ANNUALS. 



59 



they will bear the wind and weather. Make a circle round a 

 pole, or some object to which they may cling as they rise ; and 

 put the peas an inch deep, having soaked them previously in 

 water well saturated with arsenic, to guard them from the depre- 

 dations of birds and mice. Add an outer circle of peas eveiy 

 month, so that a continual bloom may appear. The circle first 

 sown will ripen and pod for seed in the center, while the outer 

 vines will continue flowering till late in the autumn. When you 

 have gathered a sufficient number of ripe pods, cut away all the 

 pods which may afterwards form with your knife. This strength- 

 ens the vines, and throws all their vigor into repeated blooms. 



Be very careful to throw away the arsenic water upon your 

 heap of compost, and do not put that powerful poison into any 

 thing which may be used afterwards in the house. Soak the 

 peas in a flower-pot saucer which is never required for any other 

 purpose, and keep it on a shelf in the tool-house, covered up. 

 Three or four hours' soaking will be sufficient. If the wind and 

 frosts be powerful and continued, shelter the peas through March, 

 by covering them with straw or matting every evening. 



I have got sweet-peas into very early blow by bringing them 

 up in pots in- doors, and transplanting them carefully in April, 

 without disturbing the roots. In doing this, push your finger 

 gently through the orifice at the bottom of the flower-pot, and 

 raise its contents " bodily." Then place the ball of earth and 

 plants into a hole troweled out to receive it ; cover it round gently, 

 and, if the weather is dry, water it moderately. 



Ten-weeks' Stock is a very pretty annual, and continues a long 

 time in bloom. Mignionette is the sweetest of all perfumes, and 

 should be sown in September for early blowing, and again in 

 March for a later crop. It is always more perfumy and healthy, 

 if dug into the ground in autumn to sow itself. Venus' Looking- 

 glass is a very pretty, delicate flower. Indeed, every annual is 



