ON LAYING OUT. 



29 



colors you most approve. Carnations properly rank under the 

 head of biennials ; but pinks are strictly perennial plants, and 

 much has been written upon this hardy and beautiful flower. It 

 comes originally from a temperate climate, therefore the pink 

 loves shade : the fervid sunbeams cause its flowers to languish and 

 droop. You may give them an eastern aspect. 



Be careful to watch pinks when they are budding, and do not 

 allow two buds to grow side by side. Pinch off the smaller bud, 

 which would only weaken its companion. Keep the plants free 

 from decayed leaves, and gently stir the earth round them occa- 

 sionally with your small trowel. This operation refreshes them. 

 Stake them neatly, that they may not fall prostrate after rain. 



If you wish to preserve any particular pink, let it grow in a 

 pot, or upon a raised platform, that it may be placed beyond the 

 reach of hares, rabbits, or poultry, and be more easily sheltered 

 from long and severe frost or rains in winter, and from the dry 

 heats in summer, either of which destroys the beauty of the 

 flower. The pots can be sunk in the ground in fine weather. Do 

 not hide your pinks among larger flowers : let them be distinctly 

 seen. If you water pinks too much, their roots become rotten ; 

 and if you suffer them to be too dry, they become diseased. Be- 

 ware of extremes. The best rule is to keep them just moist. 

 A fine pink should not have sharp-pointed flower leaves ; they 

 should be round and even at their edges, and the colors should be 

 well defined, not running one into the other. The flower should 

 be large ; it should possess a great many leaves, and form a sort 

 of dome. Piping and slipping, is the most expeditious mode of 

 propagating plants from any selected pink. 



Pansies, violets, &c, are very easily propagated by parting the 

 roots when the flowers are past. Pansies are very beautiful 

 flowers ; and cuttings of their young shoots will grow very freely 

 if kept moist and shaded for some little time. By refreshing the 



