BEDDING PLANTS. 
51 
beautiful. The handsome and numerous pink bells being pro¬ 
duced at a season when flowers are yet scarce, make the plant 
desirable in all situations. It grows, too, in peat, in loam, or 
common soil with equal luxuriance, and therefore may be asso¬ 
ciated with any others of the class already established. 
The Swedish botanist, Thunberg, founded the genus Weigela , 
which is included in the beautiful order Gaprifoliacece , a group 
of plants found only in the temperate regions of the earth. Its 
nearest ally is the genus Diervilla , composed for the most part 
of Japan plants, distinguished by their handsome rose-coloured 
or white flowers. The Honeysuckle is the type of the order, but 
is the only one of the number possessing an agreeable odour. 
Weigela , in the Linnsean arrangement, is included in class Pen- 
tandria , order Monogynia. 
THE PROPAGATION OF BEDDING-PLANTS. 
Wherever the condition of the flower-garden through the 
summer is a matter of consequence, the most active preparations 
will be in progress through the present month, as it is now only 
we are able to judge with any degree of precision of the quantity 
of plants already prepared for the purpose, and of the extra 
number yet required; it is seldom a sufficiency is in hand, for 
though those preserved over the winter and the early spring cut¬ 
tings may serve for the principal portion, there are usually a suc¬ 
cession and casualties to provide for; and after “ taking stock” 
to ascertain what is chiefly required, no time should be lost in 
making up the deficiency. Those who possess but limited con¬ 
venience for keeping plants through the winter are obliged to 
depend mainly upon spring propagation, and where the means 
of merely preserving them are small, it is not often we find any 
excess in those for propagating; a cucumber or melon frame is 
often the only opportunity of allowing the cuttings the additional 
warmth necessary to their striking-—by no means the most fa¬ 
vorable position ; and this, with the absence of any preparation 
of the cuttings, will account for great part of the many failures 
which occur. Necessity made me study the matter, and I offer 
the following remarks as the result of much experience, with the 
hope they may save some of the trouble which annually falls 
