112 
THE WHITE FORGET-ME-NOT AS A BORDER FLOWER. 
The retention of the ammonia in manure by chemical applications, is a matter 
with which every one is now getting familiar ; and, for this reason, we do not discuss 
it. Unfortunately, there is too great a tendency to take up novel and scientific 
methods of doing many things, while simpler measures are lost sight of, merely 
because they would occur to the most ordinary mind, and require no ingenuity, or 
knowledge, or care, in the execution. Last, therefore, though we would be to do 
anything but hail the glorious progress of science, we feel it advisable, in the present 
day, to recal attention to the most common-place matters that seem to be concealed 
by the learned theories and prescriptions now propagated. 
There is one circumstance relative to economizing manure which should not be 
omitted. It is the desirableness of applying it in winter or in early spring, in con- 
formity with the usual custom. If put on before the sun gets too powerful to dry 
it, and to exhale its strength, it will be worth nearly twice as much as a fertilizer. 
Nor must we, while speaking of saving manure, overlook the frequent waste of 
heat which occurs in the preparation of leaf-mould. This may probably be 
regarded as a sort of manure. At any rate, it is a good substitute for it in the 
culture of many exotics. And as the heat from fermenting leaves is of the most 
genial character, being particularly well suited for furnishing any kind of bottom- 
heat, it is bad policy to make up a mass of leaves, and leave them -to ferment and 
rot of themselves, without using them as a source of temperature. Such a plan 
entails both the total loss of the heat so generated, and a loss of time in the process 
of decay, as well as the probability that the decomposition will not be so satis- 
factory. Water should, however, be freely thrown over fermenting leaves, which 
are otherwise apt to get too dry and consume. 
From the magnitude of the tract over which the subject of gardening economy 
extends, we shall take up other portions of it in one or more of our ensuing 
numbers. 
THE WHITE FORGET-ME-NOT AS A BORDER FLOWER. 
Because many beautiful plants are natives of Britain, and may be met with in 
a wild state in some parts of the country, they are often disregarded, and their 
cultivation as objects of ornament is wholly neglected. Such a practice will not, 
however, bear the test of sound philosophy ; for where intrinsic merit exists, it 
matters little to a correct taste whether it be obtained from a British meadow or 
a tropical jungle. Indeed, the love of country ought to make the latter more ji 
desirable, if it be equally worthy of esteem. || 
We have lately noticed a charming little perennial herbaceous plant in cottage- 
gardens, and in the collections of some of the less fastidious wealthy cultivators, 
which is in every way so deserving of culture that we wish to make known its j 
merits. It is, we believe, the Myosotis arvensis alba, (called in some places ij 
I 
