152 



PRACTICE OF GAEDEXING. 



little variety of oruament to a flower stage out of doors, 

 or an in-door flower- stand, a few annuals may fitly be 

 grown in boxes or pot^, in which their seeds should either 

 be sown, or they should be transplanted into them when 

 very young. I>Iignonette and stocks mixed, ISTemophila 

 insignis, and any low-growing annual that has a disposi- 

 tion to trail, and flowers abundantly and for some length 

 of time, will answer this purpose admirably. But the 

 numerous and beautiful sorts of half-hardy annuals, which 

 we have not enumerated in our list, will often be even 

 more appropriate. Rhodanthe Manglesii, the species of 

 Portulaca and Calandrinia, the showiest varieties of Phlox 

 Drummondii, Lobelia gracilis, the Clintonias, and Mesem- 

 bryanthemum tricolor, will make a very good collection 

 of such plants. They must be treated, for the most part, 

 as hereafter recommended for potted plants in general ; 

 requiring a rather light soil, careful potting, and constant 

 attention in regard to water. They may be reared as 

 before directed in a slight hot-bed, or be sown in the pots, 

 in the month of April, and kept in the house or pro- 

 tected at night until frosts are over. Wlien placed in 

 their final quarters, there should not be more than three 

 or four plants in a pot of from four to five inches diame- 

 ter at the top. 



The seeds of many varieties of annuals are now largely 

 obtained from Germany, where they have brought some 

 of the kinds to extraordinary perfection. German ten- 

 week stocks, asters, and larkspurs, are superior to any- 

 thing of the kind raised in this country. But they 

 degenerate if reared from seeds saved in Britain. Where, 

 therefore, a small sum yearly can be spared for the pur- 

 chase of these, they will be found a great acquisition to a 

 garden. They should be treated as tender annuals. 



6. — Florists' Floioers, 

 The flowers peculiarly called "florists' flowers" are 

 those which sport, as it is termed, or in other words such 

 as produce new and distinct varieties when propagated 

 from seed ; and many of them even change the colours of 

 their flowers. Flowers of this description are in fact 

 nearly all the productions of art, having been raised 



