for months past. It cannot be denied but that early blooms of well-grown pansies are charming in the extreme; their rich velvety appearance and freshness of color make them peculiarly attractive.

Those in pots will now require to be gone over frequently with the water-pot, being careful at the same time not to give much water to plants of slow growth; the constitution of some varieties being very different to that of others, and requiring judgment in this respect.

Any seed that may have been saved during the autumn should now be sown in pans, the more early in the month the better, and placed in gentle heat. Care must be taken in watering after they are up, otherwise they are liable to shank off.

Look over the beds of autumn-planted seedlings, as many will have been loosened by the frost, and will require pressing down.

If our readers are enthusiastic growers, they will not object to follow our recommendation, and carefully to hunt by candlelight for slugs, if their beds are troubled with that pest. How many, on visiting their pansies in the freshness of an April morning, have found their buds and flowers disfigured for want of such precaution!

MAY.

This is the month when the pansy-grower will be fully repaid for all his previous trouble. Those in pots and in the autumn-planted beds will be in full bloom throughout this month; and if the plants are such as they ought to be, from the grower having adopted the treatment we have recommended, the blooms will be large and fine, unless cold winds, or frosty nights, should make them curled and rough, and so disfigure the best kinds. Hence the reason of our recommending pot-culture, as a certain plan of obtaining good blooms at an early period of the year.

Those in pots will now require watering more freely, that is, if the plants have done well, and made a vigorous growth; at every alternate watering we give them weak liquid manure. Watering, as well as the other operations enumerated, must, in a great measure, be left to the skill and judg

ment of the cultivator, to perform earlier or later than the time specified in these general directions.

Water in the morning until the weather has become settled and warm; when it is so, the afternoon or evening will be preferable.

We make a point of going over the plants with the waterpot once a day; but in drying weather, we run our eye over them two or three times a day, and water as many as have become dry; for which purpose a pot of liquid manure is kept standing by the frame. If only one plant requires it, it does not go without.

These little details, when fully carried out, cause the blooms from some gardens to be so much finer than the same kinds from other places; so much so, as scarcely to be recognized as the same varieties.

By the middle of this month the weather is usually so warm, that the frames containing the plants in pots should be reversed, so as to face the north, which will help to keep them cooler, and the most favorable spot should be selected. to this end. As before recommended, keep the lights pulled back on all occasions when the weather will permit: but previous to an exhibition, much care and attention will be necessary, as more flowers will be made unfit for competition by friction from the wind than from any other cause. will be evident that the larger and finer the blooms are, the more liable they will be to get blown about. Yet, to keep the lights constantly on, would soon spoil the successionblooms, by drawing the plants.

It

The same directions will answer for watering the beds; they will not, of course, require it so often.

When in flower, the plants should not be watered over head, particularly if blooms are likely to be required at no distant period.

The principal exhibitions for this flower will take place about this time; to succeed at which, care must be taken of blooms that will be in at a given day. To do this, a little. shading will be necessary. Those that are in the habit of growing dahlias, carnations, or pinks, for exhibition, will have ample means for this purpose. Shades made of tin, pasteboard, canvass, or small handglasses, will be found

equally useful. Never shade the entire bed with canvass or other material; it would bring one fine head of bloom for a week or so, but from that time the blooms would degenerate in size, with drawn-up plants. We need not point out the difference between the pansy and the tulip. The succession of bloom required from the former, and not from the latter, accounts for the difference in the mode of shading. But with the shades we first described, a single bloom can be protected without injury to the plant itself, or those around it. Remove the shade a few hours in the morning and evening; it will invigorate the bloom selected, and keep that part of the plant from drawing.

Much good will result from having some tall upright stakes, or any pieces of wood sufficiently high, placed close to the bed on the south side, to which fix some very thin canvass during the heat of the day. This will not draw the plants, as the canvass we use is sufficiently thin to admit the air passing through it, yet has the desired effect, by keeping the blooms in color a longer time.

Six days before a show will suffice to look round for blooms likely to be good when fully grown; but the blooms so selected must not be shaded until a day or two later. This is supposing that the weather is warm; but should it be otherwise, extend the time, as the number of days a bloom will keep will depend on the weather. Those of good substance will of course keep the longest.

Put in as many cuttings as can be procured in this month; it will answer two purposes; strengthen the plant in the main shoots, and thereby increase the size of the blooms, and at the same time ensure a stock of all the leading kinds before the large plants begin to die off from the heat. Entire beds have been known to shank off during a very hot summer; and all we can say on this part of the subject is, that the further the pansy is removed from its original state by high cultivation, &c., the more they shank off in this manner.

Therefore, if our recommendations are attended to, by propagating as much as possible during the spring, the loss, comparatively, will be but trifling, as the young stock is not liable to go off from the same cause; and when once we get through the summer months, they generally grow like weeds.

To keep up a succession of large blooms, pluck off all small or otherwise inferior blossoms. Those that grow for competition only, often destroy the whole of the bloom for a few days to ensure a fine, head, and a good choice for any particular occasion. At all times keep the plants clean of dead leaves. The side-shoots, and those that continue to break up from the root, must be kept down when large blooms are indispensable, whether they are required for increase or not.

JUNE.

The operations in this month will be very similar to the preceding one. The weather having become more hot, the cuttings will require closer attention; and the first thing to be done, on observing a fine flower in the seedling-bed, should be to put in a few cuttings; as we have before shown how little notice a plant gives before it dies, during the heat of May and June. Plants, that appear to be full of health and vigor in the morning, will be down before midday, as if they had been severed with a knife. On examining them, it will be found that the spine is black and diseased to the extremity of the shoots. Many fine seedlings have been lost for want of this precaution.

Examine the choice kinds, and gather what seed is sufficiently ripe, or the sparrows will very likely save you that trouble. When gathered, it should be placed so that it can be covered with glass or thin canvass; otherwise, at the bursting of the pods, many good seeds will be lost. Of course it must not be covered down air-tight, as it will require all the air it can have to ripen and dry it off.

JULY.

Many of the cuttings, put in from time to time, will have taken root. Those for autumn-blooming may be planted out at once; and a cool spot selected, and prepared with plenty of coarse sand, to transplant the remainder into for stockplants. Keep the surface of the soil removed between those. cuttings in process of striking, and clean the cuttings of all dead foliage. It should be borne in mind, that the situation

of the pansy ought to be the first object; and if there is a part of the garden cool, and rather shady, but of inferior soil, we advise the cultivator to make that soil suit the plant, which will be found more easy than to make the situation.

POINTS OF PERFECTION IN THE PANSY.

The seedling-beds will now be daily showing new faces. This is therefore an appropriate time to state the properties which constitute perfection in the pansy, as it may be of service in selecting the most promising to be grown another season, which is necessary to prove their constancy. The above woodcuts, (fig. 28,) 1 and 2, will give the best idea of what is most prized as regards shape. It will be seen that the outline should be quite circular; the petals even on the edges, and flat; the face of the flower smooth, (viz. free from