A dictionary of modern gardening - University Library

MI L 378 MIX
bulbous perennials. Offsets. Sandy
loam.
MILLINGTONIA simplidfolia.
Stove evergreen tree. Cuttings. Peat
and loam.
MILLIPEDE. See Julus.
MILTONIA. Three species. Stove
orchids. Mr. Paxton says, " that to
propagate them, the stems should be
cut half through, young plants are then
emitted ; cut through the stem quite,
a montii before separating the young
plants ; plant in rough peat and potsherds."
MIMETES. Eight species. Greenhouse
evergreen shrubs. Ripe cuttings.
Light turfy loam.
MIMOSA. Twenty-two species.
Chiefly stove evergreen shrubs. M.
pudica, an annual. M. viva, an herbaceous
perennial. Young cuttings.
Loam, peat, and sand.
MIMULUS. Seventeen species.
Chiefly hardy herbaceous perennials
increased by division or seed. Com- j
mon soil. The green-house and halfhardy
species require a light rich soil,
and increase by cuttings. The annuals,
seeds. Common soil.
MIMUSOPS. Six species. Stove
evergreen trees. Ripe cuttings. Light
loamy soil, or loam and peat.
MINT. See Mentha.
MIRABILIS. Five species and
several varieties. Green-house fusiform
rooted perennials. Seeds. Light rich
soil.
MERBELIA. Six species. Greenhouse
evergreen shrubs. Young cuttings.
Loam, peat, and sand.
MISLETOE {Viscum album) is some
of the pleasure ground. The easiest
and best way to propagate it is by
placing ripe seeds on the smooth
branches of the common apple, pear,
or white thorn, in February or March,
without in any way damaging the bark
on which they are placed. The seeds
should be fixed on the under side of
the branch, as there they are shaded,
and more likely to escape being eaten
by birds when they begin to vegetate.
Misletoe may be grafted on the apple
tree : but success is so precarious, that
few succeed at present.
—
Gard. Chron.
MITCHELLA repens. Hardy herbaceous
creeper; increased by cuttings
of the stem. Peat, or peat and sand.
MITE. Acarus.
MITELLA. Five species. Hardy
herbaceous perennials. Division. Peaty
soil.
MITRASACME. Three species.
M. canescens, a green-house herbaceous
perennial ; the other two annuals.
Seeds. Sandy peat and loam.
MIXTURE OF SOILS is one of the
most ready and cheapest modes of improving
their staple, and thus rendering
them more ferlile ; and upon the
subject I have nothing to add to the
following excellent remarks of my brother,
Mr. Cuthbert Johnson :—
" I have witnessed even in soils to
all appearance similar in composition,
some very extraordinary results from
their mere mixture. Thus in the gravelly
soils of Spring Park, near Croydon,
the ground is often excavated to a
depth of many feet, through strata of
barren gravel and red sand, for the
sand,
purpose of obtaining the white or silver
which exists beneath them. When
this fine sand is removed, the gravel
and red sand is thrown back into the
pit, the ground merely levelled, and
then either let to cottagers for gardens,
or planted with forest trees ; in either
case the effect is remarkable; all kinds
of either fir or deciduous trees will now
vegetate with remarkable luxuriance ;
and in the cottage garden thus formed,
several species of vegetables, such as
beans and potatoes, will produce very
excellent crops, in the very soils in
which they would have perished previous
to their mixture. The permanent
advantage of mixing soils, too, is not
confined to merely those entirely of
j
times required to be introduced upon the an earthy composition ;—earths which
trees of the shrubbery, and other parts contain inert organic matter, such as
peat or moss earth, are highly valuable
additions to some soils. Thus, peat
earth was successfully added to the
sandy soils of Merionethshire, by Sir
The Cheshire farm-
Robert Vaughan. .
ers add a mixture of moss and calcareous
earth to their tight-bound
earths, the effect of which they describe
as having ' a loosening operation
;' that is, it renders the soil of
their strong clays less tenacious, and,
consequently, promotes the ready access
of the moisture and gases of the
atmosphere to the roots. The cultivator
sometimes deludes himself with
the conclusion that applying sand, or
marl, or clay, to a poor soil, merely