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 cherp is frequeutly 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 
