CHAP. TV. ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 321 



enough to blossom before the Hot season sets in, though not 

 with the beauty they do in England. They are benefited by 

 repeated shiftings, and require a rich soil and shade. 



Cacalia. 



C. coccinea TASSEL FLOWER. Bears pretty, small, scarlet, 

 tassel-like flowers ; a very common plant in Indian gardens, 

 where it reproduces itself like a weed by the seed it casts about. 

 Always in blossom. 



Senecio. 



S. elegans JACOB^A. A rather straggling and untidy annual, 

 but very handsome when in full blossom with its numerous 

 large heads of groundsel-like flowers of great brilliancy and 

 variety of colour. In the Upper Provinces I have had it blossom 

 freely enough, but in the neighbourhood of Calcutta the plants 

 I have raised have for the most part only completed their 

 growth but to perish on the approach of the Hot season without 

 having produced a single flower. Sow in October ; the plants 

 require a good soil, and do best in the open border, planted by 

 threes, a foot apart. 



Calendula. 



C. officinalis MARYGOLD. This old familiar plant of English 

 gardens should not be omitted from among our winter annuals. 

 It may be had of many varieties of colour from pale straw to 

 deep orange, single and double. If the seed to be sown is from 

 Europe, it had better not be put in the ground till the Cold 

 season is quite set in, otherwise the young plants raised under 

 cover are almost sure to damp off and perish ; it is also a most 

 difficult plant to transplant without injury. It is best therefore 

 to sow the seed in the border where the plants are to remain. 

 It does not require very rich soil, and when full grown rejoices 

 in the full blaze of the sun. As English seed cannot be de- 

 pended upon always to germinate, where plants have once 

 been raised, it is well to save seed for a future season. To 

 do this, as soon as the flowers have dropped and the seed-heads 

 formed, cover them over with a small piece of muslin and tie 

 round the stalk, otherwise the seeds on ripening will drop and 

 be lost. 



