4.52 



On the Cultivation of Pinks. 



rotten dui>g passed through a coarse sieve in which was a 

 small quantity of one-year old sheep -dung, the sweepings of 

 the St. John's Wood Lane sheep-pens. 



I watered them freely with the pipe of the water-pot be- 

 tween the rows, when the pods were swelling and showing 

 bloom ; for if the plants lack moisture at this stage of their 

 growth when the weather is generally hot and the ground dry, 

 the flowers seem to languish, and never attain that degree 

 of perfection they would do if the beds were kept moist and 

 cool. The top dressing prevents the ground from cracking, 

 and the rains and water given from the pot passing through 

 it, convey gradually a wholesome nourishment to the plants. 



The effect of careful, over careless cultivation was never 

 perhaps more clearly evinced than in an instance in my 

 own neighbourhood in this season. A friend of mine, who 

 had received from me all the superior varieties of Pinks, 

 planted them in a bed in the common way ; and though they 

 were pretty healthy, and sent forth sufficient blooms they 

 presented only a sort of uniform sameness, undistinguished 

 by that pleasing variety of bright colouring, and beautiful 

 lacing peculiar to each, which were so manifest in mine : a 

 common observer would have said that they were Pinks al- 

 together different from mine. 



Florists contending for a prize, and anxious to get their 

 flowers large, leave three pods only upon each stem, and 

 four or five stems to a large plant, two or three to a small 

 one, cutting off the rest as they spindle up to flower : as soon 

 as the pods are full formed they tie a slip of wet bass round 

 them, to prevent their bursting irregularly, and place a glass 

 or other covering over them when in bloom, to protect them 



