ANNUALS. 
59 
they will bear the wind and weather. Make a circle rc ind a 
pole, or some object to which they may cling as they rise; and 
put the peas an inch deep, having soaked them previously in 
water well saturated with arsenic, to guard them from the depre¬ 
dations of birds and mice. Add an outer circle of peas every 
month, so that a continual bloom may appear. The circle first 
sown will ripen and pod for seed in the center, while the outer 
vines will continue flowering till late in the autumn. When you 
have gathered a sufficient number of ripe pods, cut away all the 
pods which may afterwards form with your knife. This strength¬ 
ens the vines, and throws all their vigor into repeated blooms. 
Be very careful to throw away the arsenic water upon your 
heap of compost, and do not put that powerful poison into any 
thing which may be used afterwards in the house. Soak the 
peas in a flower-pot saucer which is never required for any other 
purpose, and keep it on a shelf in the tool-house, covered up. 
Three or four hours’ soaking will be sufficient. If the wind and 
frosts be powerful and continued, shelter the peas through March, 
by covering them with straw or matting every evening. 
I have got sweet-peas into very early blow by bringing them 
up in pots in-doors, and transplanting them carefully in April, 
without disturbing the roots. In doing this, push your finger 
gently through the orifice at the bottom of the flower-pot, and 
raise its contents “ bodily.” Then place the ball of earth and 
plants into a hole troweled out to receive it; cover it round gently, 
and, if the weather is dry, water it moderately. 
Ten-weeks’ Stock is a very pretty annual, and continues a long 
time in bloom. Mignionette is the sweetest of all perfumes, and 
should be sown in September for early blowing, and again in 
March for a later crop. It is always more perfumy and healthy, 
if dug into the ground in autumn to sow itself. Yenus’ Looking- 
glass is a very prett y, delicate flower. Indeed, every annual is 
t 
