ANNUAL AND BIENNIAL PLANTS FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN. 117 



pots cannot form an idea of their beauty when planted out in good 

 open soil, away from trees and in warm soils. Take the border 

 Pansies in various shades of purple, yellow, and white. Varieties may 

 be raised in the early spring for planting out the same summer, 

 and so of the Verbena, Pelargonium, Pyrethrum, Salvia patens, S. 

 argentea, Heliotrope, and Snapdragons, which should be sown in 

 heat in January ; to the Petunia, Phlox Drummondi, Dianthus, Indian 

 Pink, Ageratum, and Lobelia, which in February should be sown 

 in pans in heat, and, if kept growing, will be ready for planting out 

 in May. Begonias for bedding may be grown from seed in the same 

 year, but are more effective if raised during the preceding year, selected 

 according to colour, and stored in winter ready for bedding out early 

 in summer. Fuchsias sown in January flower well in August. Of 

 fine-leaved plants which can be raised from seed for use in the 

 open-air the same year, there are Amaranthus, Celosia, Centaurea, 

 Cineraria, Humea, Canna, Chamaepeuce, Nicotiana, Ricinus, Solanum, 

 and Wigandia. 



Old plants of Verbenas and like plants kept through the winter 

 harbour the eggs of vermin always ready to eat up the collection 

 if it is neglected for a week, but, starting with clean houses and 

 frames, and with seeds in early spring, the gardener makes a better 

 fight against his many insect enemies. As regards the plants one 

 would like to raise in this way, seedsmen should select and fix distinct 

 colours of different races of plants. It would not be difficult to select 

 a bluish or purple Verbena which one might count on as coming 

 pretty true from seed. We have so much relied upon cuttings and 

 old plants that the raising of fine seedlings has seldom had fair 

 attention. Many raise seeds, but few give the early thinning, the 

 light, the sturdy growth, and the unchecked culture that seedlings 

 require ; but now, when we may raise not only the annual pure and 

 simple, but the half-hardy flower-garden plants, and the nobler hardy 

 plants like Carnations and Hollyhocks, seed-raising for the flower- 

 garden deserves much attention. 



Biennial Plants are usually such as make their growth in 

 one year and flower the next, but the line between biennial 

 and annual is not a strict one, because in their native countries 

 annual plants often spring up in one year, and flower the next. 

 In countries with open winters and hot summers, annuals do so 

 naturally, and begin to grow in the first rains through the winter, 

 and flower strongly the next year — these often being kinds sown in 

 spring in gardens. Hollyhocks, Foxgloves, Chimney Campanula, 

 and Sweet Williams come under this head, but in some cases early 

 raising in spring gives us a chance of blooming some of them the 

 same year as they are sown. In any case it is better for simplicity's 



