88 THE CHRONICLES OF A GARDEN. 



greater facility in sowing themselves than others ; the little 

 plants thus self-sown come up in the spring : they may then 

 either be transplanted or left where they are, and they will 

 flow^er earlier and better than those sown by the hand. It 

 is years since we have sown Eschscholtzia Galifornica, the 

 beds and borders have been altered and dug again and 

 again, and yet, year after year, it springs up in all parts of 

 the garden, and brightens the borders with its golden 

 flowers, more like tropical butterflies than blossoms. Ne- 

 mophila 7naculata, too, which was thought so much of some 

 seasons ago, grows like a weed in all the beds where it was 

 originally sown, as the little seedlings, when transplanted, 

 grow into handsome spreading plants. One of the most 

 determined instances of an annual thus establishing itself, 

 and actually overrunning the ground, occurred in one portion 

 of the garden, where some beds, separated by gravel walks, 

 made a small separate garden. In 1854, a bed of a small 

 silene-like annual was sown here : the flowers were thought 

 insignificant, though bright, so it was never resown ; next 

 year seedlings appeared all over the plots, and, even after 

 being well weeded out, made a gay show in autumn ; year 

 after year they came up, till two years ago, when the little 

 garden was remodelled, laid down in turf, and beds cut out 

 in difi'erent places. Last summer (18G2) there was the 

 plant springing up, as vigorously as ever, in a bed of roses, 

 and there it got leave to remain and flower undisturbed, its 

 perseverance entitling it to rank as an old friend, and not 

 merely as an annual. 



No garden, however small, can get on without annuals; 



