NOVEMBER. 



267 



of each in full bloom, nothing can equal it for richness in its peculiar 

 colour — orange-yellow with a dark eye, and each flower of the 

 size of a crown-piece. I have seen a bed of this plant when the 

 mass of flowers, expanding as they do above the foliage, looked in 

 the sun literally a sheet of gold. 



In pots too, for the decoration of the greenhouse and conserva- 

 tory in summer, how admirably are they adapted ! The loveliest 

 of all flowers, llhodanthe Manglesii, stands foremost in this rank. 

 Collinsia bicolor is beautiful, and of good habit for the purpose. 

 Brachycome iberidifolia in its several varieties is excellent ; as is also 

 the Schizanthus pinnatus, and several others. 



In climbers, too, there is ample to select from ; and a garden can 

 present nothing in the way of flowers more chastely beautiful, more 

 indescribably dehcate — such as no pen can describe, or pencil imitate 

 — than a mass of the annual Ipomceas at sunrise. Soon after, the 

 edges of the petals become crumpled, and then their beauty rapidly 

 decays. Those ladies who have never gazed upon them when in 

 their beauty, have a rich treat in store. The Ipomoea is in every 

 way a favourite ; and I never look upon their evanescent beauties 

 without exclaiming, with Moore, 



" I never loved a tree or flower, 

 But 'twas the first to fade away." 



Annuals are for the most part sown so thickly in the open border, 

 that the plants smother each other in their struggles for light and 

 air ; or in pots, and are starved into a premature maturity. In either 

 case, the real resources of the plants are not developed, and pre- 

 mature decay is the natural consequence of precocity of maturity. 

 The blossoms are no sooner produced, than, like a rocket, there is 

 a dazzling blaze for a brief period, and all is over. Yet some of 

 the annuals, it must be confessed, are of very brief duration ; and to 

 furnish anything like a summer's display, a constant forethought 

 must be exercised to keep up a succession. But, on the whole, they 

 are capable of a much greater degree of usefulness than they aff'ord 

 under the ordinary modes of treatment. Because they are of easy 

 culture, and so rapidly decay, we forget, or care not, to recognise the 

 fact, that they demand care and attention to induce them to a full 

 development of their beauties ; and there are few of them but well 

 repay us for our attention. 



Annuals that are sown early, under the protection of frames, are 

 generally deteriorated in constitutional vigour by an undue excite- 

 ment, or by a number of individuals beuig crowded together in a 

 small pot. And those placed in the open borders are either sown in 

 patches, and allowed to " take their chance," or are transplanted from 

 the reserve-garden in tangled masses, with weakly stems, unable to 

 combat successfully their change of circumstances, and their always 

 brief duration is rendered still more brief. 



The fact is, that annuals, as a general rule, should be treated as 

 individual plants. At all events, in the earlier stages of their growth 

 such a course should be adopted. The greater length of their dura- 



