30 
THE HOME GARDEN. 
Annuals are more uncertain than shrubs or vines, and 
take longer to come into bloom ; but no garden is complete 
without some of the finer varieties, and there are some 
favorites with which it would be very hard to dispense. 
Candy-tuft and pansies and sweet-peas and mignonette, 
with balsams, asters, and chrysanthemums, will give con¬ 
stant masses of bloom, and in connection with a few bedding 
plants will make a respectable garden of themselves. 
Hardy annuals, such as sweet-peas, candy-tuft, mignon¬ 
ette, etc., can be planted as soon as the frost is out of the 
ground in the spot where they are to bloom ; but the more 
tender varieties must be started in a hotbed or within 
doors, and transplanted when the second pair of leaves 
appears. 
A moderately rich soil suits them best, and nearly all 
flowers but pansies insist upon a southern exposure. The 
latter really do better in the shade, and are therefore espe¬ 
cially adapted to city gardens. 
After being well spaded up, the ground should be thor¬ 
oughly pulverized, so that nothing of a lumpy nature re¬ 
mains to destroy the tender rootlets. It is then ready for 
the seeds, which are planted according to their size, the 
fine ones being merely sprinkled on the bed and a little 
earth sprinkled over them , the larger sort lightly raked in, 
and such as sweet-peas must descend to a depth of three or 
four inches. This prevents them from mildewing and 
enables them to bear the heat of a dry season better. 
Some seeds need soaking in water to make them ger¬ 
minate, and those of the pretty, delicate cypress-vine re¬ 
fuse to come up at all without an application of boiling 
water. Camphor water is said by an ingenious experi¬ 
menter to be infallible for this purpose, and he says that 
seeds which have lost the power of germinating can be re¬ 
stored by it; those that are weeks and months in germinat¬ 
ing can be sprouted in almost as many days, while plants 
