10 ANTIRRHINUMS AND PENTSTEMONS 



diseases which make Antirrhinums so serviceable for 

 ordinary garden work have been so well maintained. 



It is very gratifying to be able to claim that, although 

 we have certainly obtained some few of our Antirrhinums 

 from foreign sources, the major part of the work of 

 evolution of the modern types, strains, and varieties lies 

 to the credit of British horticulturists. Messrs. Watkins 

 and Simpson, the wholesale seedsmen of London; Hurst 

 and Sons, also of London; Dobbie and Co., of Edinburgh; 

 W. H. Simpson and Sons, of Birmingham; Sutton and 

 Sons, the well-known Reading firm ; and R. H. Bath, Ltd., 

 Wisbech, have been energetic and successful in producing 

 the strains and varieties that have brought Antirrhinums 

 to the prominent position they deservedly occupy to-day. 



Culture of Antirrhinums. 



For Beds and Borders. 



To obtain the finest possible results stock should be 

 raised in autumn, and carried through winter in cold 

 frames or an unheated greenhouse. Not that the Antir- 

 rhinum is a tender plant that requires coddling and 

 nursing, and as a matter of fact in open country gardens 

 with fairly porous, well-drained soil the young plants will 

 stand the winter out of doors unharmed; but in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London and other large towns the sooty 

 deposit that settles on the young foHage after rains and 

 fogs chokes the pores of the leaves and often proves 

 more fatal than severe frost. 



The seed should be sown very thinly, and the young 

 plants must be pricked out whilst still quite small, for 

 anything approaching overcrowding in the early stages 

 will cause the plants to draw up weakly, with leggy stems. 



Too much water during the short, dull days of winter is 

 bad for the plants, especially if accompanied by lack of 



