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no longer associated with vegetation, makes it look like a baker covered with flour, and just come out from a dinner in his hot oven.

The Auricula does not flower the first year; but as it is sometimes desirable to continue the handsome kinds, it may be occasionally agreeable to sow the seeds at home: directions are therefore given for that purpose. The seeds may be sown any time before Christmas, but the best time is in August. They may at first be sown within an inch of each other, not more than a quarter of an inch deep. They should stand in a moderately warm room, and be kept tolerably moist, by sprinkling the earth with a hard clothes-brush dipped in water, warmed by standing in the sun. At the end of four or five weeks, when the plants are all come up, they must be gradually accustomed to the air. As soon as any of the plants show six leaves, transplant them into other pots, about two inches asunder; and, when grown so as to touch each other, transplant them again, separately, into small pots, where they may remain to blow; and place them where they may enjoy the morning sun. Towards the middle of March they should be placed where they may receive the early, but be screened from the noon-day sun. Exposure to a whole day's sun at this time will destroy them; but, if the weather be mild, fresh air may be admitted to them. About the end of April they should be gradually accustomed to the open air; but care must be taken not to do this too abruptly, and to place them out on a mild day,

"When dews, heaven's secret milk, in unseen showers,
First feed the early childhood of the year."

DAVENANT.

Special care must be taken to screen them from easterly winds. Earth, properly prepared for Auriculas, may be

obtained from a nursery; and this is considered of some importance. What further directions are necessary will equally apply to those flowers raised at home, and to such as are only adopted children.

Preserve the plants from too much wet in winter, but let them have as much air as possible. To screen them from rain, it is best to keep them under cover. In February, when the weather is mild, take out of the pots as much of the earth as you can without disturbing the roots, and fill them up with fresh earth, which will greatly strengthen the plants: also take off such leaves as are decayed.

Auriculas should, in dry weather, be very gently watered three times in a week, carefully observing that no water fall upon the flowers; which, by washing off their farina, would greatly deface their beauty, and hasten their decay.

The best situation for Auriculas, when in bloom, is where the air may surround them, but roofed over head at such a distance as not to oppress the plants. Placed in an eastern balcony, shaded by a veranda, and by a few shrubs on the southern side, they will be well lodged. When the flowers have lost their beauty, they must be entirely exposed, to perfect their seeds, which will ripen in June. When the seeds are ripe, the seed-vessel will turn brown, and open. When they are perfectly dry, gather them, and lay them in an open paper exposed to the sun. To prevent their growing mouldy, they must remain in the pods till the season for sowing them.

Soon after they are past flowering, Auriculas should be taken out of the earth, such fibres as have grown very long should be shortened, and the lower part of the main root, if too long or decayed, cut off. If the lower

leaves be faded or withered, strip them off in a downward direction: take off the offsets, and plant them in pots. Have ready a pot, three-parts filled with the prepared earth, highest in the middle; there place the old plant, with its fibres regularly distributed all round: then fill the pot up with the same earth, and lay a little clean coarse sand on the surface, round the stem of the plant. The pot should be gently shaken, to settle the earth about the root. It should be planted within half an inch of the lowest leaves; for, as the most valuable fibres shoot from that part, they will so be encouraged to strike root sooner.

When the offsets have formed one or more fibres of an inch or two in length, they may be parted from the motherplant with the fingers, and planted as directed for young seedlings, several in a pot, until they are large enough to be transplanted separately.

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In May, that is, as soon as this planting and transplanting is finished, the plants, old and young, should be placed in a shady, airy situation; by no means where the water from other plants can drip on them; and there remain till September, or, if the weather be mild, till October, when they must be sheltered from rain, snow, and frost, but must still be allowed air. They may be placed near a window, which should be open in mild weather, and closed when frosty.

Should there be offsets in April, or earlier, they may be taken off, and planted, without waiting till the old plants are removed. The following spring they will produce flowers, though but weakly. When past flowering, remove them into larger pots; and the second year they will flower in perfection. When the old plants are transplanted, they should, if requisite, be removed into larger pots.

It must be either the Auricula or the Polyanthus described by the poet in the following passage:

"Oft have I brought thee flowers, on their stalks set

Like vestal primroses, but dark velvet

Edges them round, and they have golden pits."
KEATS'S ENDYMION.

The Auricula is to be found in the highest perfection in the gardens of the manufacturing class, who bestow much time and attention upon this and a few other flowers, as the tulip and pink. A fine stage of these plants is scarcely ever to be seen in the gardens of the nobility and gentry, who depend upon the exertions of hired servants, and cannot therefore compete in these nicer operations of gardening with those who tend their flowers themselves, and watch over their progress with paternal solicitude.

RHODORACEE.

AZALEA.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Azalea is derived from the Greek, and signifies dry.

MILLAR says the Azalea is so named because it grows in a dry soil; but this must be a strange oversight—for in the next page he tells us that it grows naturally in a moist soil, in North America, and that unless it has a moist soil it will not thrive.

The Azalea is a beautiful flowering shrub. The nakedflowered Azalea, in its native country, grows fourteen or fifteen feet high: here it is never more than half that height. Of this species, the flowers appear before the leaves: they are red, or white and red, and in great abundance. This shrub is common in the woods of New

Jersey, and is called May-flower, Wild Honeysuckle, and Upright Honeysuckle. We call it American Honeysuckle.

The White-flowered Azalea is a lower shrub than the former: the flowers are sweet-scented. This also is an American. The Pontic Azalea has yellow flowers. The Indian Azalea has a profusion of flowers, of a beautiful bright red.

! The Azaleas should be sheltered from severe frost, and the earth be kept moist. They flower from May to July, and are too handsome to be dispensed with, but from absolute want of room.

BALM.

MELISSA.

LABIATE.

DIDYNAMIA GYMNOSPERMIA.

From the fondness of bees for this plant, it is named melissa [a bee], melissophyllum [bee-leaf], from the Greek; and apiastrum, of a like signification, from the Latin. From its strong scent of lemons, Gesner has called it citrago.-French, le melisse des jardins [garden balm]; herbe de citron [lemon herb]; citronade, citronelle, both from the odour; poncirade; piment des mouches à miel [bees' spice].— Italian, melissa; cedronella; cedrancella; citraggine; melacitola.— In the Brescian territory, sitornela.

Ir is seldom that this darling of the bees is admitted into the flower-garden, yet it is very pretty when in flower; particularly that which is called the Great-flowered Balm, which has large purple flowers. Many a useless plant is admitted into the flower-garden with not half the beauty of this, which would deserve a place there for its scent alone. It was formerly considered as an efficacious remedy in hypochondria, but it is not so highly esteemed by the physicians of the present day. It proves, at least, an inno、

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