OP ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
3 
not flower quite so soon if grown in the shade, as they will in an open border where they have the advantage of 
light and air. The seeds of this species sold in the seed-shops are, in fact, the carpels ; and when they are quite 
in a fresh state they may be cut open, when the little black seed will be found attached on one side to the lower 
part of the carpel, which it does not a quarter fill. The carpels sold in the seed-shops are however generally 
too dry to be cut open, and they may be sown entire, as the carpel will open at its natural division in the 
ground when the seed begins to germinate. The dry carpels are quite as good as the fresh ones for sowing, as 
the seeds are not at all injured by keeping. When the place where the seeds are to be sown is fixed on, 
the ground should be loosened with a fork and broken very fine ; after which it should be made perfectly 
level, and raked. Several little circles should then be made (their number, and the distance they are from each 
other, depending on the quantity of flowers wanted), and if the ground be tolerably dry, this may be done 
by pressing on it the bottom of a flower-pot saucer, about three inches or four inches in diameter, in every place 
where a circle is to be made. On the smooth level surface of the circles thus formed, a very few seeds (not 
more than six or eight in each patch) should be spread the saucer should then be again applied, so as to pres 
them gently into the soil, and thus to fix each seed in its proper place. The operation of sowing is concluded 
by drawing the earth displaced by the saucer over the seeds, so as to cover them about twice their own 
thickness, or say, about the eighth of an inch. In dry sandy soils, the covering may also receive a sligli 
pressure from the saucer ; but this is unnecessary unless the soil should be very loose. If the soil should be wet, 
the saucer must not be used at all, as part of the soil would stick to it, and thus the circle could neither be 
rendered smooth before sowing, nor the seeds be pressed firmly into it afterwards. In spring, when the soil 
is very dry, a slight watering may be given to the seeds after sowing, by a watering-pot having a very fine rose ; 
but this must be done very carefully, as too much water would wash the seeds out of their places. When the 
sowing is finished, a flat piece of wood, called a name-stick or label, should be inserted in the centre of each 
patch, with the name of the plant, or a number marked upon it; or a round stick may be used with a cleft at 
the top, in which the paper that contained the seeds, if it has the name upon it, may be stuck, having been 
first neatly folded up. When danger is apprehended from birds, or vermin, or from the scorching effect of the 
sun, a flower-pot maybe whelmed over the patch, and kept on till the seeds are above ground, when it should 
be taken off immediately, and not put on again. The reason for instantly removing it, when the seedlings 
appear above ground, is, that if it were kept on even for a few days, the young plants would be drawn up, and 
their stems would become so elongated, and consequently so weak, that they would never recover it. It is 
always an object to keep flowering plants strong and bushy, as when the stems are long and weak they have not 
only an unhealthy and untidy appearance, but the flowers are never so large or so rich in colour as they are when 
the plants are well grown. An inverted flower-pot is better than any other covering for protecting seeds, not only 
from its cheapness and simplicity, and from its having the advantage of being almost always at hand in a garden, 
but because, while its sides shade the ground from the sun, and exclude the powerful action of the air, thus 
lessening evaporation and keeping the soil moist, the hole in the bottom admits a sufficient quantity of light and 
air for the purposes of germination. After the plants have obtained two or three leaves each, they should be 
thinned out, so as to leave not more than three or at most four plants in each patch ; or if the soil be good 
and the plants vigorous, even one or two plants in each patch will be sufficient to form a handsome tuft or bush. 
In general the fewer plants that are allowed to remain in a patch, the more vigorous and handsome will be the 
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