90 THE LADIES' FLOWER-GARDEN 
challenged the Count to write the description of each in one line. She had chosen a Wild Rose, and the Count, 
who had been piqued by her numerous flirtations, wrote — 
Cbarming, but evanescent. 
The cousin had chosen Mignonette, and the Count's motto for this flower was — 
Your qualities surpass your charms. 
The legend adds, that the Count married the cousin, and in compliment to her, inserted the Mignonette in his 
coat of arms. 
Culture. — The Mignonette is so favourite a flower that it is sown at all seasons, and many gardeners 
contrive to have it in flower every month in the year. To do this, they sow it at four or five difierent times. 
If it be wanted to flower in winter, the seed is usually sown in the open ground about the end of July. About 
the middle of September these plants will be ready for planting in pots, shading them for a few days after trans- 
planting, and protecting them from heavy rains. Before the frost sets in, the pots should be placed in frames till 
the beginning of November, when some of them will begin to show flower-buds. They should then be removed 
to the greenhouse, where they will branch out, and continue flowering till spring. In small gardens, where there 
are neither greenhouses nor frames, the same effect may be produced by placing the pots in the window of a room 
without a fire, till they begin to form blossom buds, and then removing them to a warm window in a living room, 
where they will blossom beautifully. Abundance of Mignonette will be thus produced from November till 
March ; but it will be more difiicult to have plants in flower during the months of March, April, and May. The 
seeds, in this case, must be sown in pots about the latter end of August. They must be protected from the cold, 
and heavy rains, and in November they should be thinned out, leaving only eight or ten plants in each pot. The 
pots should then be sunk in an old hotbed of manure, or tan, and covered with a frame, where they must be kept, 
and covered closely at night, till they begin to form flower-buds, when they must be removed to the greenhouse. 
In a small garden, the seeds may be sown in pots, and during the severe weather, a shallow box, or packing-case, 
may be filled with coal ashes, into which the pots may be plunged. This will keep the roots moist, and prevent 
the leaves from turning yellow. In very severe frosts, the plants may be covered with an old blanket, or piece of 
carpeting. When they have formed blossom buds, they may be removed to the window of a room where there 
is a fire, when they will blossom freely. A third crop may be sown in February, and treated like the last, or 
raised on a hotbed. These will come into blossom by the end of May, and they vrill be succeeded by plants sown 
in April, which will continue in flower till they are killed by the frost. The summer-sown species will then be 
just ready to flower ; and thus a succession of flowers will be kept up all the year. 
Among the many uses of the Mignonette, may be reckoned that of planting it with Candy-tuft, Clarkias, &c., 
as we have already recommended. Boxes of it are also raised for windows, &c., and tufts are planted in 
court-yards. Wherever it may be grown, care should be taken to sow the seeds in a poor sandy soil, as unless 
this is done, the Mignonette will have scarcely any fragrance. 
The tree Mignonette is nothing but the common Mignonette, preserved through the winter, and trained so as 
to form a tree. It is propagated by cuttings, and is more fragrant than when grown as an annual. Many 
persons attempt to buy its seeds ; but as its real seeds would only produce the common kind, nurserymen generally 
sell the seeds of the Dyer's Weed (Reseda luteola), a common British plant, for it. Tliis plant is an annual, with 
taller and stronger stems than the common Mignonette, and it is cultivated for the yellow dye which it affords ; 
but it certainly is not worth growing in a flower-garden. 
