General Notices. 273 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. 1. General Notices. 



Raising Annuals. — The following is, perhaps, the most economical mode 

 of raising annuals, with regard to certainty, and ultimate effect. Before 

 proceeding, however, to detail the system, I feel induced to offer a few re- 

 marks on the general character and expression of annuals as objects of 

 decoration, either in the parterre or for the unassuming flower border. 

 Our present mode of clumping, as it is termed, has had the effect of forc- 

 ing many of these interesting things into other and less legitimate situa- 

 tions in the garden. Thus, in later years, we find whole lines of Clarkias, 

 Collinsias, Chryseis, and other gaudy annuals, occupying marginal bor- 

 ders, the facing of slips, or long promenades. These things certainly, in a 

 hot summer's day, when all of a glare, take one by surprise; but, although 

 they serve to astonish, they do not permanently please. The banishment 

 of annuals from the parterre, however, has not been caused entirely by the 

 clumping system ; it has, in part, arisen from their too often unsatisfactory 

 character in such a situation. If a wet summer supervene, the annuals are 

 smothered with gross leaves, which give them a weedy appearance, the 

 soil in which they are grown in general being by far too rich. They, 

 moreover, spread so widely, that all become confused, and high keeping is 

 at an end, unless the pruning-knife be applied, and then adieu to the beau- 

 ties of the annuals. 



I would not here insist that annuals should, by any means, be allowed to 

 supplant the lovely Verbena, the Pelargonium, Petunia, the Antirrhinum, 

 &c. ; the question is, whether they can be made to combine with them, or 

 whether any other situation can be found for them. As to a combination 

 with our half-hardy bedding plants, the only thing on the face of the mat- 

 ter which offers any impediment, is the fleeting character of many of our 

 annuals, together with their unruly habit of growth, as before named. By 

 the plan I am about to propose, it will be seen that the first of these diffi- 

 culties is readily overcome, merely by the ease, economy, and certainty 

 with which successions can be produced and removed at any given period, 

 so that, like " dissolving views," when the eye has been satiated with one 

 picture, another and another may spring up in its room ; and all this during 

 one short summer. The second difficulty is removed by the very same 

 mode, without any further concern ; by the course I shall describe, the an- 

 nuals will all be compact in growth, be the season what it may. 



For beds of mixed character, which are in their very nature changeable, 

 on account of the blanks caused in early summer by the decay of our most 

 precocious floral beauties, the plan will be found eligible, and also for the 

 mere flower border. The plan is simply using squares of turf from a very 

 old pasture, representing, when in use, a small garden pot, but with this 

 difference, that there is small expense in their making, less still in their 

 carriage, and three distinct sowings at proper periods will provide against 

 VOL. XV. — NO. VI. 35 



