These stations are established on creeks which come down from the western
slopes of the Coast Range–here extending in a north and south
direction–and meander through plains of more or less extent to join the
Condamine River; which–also rising in the Coast Range, where the latter
expands into the table-land of New England–sweeps round to the
northward, and, flowing parallel to the Coast Range, receives the whole
drainage from the country to the westward of the range. The Condamine
forms, for a great distance, the separation of the sandstone country to
the westward, from the rich basaltic plains to the eastward. These
plains, so famous for the richness of their pasture, and for the
excellency of the sheep and cattle depastured upon them, have become
equally remarkable as the depositaries of the remains of extinct species
of animals, several of which must have been of a gigantic size, being the
Marsupial representatives of the Pachydermal order of other continents.

Sku: overlandaustralia

As the history of the principal expeditions into the interior of
Australia has been narrated by several able writers, I do not propose to
repeat what has already been so well told. But, to make the narrative of
my own journeys more intelligible, and to explain the motives for making
them, it is necessary that I should briefly sketch the expeditions
undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the vast regions
intervening between Western and the other Australian colonies, and
determining the possibility of opening up direct overland communication.

Sku: explorationsaustralia

Watermelon (Citrullus lantatus) belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae which includes squash, pumpkin
and cucumber. It is a popular dessert vegetable, with year round availability.
Watermelons vary in shape; from globular to oblong. External rind colour varies from light to dark green
and may be solid, striped or marbled. The pulp colour of most commercial varieties is red.
The fruit is generally eaten raw. Watermelon has a very high water content (93 ml/ 100g edible portion).
It contains carbohydrates (5mg), calcium (8mg), phosphorous (9 mg), ascorbic acid (8 mg) and vitamins
(0.64 g) per 100 g of edible portion.

Sku: watermelon01

It is now fifty years since the celebrated Stillingfleet observed, “that
it was surprising to see how long mankind had neglected to make a proper
advantage of plants, of so much importance to agriculture as the
Grasses, which are in all countries the principal food of cattle.” The
farmer, for want of distinguishing and selecting the best kinds, fills
his pastures either with weeds or improper plants, when by making a
right choice he would not only procure a more abundant crop from his
land, but have a produce more nourishing for his flock. One would
therefore naturally wonder, after this truth has been so long published,
and that in an age when agriculture and the arts have so much improved,
that Select Seeds of this tribe of plants are scarcely to be produced.

Sku: botanistscompanion

The general design of the following sheets is to inlist Imagination
under the banner of Science; and to lead her votaries from the looser
analogies, which dress out the imagery of poetry, to the stricter, ones
which form the ratiocination of philosophy. While their particular
design is to induce the ingenious to cultivate the knowledge of Botany,
by introducing them to the vestibule of that delightful science, and
recommending to their attention the immortal works of the celebrated
Swedish Naturalist, LINNEUS. In the first Poem, or Economy of Vegetation, the physiology of Plants is
delivered; and the operation of the Elements, as far as they may be
supposed to affect the growth of Vegetables.

Sku: botanicgarden01

Formerly it was the custom for gardeners to invest their labors and
achievements with a mystery and secrecy which might well have
discouraged any amateur from trespassing upon such difficult ground.
“Trade secrets” in either flower or vegetable growing were acquired by
the apprentice only through practice and observation, and in turn
jealously guarded by him until passed on to some younger brother in the
profession. Every garden operation was made to seem a wonderful and
difficult undertaking. Now, all that has changed. In fact the pendulum
has swung, as it usually does, to the other extreme. Often, if you are
a beginner, you have been flatteringly told in print that you could
from the beginning do just as well as the experienced gardener.

CONTENTS

I     INTRODUCTION
II    WHY YOU SHOULD GARDEN
III   REQUISITES OF THE HOME VEGETABLE GARDEN
IV  THE PLANTING PLAN
V   IMPLEMENTS AND THEIR USES
VI   MANURES AND FERTILIZERS
VII  THE SOIL AND ITS PREPARATION
PART TWO–VEGETABLES
VIII  STARTING THE PLANTS
IX    SOWING AND PLANTING
X     THE CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES
XI    THE VEGETABLES AND THEIR SPECIAL NEEDS
XII   BEST VARIETIES OF THE GARDEN VEGETABLES
XIII   INSECTS AND DISEASE, AND METHODS OF FIGHTING THEM
XIV  HARVESTING AND STORING
PART THREE–FRUITS
XV   THE VARIETIES OF POME AND STONE FRUITS
XVI   PLANTING; CULTIVATION; FILLER CROPS
XVII  PRUNING, SPRAYING, HARVESTING
XVIII BERRIES AND SMALL FRUITS
XIX   A CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS
XX    CONCLUSION

