THE GARDEN OF A YEAR 135 



needs of each kind, being none too much. This is 

 an axiom to be remembered in the case of almost 

 every annual, for overcrowding is one most fre- 

 quent source of failure in their cultivation. Nemo- 

 phila, Limnanthes Douglasii Eiysimum and others 

 which flower in the early spring may also be sown 

 in place, as they will be earlier than if they receive 

 the check of being transplanted ; but all these, 

 with candytufts, can be sown in a nursery bed 

 in autumn for planting out in March if, for any 

 reason, it should be more convenient. In most 

 cases annuals can hardly be treated too liberally 

 as to richness of soil ; but in seed beds for autumn 

 sowing, the poorer and more gravelly the ground 

 the better for the well-being of the seedlings during 

 the winter, as they do not then become too soft 

 and succulent to be able to resist frost. When 

 seeds cannot have attention before Michaelmas, 

 and where an unheated greenhouse is. available, 

 a good many things, like snapdragons, pot mari- 

 golds, the improved varieties of which are ex- 

 tremely fine, and even some of the good new strains 

 of early flowering carnations and Japanese chrys- 

 anthemums, can be sown in boxes and pricked off 

 before the winter; but a lamp in very severe wea- 

 ther might probably be necessary to keep out hard 

 frost. 



Who would have believed a few years ago that 

 the large-flow r ered chrysanthemums could be grown 

 from seed to flower within a year ! It must be seed 

 saved, however, from early flowering sorts, and 

 of first-rate quality, to answer well. A great many 

 of them will come single or only semi-double, which 



