244 The American Flower Garden 



except the superfluously rich would be scarcely worth while. 

 From the box-edged plots of old-fashioned gardens certain of the 

 hardy annuals were rarely absent. Our busy grandmothers 

 naturally delighted in plants that sowed themselves. Some such 

 old favourites may be started in the naturalistic garden where 

 brilliant shimmering sheets of poppies are especially charming. 

 Cornflowers may be naturalised in a pasture if sown in early 

 spring with rye and timothy. Sprinkle poppy seed there, too. 

 Seeds of a few annuals will be scattered among the rocks in the 

 Alpine garden or in the damp rich soil beside a pond or brook. 

 Now that the lovely wild-fringed gentian has been tamed, and 

 the secret of growing it from seed has been disclosed, it may adorn 

 the banks of our water gardens where it loves to see its vivid beauty 

 reflected in a mirror. Like the cardinal flower, it looks out of 

 place in a dressed garden. 



Some annuals will be grown because they furnish a wealth 

 of flowers for cutting cornflowers not only because they match 

 the Nankin china on the dining-table, but because they attract 

 flocks of dainty goldfinches to feast upon their seed; marigolds 

 and calendula for the glitter of their sunshine, not in the garden 

 only, but in the house, where they take their turn with the indis- 

 pensable nasturtiums in brightening dark rooms; the marvel- 

 lously improved zinnias, some of whose lambent, glowing flowers 

 look especially well in burnished copper bowls every one has 

 his or her favourites. If there is no better place to grow sweet 

 peas, which are not lovely until myriads of butterflies seem to 

 be fluttering over the pea brush or wire netting that supports the 

 vines, let them scramble over it in the kitchen garden where 

 their succulent, plebeian relatives would feel at home. When a 

 regiment of tall Russian sunflowers is drawn up as if in battle 



