REVIEW. 150 



tention bestowed on them in a few weeks, a period not only short, 

 but rendered still more so by the pleasure experienced in daily 

 beholding and contemplating their rapid progress, from the time 

 their embryo leaves first appear, to that stage of existence when 

 the profusion and loveliness of their bloom is sufficient to arrest 

 the attention, and call forth the admiration of the most careless 

 observer of nature's beauties. 



From those resident in and near large towns, the Annual Flow- 

 ers have a double claim to attention ; for, while they in summer 

 serve to cover the small street-door parterre, and garnish the 

 window-box and flower-pot with the most choice embellishments 

 of the flower-garden, in winter the management necessary for 

 perennials, is dispensed with, which in such localities, is peculiarly 

 unpleasant, and the gloomy association of ideas is avoided, con- 

 sequent on daily beholding, in the herbaceous tuft of sickly leaves 

 or withered flower-stalks, and the foliage-strip branches of the 

 decidious, or the smoke-blackened leaves of the evergreen shrub, 

 the decay of what once charmed the eye of the beholder. 



In addition to the Annual flowers, strictly so called, " which 

 bloom and die in one short summer's space," there is another 

 class of plants which annually compensate, by the beauty and de- 

 licacy of their bloom, the care necessarily bestowed on them by 

 those who have in their gardens a small hot-bed frame or green- 

 house, in propagating them in autumn, preserving them through 

 winter, and re-transplanting them in May— again to embellish the 

 flower-beds with borrowed brilliancy of warmer climes and 

 clearer skies. To assist in the selection of these, the author has 

 added a descriptive catalogue of the more interesting Tender 

 Perennials used in decorating the parterre ; and in conclusion, 

 he has appended a copious list of the Ornamental European Alpine 

 Plants, the smaller of which may be grown in pots, and protected 

 during winter under glass, in what is usually termed a cold frame; 

 wbile the taller and more vigorous may be grown in the open 

 flower-border or verge of the shrubbery. 



Culture of Annuals. In the course of the work the author 

 has endeavoured to give directions for the culture of such as 

 require any particular mode of treatment; in addition to which 

 he considers the following general observations necessary for the 

 guidance of the less experienced amateur. 



The most natural period of sowing Annuals is in the latter end 

 of autumn, when they, as well as most other plants, burst from 

 their capsules, and distribute the seeds in various ways ; there- 

 fore, those that are natives of this country, or similar climates, 

 may in part be sown at that period, for forming an early bloom in 

 tlie following summer, to be succeeded by the part reserved for 

 spring sowing, which is the period most usually devoted to that 

 purpose from the end of February to the beginning of May 

 flower-seeds may be sown, whenever the weather is favourable, 

 and the ground in a proper state for that purpose ; reserving the 

 more tender sorts till about the middle of April. 



