28 
GLENN Y ON THE ANEMONE. 
seed even of your selected seedlings, and 
sowed it and treated it all through in the 
same way you treated the first. Every year's 
seedlings ought to improve your stock by the 
addition of some novelty, and especially value 
those which become more double by the mul- 
tiplying of the rows of petals, for we should 
like to see an entirely new class of double 
flowers created as it were by increasing the 
petals, instead of the mass of florets which 
distinguish those at present called double 
flowers. As you procure advances towards 
this desideratum, those which they beat should 
be thrown out of collection, for the presence 
of worse flowers throws back the produce 
even of a fine one very much. So that in 
saving seed the best varieties should be 
chosen, and none that are inferior should be 
even near them. By year after year saving 
the seed from the most desirable only, by 
treating this seed carefully as directed, by 
selecting each year such alone as beat those 
you already possess, and carefully seeding from 
them again, a few years will reward you 
with a new race of much improved rarities, 
and perhaps with a distinct new class of 
double flowers. The general culture of the 
Anemone for the twelve months round may be 
thus laid down. 
January. — The plants will, if the winter 
lias been mild, be very strong and growing, 
easily checked by the frost, and some of the 
more tender ones especially so. They must 
be covered in the evening with hoops and 
mats, or cloths of some kind, or litter to pre- 
vent frost and wind from injuring them. It 
is not too late to put in the ground any tubers 
that may have been left out, or that you may 
have procured since planting time, though 
they will not grow so much in a season as the 
autumn planted. Seedlings must be weeded 
carefully if they are up, and if not up, the bed 
must be kept clear of any rank growing weeds, 
because they would overrun and destroy the 
plants as soon as they germinated ; and, as 
we recommend spring sowing for the choice 
varieties, there should not be any seedlings 
very young. But all beds must be kept clear 
of weeds. The earth may be stirred between 
the rows, and the soil pressed close to the 
tubers, for the growth of the plants will crack 
it and prevent its sitting close until it is 
crumbled and gently pressed. The covering 
from frost, which should not be put on until 
the last thing at night in mild weather, should 
be taken off at sunrise if there be no frost, 
but if there be, it must remain on altogether 
until the frost has departed. 
February. — Plant the collection for June 
showing. It is the proper month for the 
spring planting. The plants still growing 
fast if the weather be mild, require much the 
same attention as last month, and if there 
have been much wet to close the pores of the 
surface, the ground may be loosened again 
and some of the earth drawn close to the 
plants, in a slight degree earthing them up. 
Cover from frost still more carefully if pos- 
sible, as the forwarder the plant, the more 
danger of a check. Although they are too 
hardy to be killed they are easily spoiled for 
the bloom, and the manner in which the 
flower of double varieties is affected is a kind 
of blight to the centre, by which the mass of 
florets is destroyed, and the outer petals alone 
appear, half their usual size and in bad colour. 
Keep clear of weeds in all cases, and prepare 
beds for sowing seeds towards the end of 
the month, that is presuming it is not frosty 
nor too wet, for the next month will do 
if the ground be not in order this. The man- 
ner of sowing the seed has been mentioned, 
and it matters little whether in this month, next, 
or the month after, always excepting that the 
earlier it is sown the stronger it becomes to 
stand the winter, and if the weather be favour- 
able there is hardly any interruption to the 
growth through the winter months; but if 
they are too small when the frost sets in, some 
are sure to perish, and these are generally the 
most valuable, because the further a plant is 
removed from its natural character, the ten- 
derer it in general becomes, although it may 
be what is called hardy. It is the young 
shoots of trees that always suffer in frost and 
cold drying winds, because they are full of sap, 
and the juices evaporate when they can least 
afford to lose them. 
March. — If the weather be mild now the 
blossoms of the Anemone rise pretty rapidly, 
and many will be in flower before the month 
is out. The frost and cold winds destroy the 
texture of the petals and take out the colour ; 
in fact, when thawed again they are spoiled. 
Those therefore who are at all anxious to pre- 
serve the beauty of them should cover them 
as carefully as they do tulips. In large beds 
and masses of common sorts few take the 
trouble, because if one set of blooms perish 
there are so many ready to succeed them that 
a day or two of mild weather restores the 
beauty of the beds, although the first may be 
entirely swept off. Besides, where they are 
used with the various early bulbs to make up 
early bloom for geometrical flower gardens or 
clumps on a lawn, any preparation for cover- 
ing would be out of the question, as it would 
constantly disfigure the place and render it 
always unsightly, but in nursery beds not 
connected with the plan of the flower garden 
and dressed ground, pease-haulm may be kept 
handy and be placed over them of a night and 
continued on them while there is any frost. 
This especially applies to seedlings, every 
