April 28, 1881. ] - JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 331 
To prolong the time of flowering these plants should have every 
capsule removed immediately the flower fades or falls ; this throws 
the strength of the plant into the remaining flowers and buds, 
and consequently the plant maintains its vigour to the last. If 
the successional sowings have been made judiciously no untidiness 
need be seen in the borders, as the second sowing will commence 
flowering before the first is quite past, and thus the former can 
be removed without creating a blank or remaining sufficiently 
long to become untidy. It is impossible to make any rule re¬ 
specting the sowing of annuals which shall be infallible, but 
species which will live through the winter should be sown from 
about the middle of August to the middle of October, according 
Fig. 76.— Atjtumn-sown clarkia. 
to the particular part of the country in which the reader may 
reside. These will commence blooming in March and April, 
when another sowing should be made as a succession crop, and 
again about the beginning of June for a third. How beautiful 
annuals are when sown in the autumn may be seen by the ac¬ 
companying engraving of a spray of Clarkia (fig. 76) that was 
cut from a plant now flowering in a pot in a greenhouse, and 
many others equally fine will shortly be flowering out of doors. 
By the manner in which annuals are usually treated one would 
suppose these plants differ from all others, and require to be 
grown as closely together as possible ; on the contrary, however, 
nothing can be more erroneous, as liberal thinning will speedily 