Sku: vegetablegardening

First, you should know why a maritime Northwest raised-bed gardener
named Steve Solomon became worried about his dependence on
irrigation.
I’m from Michigan. I moved to Lorane, Oregon, in April 1978 and
homesteaded on 5 acres in what I thought at the time was a cool,
showery green valley of liquid sunshine and rainbows. I intended to
put in a big garden and grow as much of my own food as possible.
Two months later, in June, just as my garden began needing water, my
so-called 15-gallon-per-minute well began to falter, yielding less
and less with each passing week. By August it delivered about 3
gallons per minute. Fortunately, I wasn’t faced with a completely
dry well or one that had shrunk to below 1 gallon per minute, as I
soon discovered many of my neighbors were cursed with. Three gallons
per minute won’t supply a fan nozzle or even a common impulse
sprinkler.

Sku: gardeningirrigation01

Abelia.–Very ornamental evergreen shrubs, bearing tubular,
funnel-shaped flowers. They succeed in any ordinary soil if the
situation is warm and sheltered, and are readily raised by cuttings.
Height, 3 ft. to 4 ft.
Abies _(Spruce Firs)_.–Among these ornamental conifers mention may be
made of the beautiful Japanese Spruce Ajanensis, which grows freely
in most soils and has dual-coloured leaves–dark green on the upper
surface and silvery white underneath; this makes a grand single
specimen anywhere. The White Spruce (_Abies Alba Glauca_) is a rapid
grower, but while it is small makes a lovely show in the border; it
prefers a moist situation. Of the slow-growing and dwarf varieties
Gregorii is a favourite. The Caerulea, or Blue Spruce, is also very
beautiful. Clanbrasiliana is a good lawn shrub, never exceeding 4 ft.
in height. The Pigmy Spruce (_A. Pygmea_) is the smallest of all firs,
only attaining the height of 1 ft. Any of these may be increased by
cuttings.

Sku: gardeningformillion

A taste for floriculture is spreading amongst Anglo-Indians. It is a
good sign. It would be gratifying to learn that the same refining taste
had reached the Natives also–even the lower classes of them. It is a
cheap enjoyment. A mere palm of ground may be glorified by a few radiant
blossoms. A single clay jar of the rudest form may be so enriched and
beautified with leaves and blossoms as to fascinate the eye of taste. An
old basket, with a broken tile at the top of it, and the root of the
acanthus within, produced an effect which seemed to Calimachus, the
architect, “the work of the Graces.” It suggested the idea of the
capital of the Corinthian column, the most elegant architectural
ornament that Art has yet conceived.
Flowers are the poor man’s luxury; a refinement for the uneducated. It
has been prettily said that the melody of birds is the poor man’s music,
and that flowers are the poor man’s poetry.

Sku: flower-gardens

Comprehensive history of Charles Darwin’s knowledge on flower types. Showing his knowledge of the world around him in great detail.

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.
HETEROSTYLED DIMORPHIC PLANTS: PRIMULACEAE.

Primula veris or the cowslip.–Differences in structure between the two forms.–
Their degrees of fertility when legitimately and illegitimately united.–P.
elatior, vulgaris, Sinensis, auricula, etc.–Summary on the fertility of the
heterostyled species of Primula.–Homostyled species of Primula.–Hottonia
palustris.–Androsace vitalliana.

CHAPTER II.
HYBRID PRIMULAS.

The oxlip a hybrid naturally produced between Primula veris and vulgaris.–The
differences in structure and function between the two parent-species.–Effects
of crossing long-styled and short-styled oxlips with one another and with the
two forms of both parent-species.–Character of the offspring from oxlips
artificially self-fertilised and cross-fertilised in a state of nature.–Primula
elatior shown to be a distinct species.–Hybrids between other heterostyled
species of Primula.–Supplementary note on spontaneously produced hybrids in the
genus Verbascum.
CHAPTER III.
HETEROSTYLED DIMORPHIC PLANTS–continued.

