Mignonnette

The marjorum stood in ruddy and fragrant masses; harebells and campanulas of several kinds, that are cultivated in our gardens, with bells large and clear; crimson pinks; the Michaelmas daisy; a plant with a thin, radiated yellow flower, of the character of an aster; a centaurea of a light purple, handsomer than any English one; a thistle in the dryest places, resembling an eryngo, with a thick, bushy top; mulleins, yellow and white; the wild mignonnette, and the white convolvulus; and clematis festooning the bushes, recalled the flowery fields and lanes of England, and yet told us that we were not there.

Mr. Blueapron — who keeps his vinery so moist that his vines put forth roots, in mid air, the whole length of their new-wood branches — who manures his vine-borders with quarters of dead horse, and will not allow even a mignonnette plant to exhaust their richness — would look aghast if he were told to cultivate such compost as that.

The fragrance of mignonnettes, and a hundred flowers that recall Old England, fill the air.

These are anemones, such as I put on your shelf yesterday morning, but these little starry mignonnettes did not grow wild, neither did those wax-balls in the middle.

The Victoria Regia, the fuchsias, the mignonnettes, the orchids, were almost life-like in their fidelity.

A little forest of mignonnettes sets an example of soberness and fragrance, while that honest gilliflower looks like an old-fashioned English matron.

Again, it is a fact that among the sweet mignonnettes some are less fertile than others, and that the least productive have the most odor.

Those desirous of raising a / mignonnette tree / may proceed as follows:—In April sow two or three seeds in a sixty-sized pot, and when the seedlings are large enough, and growing strongly, reduce to one plant, and shift this repeatedly into larger pots until August.