282 GAKDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



THE TIME FOE SOWING THE SEED. This in the case of most 

 Annuals is when the Kains are over, about the middle of October. 

 In the Upper Provinces the sowing should take place as soon 

 as the abatement of the heat will allow, in order that the 

 seedlings may be well advanced before the weather sets in at 

 its coldest, during which period they remain quite stationary, 

 making little or no growth whatever. Nasturtiums, for instance, 

 with the pretty Canary Creeper, must be sown in time to make 

 a good growth before the frosty nights come, when they have to 

 be carefully protected from the cold, If the sowing be deferred 

 till the Cold season is over, the plants will be killed by the 

 approach of the Hot season before they have put forth a 

 blossom. 



In Bengal again there are certain of the Annuals which take 

 the whole of the time that the cold weather lasts to complete 

 their growth, and only come into blossom just at its close. If 

 the seeds of such kinds be not r sown very early, it amounts 

 almost to a certainty that the plants will die without flowering. 

 Among these in particular may be mentioned Cineraria, German 

 Asters, Jacobaea, and Salpiglossis. 



Others, on the other hand, blossom within a much shorter 

 period ; of such it is advisable always to reserve a portion of the 

 seed for sowing in November. Among these may be mentioned 

 more especially Nemophila and Larkspurs, the seed of which 

 will not germinate till the weather has become quite cold, and 

 when sown early is liable to be lost before germinating. 



There are others, moreover, of which if sowings be made 

 much before the approach of the cold weather, the seedlings 

 will spring up so readily as to exhaust themselves by the 

 rapidity of their growth, becoming so attenuated that it requires 

 the greatest care to keep them from perishing. To this may be 

 attributed, as often happens, the damping off of the whole batch 

 of seedlings. 



MODE OF SOWING. Sowing in pots is, no doubt, the more 

 sure and economical plan ; for in that case the seeds are com- 

 paratively safe from the ravages of ants, of all things the most 

 to be guarded against. 



It is essential that the soil used should be of a loose descrip- 

 tion, so that there be as little risk as possible of breaking the 

 tender thread-like roots of the seedlings in the process of what 