Linum grandiflorum, long-styled form utterly sterile with own-form pollen.–
Linum perenne, torsion of the pistils in the long-styled form alone.–Homostyled
species of Linum.–Pulmonaria officinalis, singular difference in self-fertility
between the English and German long-styled plants.–Pulmonaria angustifolia
shown to be a distinct species, long-styled form completely self-sterile.–
Polygonum fagopyrum.–Various other heterostyled genera.–Rubiaceae.–Mitchella
repens, fertility of the flowers in pairs.–Houstonia.–Faramea, remarkable
difference in the pollen-grains of the two forms; torsion of the stamens in the
short-styled form alone; development not as yet perfect.–The heterostyled
structure in the several Rubiaceous genera not due to descent in common.

CHAPTER IV.
HETEROSTYLED TRIMORPHIC PLANTS.

Lythrum salicaria.–Description of the three forms.–Their power and complex
manner of fertilising one another.–Eighteen different unions possible.–Mid-
styled form eminently feminine in nature.–Lythrum Graefferi likewise
trimorphic.–L. hymifolia dimorphic.–L. hyssopifolia homostyled.–Nesaea
verticillata trimorphic.–Lagerstroemia, nature doubtful.–Oxalis, trimorphic
species of.–O. Valdiviana.–O. Regnelli, the illegitimate unions quite barren.-
-O. speciosa.–O. sensitiva.–Homostyled species of Oxalis.–Pontederia, the one
monocotyledonous genus known to include heterostyled species.

CHAPTER V.
ILLEGITIMATE OFFSPRING OF HETEROSTYLED PLANTS.

Illegitimate offspring from all three forms of Lythrum salicaria.–Their dwarfed
stature and sterility, some utterly barren, some fertile.–Oxalis, transmission
of form to the legitimate and illegitimate seedlings.–Primula Sinensis,
illegitimate offspring in some degree dwarfed and infertile.–Equal-styled
varieties of P. Sinensis, auricula, farinosa, and elatior.–P. vulgaris, red-
flowered variety, illegitimate seedlings sterile.–P. veris, illegitimate plants
raised during several successive generations, their dwarfed stature and
sterility.–Equal-styled varieties of P. veris.–Transmission of form by
Pulmonaria and Polygonum.–Concluding remarks.–Close parallelism between
illegitimate fertilisation and hybridism.

CHAPTER VI.
CONCLUDING REMARKS ON HETEROSTYLED PLANTS.

The essential character of heterostyled plants.–Summary of the differences in
fertility between legitimately and illegitimately fertilised plants.–Diameter
of the pollen-grains, size of anthers and structure of stigma in the different
forms.–Affinities of the genera which include heterostyled species.–Nature of
the advantages derived from heterostylism.–The means by which plants became
heterostyled.–Transmissionplants.–Final remarks.

POLYGAMOUS, DIOECIOUS, AND GYNO-DIOECIOUS PLANTS.

The conversion in various ways of hermaphrodite into dioecious plants.–
Heterostyled plants rendered dioecious.–Rubiaceae.–Verbenaceae.–Polygamous
and sub-dioecious plants.–Euonymus.–Fragaria.–The two sub-forms of both sexes
of Rhamnus and Epigaea.–Ilex.–Gyno-dioecious plants.–Thymus, difference in
fertility of the hermaphrodite and female individuals.–Satureia.–Manner in
which the two forms probably originated.–Scabiosa and other gyno-dioecious
plants.–Difference in the size of the corolla in the forms of polygamous,
dioecious, and gyno-dioecious plants.

CHAPTER VIII.
CLEISTOGAMIC FLOWERS.

General character of cleistogamic flowers.–List of the genera producing such
flowers, and their distribution in the vegetable series.–Viola, description of
the cleistogamic flowers in the several species; their fertility compared with
that of the perfect flowers.–Oxalis acetosella.–O. sensitiva, three forms of
cleistogamic flowers.–Vandellia.–Ononis.–Impatiens.–Drosera.–Miscellaneous
observations on various other cleistogamic plants.–Anemophilous species
producing cleistogamic flowers.–Leersia, perfect flowers rarely developed.–
Summary and concluding remarks on the origin of cleistogamic flowers.

–The chconclusions which may be drawn from the observations in this volume.

Sku: FlowDarwn