planted 

 in a bed, a number of varieties together. They 

 grow in any good garden soil, but stiff clays 

 should be lightened by the addition of humus, 

 road-grit, &c. A friable yellow loam is best, 

 and it should be deeply dug and manured, and, 

 previous to planting, a good dressing of leaf- 

 mould should be forked" into the bed. The 

 plants should be 18 inches apart, They must 

 be regularly watered in dry weather. Good 

 varieties should be marked for propagation by 

 means of cuttings. To maintain the effective- 

 ness of the bed, all the flower-spikes should be 



cut away as they fade, leaving a few on any 

 fine varieties for seeds. Thus treated the 

 plants will continue to flower until cold weather 

 stops them. 



Cuttings of young shoots taken from the base 

 of the plants in July or August and inserted in 

 pots or pans in a cold frame soon root. They 

 should then be potted off singly into small pots 

 to winter, and kept in the frame till spring. 

 Another method is to put a few old plants into 

 gentle heat in spring and cause them to put 

 forth growths, which can be struck in bottom- 

 heat in the same way as Verbenas and Fuchsias. 

 The Tom Thumb section is of dwarf bushy 

 habit, and is useful for borders and small beds. 



Such fine varieties of this popular flower are 

 now produced from seeds, that the naming of 

 varieties has ceased to be necessary. [r. d.] 



Aster. — The United States of America may 

 be taken as the head-quarters of this genus, 

 which contains about two hundred and fifty 

 species, one hundred and fifty of which are 

 natives of that country. The rest are scattered 

 over Europe and Asia, many handsome forms 

 being found in the Himalaya. 



The section generally known as Michaelmas 

 Daisies contribute the great bulk of the kinds 

 grown in gardens, and, flowering as they do 

 late in the year, when nearly everything is 

 over or has been cut by early frost, they form 

 a valuable class of plants. 



The facility with which the species hybridize 

 has resulted in a great number of garden 

 forms, in fact most of the varieties grown are 

 the offspring of not more than twenty species. 

 Several species, so called, grown in gardens are 

 unknown in a wild state. Besides being in- 

 dispensable as border plants for autumn dis- 

 play, and for cutting purposes, they are very 

 effective when planted amongst shrubs. Al- 

 though there is no great diversity of colour in 

 the genus the habit of the several species varies 

 much, and, grown with other late-flowering' 

 plants, such as Solidagos and Sunflowers, they 

 are most serviceable. Some of them are worth 

 an entire bed in a conspicuous position on the 

 lawn, and if allowed plenty of room they 

 develop numerous lateral branches, forming 

 perfect pyramids of flowers. 



The cultivation of Asters generally is not 

 difficult. Care should be taken that they do 

 not grow together and intermingle. They 

 should be taken up and divided early in spring, 

 just when fresh shoots are showing, selecting 

 pieces from the outside of the clumps for re- 



