may be), in the order in which they are laid 

 down. In the meantime, I shall be happy 

 to give any of your readers " advice " upon 

 one or all the heads which I have enume- 

 rated.— N. B, 



Annuals and Biennials. 



Annuals are plants which live but one year, 

 and consequently, require to be raised from seed 

 annually. By a particular mode of culture, some 

 of them may be made to live longer. Thus 

 mignonette will continue to bloom for two or 

 more years, if not allowed to ripen its seeds. 



Hardy Annuals, or those requiring no protec- 

 tion, are sown where they are to remain in the 

 open borders from the end of February to the 

 beginning of May. To flower late in autumn, 

 some may be sown in the middle of June. 

 "Whether sown in patches or broad masses, whe- 

 ther mixed or separate, must be left to the taste 

 of the sower — guided by his knowledge of the 

 colors of the flowers. These should be well con- 

 trasted. Every patch should be properly la- 

 belled, which is easily done by having some deal 

 laths, one inch broad, planed smooth, cut into 

 nine-inch lengths, and painted white. On these 

 the name can be written with a lead-pencil. 



Half-hardy Annuals, such as require artificial 

 heat while seedlings, are sown in a gentle hotbed 

 in March and April. The seedlings, when an 

 inch or two long, to be transplanted into another 

 gentle hotbed, or greenhouse, to remain until the 

 middle of May, then to be transplanted into the 

 borders, and attended like other annuals. 



Tender, or Greenhouse Annuals, requiring arti- 

 ficial heat and shelter during their whole growth, 

 are sown early in March, on a gentle hotbed; to 

 be transplanted into another like the half-hardy, 

 and thence into pots, to remain in the green- 

 house. Some of them, if moved into a warm 

 border in June, will bloom freely, and even ripen 

 seed. 



Biennials, from biennis, the Latin for "of two 

 years' continuance," are plants which, being pro- 

 duced from seed in one year, perfect their seed 

 and die during the year following. Biennials 

 may often be made to endure longer if prevented 

 ripening their seeds, and many exotics, biennials 

 in their native climes, are perennials in our 

 stoves. 



Hardy Biennials. — Some of these ripen their 

 seeds as early as August, in which case they 

 may be sown as soon as harvested. Others, ri- 

 pening their seeds later, must have these reserved 

 from sowing until May. The double varieties 

 of wall-flowers, stocks, &c, are propagated by 

 cuttings. 



Frame Biennials. — These require the shelter 

 of a frame during the early stages of their 

 growth; to be removed thence in May to the 

 borders, where they bloom in July and August, 

 — Johnson's Cottage Gardeners' 1 Dictionary. 



PICTXJEE OF AN " ENGLISH TILLAGE." 



I never look upon the free, open green 

 in our English villages, which no one seems 

 to claim for his own, and see the large old 

 solitary oak, elm, or sycamore towering in 

 its centre, and spreading its shadowy 

 branches above the rude benches that sur- 

 round its trunk, but I think of the many 

 good and evil tidings which have for ages 

 been talked of there. It is so perfect an 

 English picture — to see the old men when 

 their day's work is done assemble there one 

 after another, smoking their long pipes, and 

 sitting down to talk over the progress of 

 crops, the appearance of the weather, the 

 health and prosperity or adversity of their 

 neighbors ; while their children are rolling 

 and laughing upon the unclaimed grass, or 

 playing with the harmless shepherd's dog ! 



And then to observe the knowing looks 

 of the older children, drinking in the words 

 of the elders with wonder, and marvelling in 

 their little minds how such things can be — 

 how care can exist in a world where there 

 are so many birds'-nests, so much good milk, 

 such large hunches of brown bread and 

 cheese, and so many green fields and beau- 

 tiful flowers ! And then the strange conclu ■ 

 sions they leap to when among themselves — 

 the various versions of what they have 

 heard, and the wonderful construction they 

 put upon things too weighty for their in- 

 tellects ! 



Even then you may trace vestiges of the 

 stronger mind, the doubting look, the un- 

 willingness to give credence to the decision, 

 the knowing shake of the head, and all 

 those little motions which indicate doubt. 

 The questions they put to their parents, the 

 sparkling of their eyes when their minds are 

 just grappling to advantage with the sub- 

 jects, and the shrewd way in which they 

 make their inquiries, are well worth stu- 

 dying. Then to look round the green, and 

 see all the little whitewashed cottages, so 

 neatly thatched, seldom containing more 

 than one story, but each standing upon 

 plenty of ground, with a little garden at 

 the front, a few bee-hives, or a row of milk- 

 pans, all clean and arranged in order ; some 

 of the fronts overgrown with woodbine, 

 Avhich in their unchecked luxuriance had 

 partially hidden the parlor-window ! 



Then to think of the beauty, the health, 

 the repose, that breathe around such spots ; 

 the singing of birds, the humming -bees, the 

 gaudy butterflies, passing or crossing each 

 other, the waving of the trees, the lowing of 

 kine, the bleating sheep, the neighing of 

 young colts, the milkmaid's song as she 

 walks past with well-filled pail, or sits under 

 some pleasant tree : all these are things that 

 sink into the heart — sights that we sigh for 



