278 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 
liery, they may be planted now witli great advantage. 
Should any be yet in the seed bed, lose no time, 
but transplant them immediately, giving six inches 
square to grow in: they will make nice bushy plants 
yet. 
Annuals. —There are several kinds of annuals 
which may be sown towards the end of the month : 
by sowing them now they will flower much earlier 
next year; they must be of the hardiest kinds, and 
should be sown thinly in an open situation. Some, 
no doubt, will perish should the winter be severe, 
but the greater part will survive, and will flower 
finely very early. The experiment, or rather method, 
(for it has been often adopted,) is worthy of being 
tried. The following are suitable for this purpose: 
Lobel’s Catchfly, new Siberian Catchfly, white and 
purple Candy-tuft, the annual yellow, white, and 
golden Chrysanthemum, Clarkia elegans and its va¬ 
rieties, Collinsia bicolor, Coreopsis picta, Erysimum 
Peroffskianum, Eschsclioltzia, Gilia tricolor, yellow 
Hawkweed, double purple Jacobea, Kaulfussia amel- 
loides, branching Larkspur, double dwarf Larkspur, 
Venus’s Looking-glass, Nemophila insignis, double 
Poppy in varieties, Sphenogyne speciosa, and Visea- 
ria oculata. This is a rather long list, but you may 
select according to the size of your garden. 
FLORISTS’ FLOWERS. 
Carnations and Picotees. —The bloom will now 
be over. Expose your plants to the full air and sun 
on all fine days, but protect them from very heavy 
rains. Such layers as have rooted had better be 
taken off the old stools, and potted in pairs into pots 
five inches across ; let them be well drained, as that 
is a very important point of culture to keep them a 
good colour and healthy through the winter. Some 
kinds are much longer in rooting than others; these 
must of course be lei't on till roots are formed. We 
would observe, however, that if you can see the least 
root to any layer you may safely take it off, as it is 
sure to grow on at once if the layer is healthy. Such 
as you wish to seed must be protected from wet en¬ 
tirely, as if the pods are exposed even to heavy dews 
they are sure to rot and spoil the seed. 
Pinks. —All the pipings of these elegant flowers 
should now be planted finally in the bed where they 
are to bloom. By early planting they become strong, 
and get firm bold of the soil during the autumn 
months, and are consequently able to endure the 
hardships of the colder months. To save seed use 
the same precautions as recommended for the carna¬ 
tion. It ought to be now nearly ripe; as soon as you 
judge it is so, gather it immediately, and dry it in 
the morning sun. 
Dahlias keep particularly well tied to their stakes, 
and shelter your exhibiting blooms from too much 
sun and all rain. T. Appleby. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Transmitting Seeds, Roots, Ac., to the Colonies. 
—Last spring we bad several inquiries as to the best 
mode of packing seeds, &c., from emigrants about 
departing to Australia, and, in addition to the short 
answers we gave in the columns for answers “ To 
Correspondents,” we promised to take up the whole 
subject and devote a chapter to it before the end of 
the season. I am now reminded of this promise, and 
the subject has been referred to my department for 
explanation. I shall, therefore, in the first place, 
relate a case of this description in which I was my¬ 
self engaged, and after that add some bints from 
what experience and a course of reading about such 
matters may suggest. In the autumn of 18B8 a friend 
of mine was preparing to emigrate to the colony at 
Adelaide, in South Australia. He was one of our best 
English gardeners, and held a responsible situation 
in a large London nursery for twenty years previously. 
During that period he had ample opportunities of 
seeing cases of plants and seeds from all parts of the 
world unpacked at the said establishment, and had 
the chief management of nursing and rearing such 
things on their first arrival. Therefore he might be 
accounted one of our best judges of how such things 
ought to be prepared in England for long voyages. 
Nevertheless, when the time for actual preparations 
had arrived, he was as anxious as any other emigrant 
could be to obtain what aid he could from among bis 
friends of the “ craft,” both as to advice and supplies 
of different kinds of seeds. He bad then some idea 
of rearing plants and seeds for sale in the new co¬ 
lony, and, of course, was anxious to procure as many 
kinds as be could obtain. His object, be said, was 
“ not quantity, but quality and variety;” or, in other 
words, “ I do not want to take a large quantity of 
any given kind, but as many kinds as I can procure, 
and each to be the best sort of its kind;” and this 
should always be the first consideration in such cases. 
Altogether he managed to procure hard upon 300 
kinds of seeds, more than the half of them from the 
firm which he served so long, and the rest from dif¬ 
ferent individuals. With these he went most judi¬ 
ciously to work. In the first place, he sorted the seed 
packets, putting all of one kind together. Thus, let 
us say that he received six packets of early frame 
peas, nine of mignonette, three of a third sort, and 
so on from so many individuals. All the packets of 
one kind he mixed together, and then took as much 
of that kind as be thought needful, and so on with 
all the rest. He had thus many chances to one 
against bad or very old kinds. He then placed his 
seeds under a veranda full in the sun and air for a 
fortnight to dry them thoroughly, taking them indoors 
every night to escape the dews and damp air: mean¬ 
time be procured sheets of the very coarsest brown 
paper, which he dried in an oven till they were as dry 
as tinder; then cut them into squares of different 
sizes, making of these the usual seed packets, and each 
was as large as to contain about double the quantity 
of seeds that were put into them. In other words, 
liis seed packets w r ere only half full, and when they 
were all put together one would be surprised to see 
what little room they occupied. Up to this point 
would be a sure way of proceeding on the part of 
any one wishing to send out seeds to a friend abroad, 
and the next step in such a case would be to provide 
a bag of the very coarsest.canvass, and to tumble 
all the seed packets into it, and half an ounce of 
powdered camphor to the bargain, to make it dis¬ 
agreeable to any of the insect tribe; then to get leave 
from the captain of the vessel they were to be sent by 
to have the seed bag hung up in a corner of his own 
cabin, there to remain untouched till the end of the 
voyage. But my poor friend could not expect such 
indulgence from the master of an emigrant vessel, 
where all, or almost all, would consider themselves 
entitled to the same privilege; so we went to work 
another way. We made choice of a stout kitchen 
deal table, turned it upside down, the top of it thus 
making the bottom of an excellent strong box or 
case. The sides and ends were enclosed with stout 
deal boards, f-inch thick, and planed on both sides. 
