June.] 



THE FLOWER GARDEN 



903 



finished flowering, they should be taken up, and when dried, 

 placed in the root-room, or in some dry airy house, each sort kept 

 separate until the season of planting arrives. Dry days should 

 be selected for taking them up ; and when that is done, they 

 should be laid upon mats thinly to dry, in a shaded situation, 

 that the process of drying may go on slowly and gradually. 

 When they are perfectly dry, they should be well cleaned, all 

 the large roots separated from the small ones or offsets, and 

 each sort carefully labeled. Jonquils should not be taken 

 up every season like other bulbs, as they are found not to 

 flower so well the first season after planting ; their removal 

 should only be considered necessary once in two, three, or 

 four years, and that chiefly for separating the bulbs, which 

 will by that time become too numerous, and if not separated 

 would destroy one another. Some gardeners carry this system 

 of taking up their bulbs to the extreme, and even take up 

 crocuses, snowdrops^ irises, croivn imperials, and common 

 narcissuses annually ; while others, and by far the best cul- 

 tivators, only take these up once in two or three years, in 

 order to thin out their clustered roots, or for the purpose of 

 propagation. 



PROPAGATING CARNATIONS AND PINKS. 



If the season has been favorable, the carnations and pinks 

 in the borders will be by the end of this month fit to be pro- 

 pagated. It is material to begin this operation early, as 

 the plants will thereby attain greater strength before the 

 approach of winter, and be in a state to flower stronger next 

 season. The modes of propagation are three ; first by seeds, 

 and this is always adopted when the object in view is new or 

 improved varieties, and is yearly practised by the florist, who 

 bestows considerable care in hybridizing two favourite varieties 

 of opposite properties, so as to obtain a variety partaking less 

 or more of its parent. The second is by pipings, or cuttings 

 of the grass or shoots of the present year, and is most com- 

 monly practised in the propagation of pinks, as being expe- 

 ditious, and generally certain; althougli they are sometimes 

 also propagated, especially some of the more rare or scarce 



