PANSIES AS FLOWER-GARDEN PLANTS. 
159 
tliemselves more readily and securely. The middle or end of March, or the 
beginning of April, is the best season for putting them out, according as the 
openness of the weather may determine. 
Previously, however, to Pansies being placed in any bed or border of the 
flower-garden, such a spot will have to be specially prepared for their reception. 
To maintain the vigour of these plants, a tolerably rich manure is requisite in the 
soil, which should, moreover, be a good substantial loam. The most appropriate 
kind of manure is found to be cow-dung, which, besides keeping the soil cooler 
and moister in dry weather, contributes, by its porosity, to give additional open- 
ness to the earth in a rainy season. 
The application of this manure should, by all means, be made in the autumn, 
or early winter. When the beds are cleared of their summer tenants, a dressing 
of manure should at once be given, and the ground be well dug over, that it may 
have time to decompose and pulverise the former, before planting commences in 
spring. 
At the time of planting, allowance is made for the insertion of the summer 
and autumn occupants of the beds, by putting each plant far enough apart to 
admit of another being inserted in all the intermediate spaces. 
Plants, bedded out in March, begin to bloom almost immediately, and continue 
in full display till it becomes needful to put in the Verbenas, Petunias, &c., 
which are intended ultimately to displace them. When these last are introduced, 
the Pansies are trimmed and dressed, to prevent them from over-running the 
ground too much ; and this dressing is continued with more or less severity, till 
they are finally destroyed about the beginning of July, or at whatever other period 
their successors may be fit for filling their places. During all this time, they will 
be as gay as ever ; while they will afford protection to the newly-planted exotics, 
and give the benefit of that moisture, which their spreading, leafy, and succulent 
character retains around them. 
One principal point to be observed in the introduction of exotics to those beds 
temporarily occupied by Pansies, is to make the colours of the two classes 
of objects harmonise as nearly as practicable. Thus, if a blue or a yellow- 
flowered Pansy has been planted in any one bed, exotics with blue or yellow 
blossoms are brought in to succeed it ; so that, should the exotic begin blooming 
before the Pansy is removed, the colours of the two may blend, instead of con- 
trasting. The necessary unity is thus maintained. 
With respect to all red-flowered exotics, however, they have no counterparts 
among Pansies ; and hence, such things as Verbenas, when placed in a pansy bed, 
must not be suffered to bloom till they are strong enough to justify the entire 
destruction of the Pansies. 
The varieties which Mr. Edwards finds most suitable for this treatment are 
not distinguished by any names. They are merely known by the colours of their 
flowers : — thus, there is a pale, slaty-blue sort, and one with yellow flowers, 
another with purple, a fourth with whitish blossoms, and so forth. It matters 
