596 Cultivation of Plants. 



recommendation to favour is the short period and little trouble 

 required to raise many of them for succession, filling up or 

 replacing failures. Annuals may be divided into three groups, 

 namely, hardy, half-hardy, and tender. Although many of the 

 tender species are either described or noticed in this work, 

 they need not occupy our attention here ; for all coming under 

 this designation cannot be raised early enough to flower in the 

 open air without artificial heat, and many of them are so 

 delicate as to succumb to the least unfavourable changes of the 

 weather, and at best their beauty is of short duration ; still, 

 with time and convenience for hot-beds, and warm, sheltered 

 borders, with a light, permeable soil, they may be cultivated, if 

 only for the sake of novelty. The strictly hardy annuals, or 

 species treated as such, are of the first importance to the 

 amateur of limited resources ; and if they are not quite so 

 numerous and brilliant as the half-hardy species, there is yet 

 sufficient choice to admit of an effective display when associated 

 with a small collection of perennials. If we include those 

 species that merely require a little protection during cold nights, 

 such as a hand-light, bell-glass, or inverted flower-pot, our 

 list would contain nearly all those in general cultivation. 

 Naturally these half-hardy species are better raised in a frame, 

 either with or without a little artificial heat, because they may 

 by these means be had in flower much earlier. Hardy annuals 

 are those which may be sown in the open ground without any 

 covering or protection whatever ; amongst the most familiar 

 we may enumerate Candytuft, Sweet Pea, Lupins, Common 

 Marigold, Larkspur, Nemophila, Clarkia, Saponaria Calabrica, 

 Convolvulus tricolor, Mignonette, Love-lies-bleeding, Collinsia, 

 Eschscholtzia Californica, and Collomia coccinea. These and 

 numerous others may be sown in suitable weather at different 

 times, from the end of February onwards, according to the 

 requirements of the establishment. Where sown in patches in 

 the mixed borders, the spaces should be thoroughly forked, 

 and, if poor, a little leaf-mould and thoroughly rotten stable- 

 dung from an old hot-bed, if attainable, should be incorporated 

 with the native soil ; the surface should be even and fine, and 

 if dry and light, a little pressure will be beneficial after the 

 seeds are sown. The latter should have a layer of mould over 

 them about equal to their own volume. The seed of most 

 annuals being very cheap is frequently the cause of their not 

 attaining their normal development, for it is sown too thickly 

 by ten times, and the surplus plants never rooted up. As a 



