ON EEAMXG FLOWEES. 



147 



a certain extent, is so necessary and desirable in a garden, 

 would be at once destroyed. Besides, there are many 

 plants which will not reproduce themselves in this way; 

 and others, which would, are incapable of standing through 

 the winter in the open ground. It is therefore important 

 that some general rules should be given for their manage- 

 ment, and these will be condensed into as small a compass 

 as is compatible with the interest of the subject. 



The main object in cultivating annual plants being to 

 induce them to flower and perfect their seeds, it is impor- 

 tant that every feature in their cultivation should tend to 

 promote this desirable and necessary end. For this pur- 

 pose, seeds of annual plants should never be sown (except 

 a few sorts which will not bear transplanting) where they 

 are intended to flower ; — a practice very generally recom- 

 mended for the sake of saving trouble. To save trouble, 

 however, at the expense of the health or beauty of the 

 plants, appears somewhat paradoxical, as it is undoubtedly 

 the object of every cultivator to have his plants or flowers 

 as fine as possible. This object, then, cannot be attained 

 by sowing annuals where they are desired to flower, as they 

 require to be transplanted, on the same principle as cab- 

 bages, to check their growth, and enable them to form 

 flowers, instead of so many stems and leaves. It has been 

 before stated, that these remarks will not apply to all an- 

 nual plants ; for, on the contrary, there are some, such as 

 poppies, mignonette, sweet peas, lupins, and a few others, 

 which have so few fibrous roots that they would be much 

 injured by being transplanted, and of course it would be 

 extremely injudicious to subject these to such an operation. 

 These should be sown in round patches in the bed or bor- 

 der where they are to flower, and covered with about half 

 an inch or an inch in depth of light soil. As soon as the 

 young plants appear, they should be successively thinned to 

 a proper distance from each other, leaving only three, four, 

 or six in the circle, according to their size. The word suc- 

 cessively is used, because, if they are at once thinned out to 

 the required distance, some of the plants will very probably 

 die or be destroyed by insects, and a deficiency would thua 

 be occasioned ; whereas, if they are thinned out at succes- 

 sive intervals^ such an occurrence might be easily obviated. 



