CULTURE OF FLOWERS. 
521 
that they rot. No doubt the same plans should 
be adopted as for the rot, and in both cases 
the planting in sand will be found beneficial, 
i'hey have been grown very clean and hand- 
vome in sea-sand, recently taken from the beach, 
and applied as above recommended. 
THE GARLIC. 
The Garlic (Allium sativum) is a native 
of Sicily and other countries forming the shores 
of the Mediterranean Sea, and was no doubt 
in cultivation in this country long before 1548, 
in which year it is said to have been intro- 
duced. Although little used in this country, 
il is of the first importance as an article of 
diet in Spain, and also in almost all Maho- 
medan countries, entering into the composition 
of an innumerable number of dishes. 
The garlic should be planted in rich light 
ground, but not in such as lias been recently 
manured with strong fresh dung. Having 
selected a piece of ground well exposed to the 
light, plant the strongest single cloves of the 
root in rows one foot apart, and nine inches 
from clove to clove in the rows. The best plan 
with this, and all bulbs grown in a similar way, 
is to rake the bed smooth, and if a strong soil, 
spread a layer of sand on the top, and then 
mark the rows and plant, covering the bulbs 
slightly with a light soil. They will soon root, 
and then if the bulbs are exposed to the wea- 
ther it will do them more good than harm. 
Keep the bed clear from weeds, and hoe deeply. 
AVhen the tops begin to wither, take up the 
roots, and dry them thoroughly, clean away all 
dirt and tops, tie them in bunches, and hang 
them up in a dry airy room. 
AN IMPORTANT FEATURE IN THE 
CULTURE OF FLOWERS, 
Not generally attended to by Florists. 
Onk of the most essential points in thewliole 
routine of gardening is, above all other essen- 
tial matters, overlooked, and general instruc- 
tions arc so lost sight of in particular subjects, 
thai we are called upon to set three-fourths of 
the most earnest cultivators right, because, in 
the point we arc about to touch upon, they 
are now wrong. We allude to the necessity 
of changing their stocks of (lowers, by obtain- 
ing the same sorts from a distant place, and 
Sending their own away, at least once in two 
or three seasons. We have visited many gar- 
dens near the metropolis, and put the questions 
which most concerned our object, in all the 
eases receiving at each and every one the same 
answer, informing us, in fact, that ranuncu- 
luses, tulips, auriculas, carnations, picotees, 
pinks, hollyhocks, and dahlias, have been grown 
from year to year without altering the stock, 
and without any other additions than the pur- 
chases of new sorts made. In all cases the 
results were similar. They lost a great many 
every season of some particular kinds ; in some 
other cases whole varieties were lost altogether; 
and in a general way they complained that 
they did not grow things so well as they used 
to grow them. Now all this is as natural a 
result of keeping on with the same stock, as 
the decline of wheat, or barley, or oats, or 
turnips, or any thing else that is grown from 
the same seed on the same ground year after 
year. The very person who knows it is wrong 
to use his own turnip seed or onion seed year 
after year on the same spot, actually keeps 
propagating his choice flowers until he can 
trace in his entire collection, the offspring of 
the first he had. Of the fatal effects of con- 
stantly working the same stock in coarser 
things he is perfectly aware, and practically 
avoids it ; of the same effects visiting his more 
choice subjects he has never dreamed; even 
when he has seen the decline, lie has never 
once thought of the cause. Habit, and seeing 
what others do, have so used him to take care 
of his choice flowers, because he knows they 
are right and proper, and to guard them jea- 
lously from year to year, as if none others were 
like them, that he no more thinks of the con- 
sequence of wearing them out, than he thinks 
of their flying away. We heard, as may be 
expected, scores of tales like this : " I have 
left off auriculas. I had them seven or eight 
years. I did very well the first two or three 
seasons, but I don't know how it was, they did 
not grow well afterwards. If I bought a lot 
in, they did very well a season or two, but 
they got worse somehow after that, so I gave 
them up altogether." Here is the whole his- 
tory of the affair. The stock while enjoying 
its new place did well, but when propagated 
from, and the offspring kept in the same air 
and situation year after year, it declined. 
Another person, speaking of his ranunculuses, 
said : " They don't do well with me now; my 
stock never increases, and I do think sonie 
years I take up less than I plant. None of us 
are doing well with them about Loudon. 1 
had the Scotch seedlings, but they did not do 
well with me after the first two or three sea- 
sons. Now I have lost most of them altoge 
ther, and those that I have not lost do not 
come double and fine." All this but corrobo- 
rates the necessity of attending to the com- 
monest and most essential nils of gardening; 
not to grow the same crops on the same place, 
anil not to use the seed of your own saving if 
you can get other. In large concerns you may 
sow seed in one field, and grow the produce 
in the other, but not for long together with 
impunity ; and. as we have before shown, tin 
111:111 who Lb carrying it out with his turnips 
