THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 53 



When the plants in these clumps began to get seedj, they were at 

 once cleared off the ground, and replaced with purple verbenas and 

 dwarf calceolarias in clumps, and the elFect was again charming. 



The best of all ways to use annuals is in large masses of distinct 

 colours, to have no half-tints or mixtures, and to have very few 

 kinds. If they do not last the season out, it is an easy matter to 

 remove them, and plant again, because, during May and June, 

 almost any kind of bedding-plants may be propagated in quantity 

 with very little trouble, a few hand-lights or a frame being quite 

 sufficient. But to follow annuals, the best things are annuals again. 

 By the time that Virginian Stock, Nemophila, and other early- 

 blooming kinds are over, balsams, and asters, and stocks may be 

 raised in quantities to plant out in their places, and these will laf^t 

 in bloom till frost makes an end of them. But in wiiatever way 

 they may be used, we recommend those who merely wish for gay 

 colours, and have no idea of making collections of plants for botani- 

 cal purposes, to grow very few, and let those few be the best. Tlie 

 following is a selection arranged in colours ; there is not one entered 

 but is worth a place in a duke's garden, and they are all so cheap, 

 that the poorest cottager may, by their means, have a grand flower- 

 show entirely of his own. 



White. — White Candytuft : this is truly splendid in large 

 mases ; thin to four inches apart. Nemopliila maculata : this is a 

 delicate-looking thing, not very showy, but quite a gem in its way. 

 Phlox Drummondi alba : this is to be sown on a hotbed, or in a pan 

 in a warm window. Portulacca alba : a dwarf succulent ; sow in a 

 mixture of loam, sand, and old mortar, equal parts ; place in a frame 

 or window, and plant out on dry sunny banks. Saponaria calabrica 

 alba: a neat dwarf, profuse-flowering annual, very hardv, and grows 

 in any soil. Cijnoglossiim linijolium (Venus's navel-wort) : an old- 

 fashioned and silvery-leaved white-flowered annual, grows in any 

 soil or situation, three to four inches apart. Virginia Stock : not 

 much prized, but very beautiful while it lasts, and useful to occupy 

 ■places that are to be filled with later-bloomiag plants. 



Pink and Bose. — Saponaria calabrica : the same as above 

 described, but with rosy pink flowers. Silene armeria : true 

 magenta colour, the plant very neat, and the flowers produced 

 abundantly. Centranthiis macrosiphon : thin to five or six inches 

 apart. Olarhia rosea. Eiicharidium grandifiorum : this will bloom 

 late unless sown in heat. Gilia tricolor rosea: dwarf and pretty. 

 Godetia rosea alba: grows eighteen inches high, and should be 

 thinned to six inches apart. Easy branching Larkspur : grows two 

 feet high, thin to six inches apart. O.talis rosea : a lovely aniiu;d for 

 pots or borders ; the flowers close duruig rain. Viscaria oculata : 

 grows a foot high, and must be thinned to seven or eight inches 

 apart. 



Crimson and Purple. — Iberis Kermesina : this is a splendid 

 crimson candytuft; there is also a purple candytuft. When 

 -obtained true, these are the most uniform and effective hardy annuals 

 ever grown. Sown early in a cich soil, and thinned in good time to 

 six inches apart, they make splendid beds, and may be removed in 



