GARDENING FOR CHILDREN. 
jG5 
found equally suited for cottagers and amateur 
gardeners, who have at their command only a 
small plot of ground." 
The correctness of these observations is 
most fully borne out by the following, or 
indeed by any extracts we could make from 
the book : — 
" Isfemophila insignis. — This is a showy 
annual of a dwarf growth, which soon displays 
abundance of small blue tlowers a little 
cupped, having a pure white eye, and deeply 
cut leaves. Its seeds may be sown at dif- 
ferent seasons, a few in April, and a few at 
the end of September ; for if tlie winter be 
not very sharp, they will bloom very early in 
spring, and those sown in spring will come 
into flower by the time the autumn-sown 
ones decline. The young plants will bear 
I'emoval, but I prefer sowing them where 
they are to bloom ; there is, however, no 
harm in planting out the few that you take 
up from a patch when they have been sown 
too thickly ; and some gardeners make them 
regularly potted plants, and therefore sow all 
itself: they are flowers v.'hi;;h require to be 
supported by sticks or something of the kind; 
leafless branches of trees are perhaps tl^e best 
in one place, and pot off or plant out at 
pleasure. They are very beautiful till they 
begin to straggle along the ground, when, 
although they still keep flowering a little, 1 
should advise you to pull them up to make 
room for something better. — P. 10. 
" Sweet Peas. — These are grown for their 
scent and abundance of varies.'ated flowers. 
There are several varieties of colour, and each 
of the varieties has two or three colours in 
support, because the peas will grow over 
them, and quite hide their unsightly appear- 
ance With their mass of flowers. These may 
be sown ten or twelve in a patch, and they 
will grow three feet high, so that neat 
branches of the same height should be placed 
for the peas to climb over. Some gardeners, 
however, use only a single stake, and tie up 
the peas as they gi'ow, till they are two feet 
six inches high, when they allow them to fall 
over and form a head of bloom ; but nothing 
is so good as two or three branched sticks, 
which support the peas well, and give much 
less trouble than single stakes. The Sweet 
Pea is also an old established favourite as a 
nosegay flower, and may be cut with long 
stems." — P. 14. 
" The Columbine you should sow in May, 
and it will bloom the next year. The plant 
is as elegant as the lupine [just mentioned] ; 
the bloom of the very double ones is as rich 
as it is beautiful, consisting of many horn- 
shaped florets, which have so quaint an ap- 
pearance, that they almost remind us of an 
old-fashioned quilled bonnet. If I knew 
where to obtain half-a-dozen healthy plants 
from a good collection, I t-hould prefer saving 
the seeds collected from those to trusting to any 
chance purchase. But if our varieties shc.uhl 
turn out indifferently, we will make another 
