190 
HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
•them occasionally to prevent them growing 
one-sided. These will make very handsome 
plants and show the skill of the gardener to 
advantage ; but many persons prefer large. 
specimens, and therefore allow them to fill 
large-sized pots, and keep them over the 
winter ; in this case they are necessarily 
shifted into still larger ones in March, or even 
earlier, and are grown into monsters. We 
prefer on every account parting the roots in 
the autumn, potting them in forty-eight sized 
pots, and peeling them as above. This variety 
is perhaps the best of the whole tribe, if we 
look to the form of the flower. If they are 
turned out of their store-pots in May into the 
open borderthey become very beautiful objects. 
HORTICULTURAL NOTES. 
Simple Mode op applying Heat to An- 
nuals. — Dig out a trench three feet wide and 
eighteen inches deep, fill it with hot stable 
dung, treading it down so as to leave three 
inches thickness for mould, to fill it up level ; 
upon this sow your seed under hand-glasses. 
It being upon the level of the rest of the 
ground does not spoil the appearance of the 
garden, and the only care required is always 
to cover and give air by closing down and 
tilting up these glasses. The advantage of 
this is chiefly felt in small gardens, seen from 
the house, in which places heaps of dung are 
in appearance, as well as in every thing else, 
great nuisances. The seeds, which would for 
the most part be tender ones, might grow till 
it was time to plant them out, and the end of 
March would be the best time to sow, that in 
a few weeks they may be large enough, and 
the season be advanced enough, to plant 
in the open air. I have a garden between 
four walls, every inch of which is seen from 
the parlour window ; and as I grow nothing 
but flowers, I have in a load of dung already 
prepared, — have my trenches dug out and 
that put in, the mould thrown over it, and the 
bed made for sowing the seed all in one day. 
My glasses are ornamental, so that there is no 
eyesore whatever. — R. 
The Verbena. — This plant is rapidly com- 
ing into notice, not less for its use in the 
garden clumps than its appearance in vases 
and pots. The colours are more than ever 
diversified, and each season adds brilliance 
and beauty to collections. Some persons are 
checking the advance, by selecting bad in- 
stead of good ones from seedlings. We have 
seen some of the new varieties approaching 
the standard pretty well, though there is 
much to do yet ; but the colour of a new 
sort captivates many growers sufficiently to 
prevent raisers from doing as they would. 
Those, however, who 'wish to advance the 
flower should never select narrow petals nor 
notched ones, for neither can be good, and the 
presence of them in a collection would spoil 
the seed. In choosing any for the garden, fix 
upon such as are very broad in the petals, in 
preference to any other quality, and when you 
have done this in each colour you will have 
laid the foundation of a collection ; but if they 
are for the flower-garden alone, you have a 
second point to look for — you must have them 
dwarf, for a tall straggling Verbena is good for 
nothing. — T. 
Ants. — However these pests may plague 
you, all you have to do is to make deep holes 
with a crow-bar, say two or three feet, and 
carefully withdraw the instrument so that the 
hole may be open ; thousands, aye millions of 
these little pests will fall down them, and not 
get out any more ; in fact the place will in 
time be completely cleared. When they con- 
gregate away from plants, boiling water will 
settle their accounts quickly ; but the former 
method will do any where if the ground will 
allow of holes being made and the holes kept 
open. In some light soils it is difficult, but 
if you can do it no other way, soak it with 
water first. 
Steeping Seeds. — It appears almost in- 
credible that the merely steeping of seeds 
should have any prolonged effect on the plant 
itself, yet the evidence is so strong, if credence 
can be given to the proceedings of public in- 
stitutions, that it were idle to dispute the fact ; 
nevertheless, evidence of experiments should 
be received with caution. That a good deal 
more has been attributed to steeping than 
ought to have been is certain, and that many 
whimsical nostrums have been put in requi- 
sition is also obvious. The best authenticated 
is perhaps the effect caused by steeping in 
muriate of ammonia, and we think that as the 
fertilizing effects of so small a quantity as half 
an ounce in a gallon of water, and that used 
only once in six waterings, are proved, it is 
not too much to suppose that the steeping of 
a seed which would imbibe a considerable 
portion, may assist the future vegetation. 
Advice to Dahlia Growers. — When crops 
have been grown time after time from the same 
seed, each crop gets weaker; experience teaches 
that Dahlias are not different in this respect 
from potatoes. Whoever dreams of planting 
his own seed potatoes, as men do their own 
Dahlias, twenty seasons running ? Nobody. 
Then Dahlia growers, take the hint, change 
a root of all your collections that do not do 
well with you, because they require a change 
as much as a potato. The great blunder that 
you have all made, is that of throwing away 
sorts which you call worn out, only because 
they are tired of your stuff, and your treat- 
