352 OLIMBING AKNUALS. 



the open "border as soon as the weather becomes settled in spring. 

 There are flowers of several shades of color, white striped with 

 blue or violet, rose color, and lilac, and shades of bright and 

 dark red. 



The Dolichos or Hyacinth Bean. — ^A very vigorous 

 climber, attaining a height of twenty feet in a season. The 

 flowers are purple, produced in spikes, and succeeded by shining 

 purple pods. There is a white-flowered variety, but it is not as 

 showy as the purple. It will not bear frosts, and the beans 

 should not be planted before the ground gets warm. 



The Gourds. — These are aU tender Annuals, and require 

 much the same treatment and soil as the Cucumber. Many of 

 them are very ornamental. Some are yellow and green, striped 

 with cream color ; or half green and half yellow, striped with 

 cream; or orange and red, or lemon-yellow, or orange-colored, 

 &c., &c. 



The Sweet Pea. — If the seed be sown as soon as the ground 

 can be worked in spring, this favorite climber will begin to bloom 

 about the first of July. The seed should be sown about four 

 inches deep in good soil, and the plants treated in the same 

 manner as the common garden Pea. In order to keep up a 

 profusion of bloom the pods should be gathered often, allowing 

 only enough to ripen to supply seed for another year. The 

 flowers are very fragrant, and of several colors, scarlet, scarlet 

 striped with white, purple striped with white, rose and white, 

 white and pink edged with blue, &;c. 



The Tropeolum. — There are several varieties of the Tropeo- 

 lum. They are all showy and profuse bloomers, producing flowers 

 of several brilliant colors, as scarlet, dark orange, dark crimson, 

 yellow, and some striped and spotted. Trojpeolum Majus, and 

 its varieties, grow well in rich sandy soil; the seed may be 

 sown in the open ground when the weather becomes settled, or 

 plants may be forwarded by sowing in a frame, and afterwards 

 transplanted. Tropeolum Peregrinum is the weU-known Canary 

 Flower, producing an abundance of little canary-colored blossoms. 



