ANNUALS. 349 



variegated with yellow, and beautifully double. The seed may 

 be sown in a cold frame, and if the plants are set out in rich soil, 

 after frosts are over, they will grow to considerable size, and con- 

 tinue in bloom from July untU sharp frosts destroy them. 



The Mignonette. — This unpretending flower, with scarce 

 coloring enough to distinguish the blossoms from the leaves, is 

 known and loved by everybody for its sweetness. It wdl grow 

 in any garden, and the seed may be sown at any time when the 

 soil can be tilled, and anywhere. Yet it will repay a little care 

 a thousand fold, and if spikes are cut so frequently that but little 

 seed can ripen, it will continue to send forth fresh spikes of bloom 

 throughout the season. If the bed be left undisturbed, self-sown 

 plants will come up every summer, and the Mignonette bed be 

 perpetuated for many years. Plants may be potted in the fall^ 

 and will grow and flower freely in the green-house or window. 



PoRTULACA. — A valuable plant, of low growth and creeping 

 habit, blooming profusely, with showy flowers of all shades of 

 crimson, orange, yellow, pink, and white, sometimes spotted and 

 striped in curious fashion. It is just the thing for covering a 

 bed of bulbs, or for carpeting the ground under taller plants that 

 do not make much shade. It loves hot weather, and grows lux- 

 uriantly in heat and drouth. K the seed be sown in the open 

 ground it will not come up until the hot suns of Jvme have 

 imparted considerable warmth to the soil, but the plants may be 

 considerably forwarded by sowing in a frame and transplanting in 

 June. 



There are very pretty double varieties of various colors. 

 When in full bloom, the groiind looks as if carpeted with minia- 

 ture roses. The seed of these is scarce, costing five times as 

 much as the single, and not more than half the plants raised 

 from a package of double seed will come perfectly double. 



All the varieties are of easy culture, preferring a sandy soil, 

 and to be exposed to the hottest suns, yet capable of growing in 

 any warm, friable loam. When once planted and the bed left 

 vmdisturbed, the self-sown seed will remain in the soil without 



