I 
September 2. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
355 
finishes them. The soil should not he dug more than 
three inches deep, and the seed should be sown thin; a 
deep bed is likely to encourage the seedlings to grow too 
fast and bulky, and so make them more liable to be cut 
with frost; and if they are thick in the bed, the one 
helps to draw up the other too weak and spindly. Like 
many other causes of success in gardening, attention to 
these little matters is more essential than great skill or 
practical knowledge. 
The best thing in the world to cover seed-beds in the 
j autumn is one-half light soil and one-half finely-sifted 
coal-ashes, from which the very fine dust and the rough 
1 cinders are taken; the first few rains will wash down 
' all the finer particles of this compost for the roots to 
work in, and the surface is left gritty and porous, so 
that the little stems and collars of the seedlings have j 
free air and elbow room, instead of being jammed in a J 
sour crust of rank earth, as would he their condition it 
they were sown on a rich, strong soil. A west aspect 
is by far the best for them, as then they are less liable 
; to suffer from hard frosty nights, followed by very sunny 
mornings, or what we call extremes of weather. I have 
known self-sown Lobelias, the little blue ones, and all 
the varieties of Portulacea, with the beautiful Mesem- 
bryanthemum tricolor, come up as thick as grass, after a 
hard winter, on gravel paths, and also on paths made 
j with coal.ashes, and these are among the most delicate 
; things we handle in a young state; but I am satisfied 
that I could make up a seed-hed for them and similar 
! things, in which I could get them up more safely than 
1 in pots under a rough treatment. 
The way I would go to work would he to lay a coat 
of rough cinders on some dry ground having a west 
aspect; then spread a quantity of poor soil over the 
1 ashes, and water it in with a rose-pot, so as to fill up 
every open space all through the layer, which might he 
four or five inches thick; beat this well down with the 
back of a spade, and put one inch of line coal ashes and 
! sand on the top to sow the seeds in ; the sand which is 
1 washed off the roads with the autumn rains is the best. 
I never observed that these seedlings came up before 
the following April, hut I have known them to flower 
and make better plants as soon as those sown in heat in 
February. 
Whether it is best to sow such seeds as soon as it is 
ripe in the autumn, or to keep it until February and 
i then make the rough bottom, I cannot say. We know 
that new seed of many kinds of annuals is not so good 
to sow in the autumn as old seeds, because the newer 
the seeds, the more strong and healthy the seedlings, 
and, therefore, the more liable to suffer from a hard or 
long winter. It certainly would be worth while for 
some great gardener who has plenty of seeds, ground, 
; and materials at his elbow, to try an experiment or two 
in the spring on this cold system of rearing, or trying 
to rear, the more tender flowers and vegetables, as Love 
Apples, Capsicums, Gourds, and so forth. Like self- 
sown plants, the crop from this plan would give far 
better plants than any of us can rear in our refined 
ways; a cold frame might he put over the rough bed, 
with a brick under each corner, to let the wind play as 
it lists, and the glass lights might be nailed down, or 
kept off altogether while the weather was fair; hut I 
would prefer the glass to be constantly on. 
Orchids have been found in Mexico, beautiful ones, 
too, in full flower, and the thermometer indicating 30° 
in the morning; and no doubt but some of our tinest 
greenhouse plants have to stand some degrees of frost 
in their wilds, and would do the same here, if we could 
but grow and ripen them as they do in the wild state. 
At all events, it would he a great step gained if w ; e 
could hit off some easy way to help the amateur of small 
means and little room to raise many of the more tender 
things for which we now provide hotbeds and hot¬ 
headed gardeners to manage them. 
The red and white Clarkia pulcMla are the only two 
Clarkias worth growing, and no winter kills them when 
self-sown. Collinsia bicolor and C. graiuliflora are the two 
best of that family; they also are hardy enough to stand 
most winters. The two yellow Eschsclioltzias are as hardy 
as wheat or barley, and though not annuals, they do much 
better if sown and treated as such, first in September, and 
secondly about the middle of April; if they are to be trans¬ 
planted, it should bo done when they are quite young. 
The blue and spotted Nemopldla insiynis and maoulata 
are the best of them, and the whitish one, N. atomaria, 
third best. They all pass over almost any winter, and 
come into bloom before April is out. Eucharidium con- 
cinnum, and a seed sport of it called grandijiorum, are 
among the first gems that ought to be grown in any 
garden, and they stand a smart winter; to say that they 
are diminutives of the red or purple Clarkia, will give 
an idea of their size and flowers. Godetia Lindleyana 
and G. rubicunda are as good as they are gay, and as 
hardy as a Scotch crocus. They are the best of a long 
list of Goodies, and they will be the brighter in flower, 
and more manageable in plant, if they are planted in 
the very poorest soil in the kingdom ; but, recollect, if 
so poor, it must be deep and well-worked. You might 
call a hard, dry bank poor, and no annual would get a 
holding on it, and still it might he so good as to grow 
an oak. Stinted growth is quite a different thing from 
subdued growth caused by poor, sandy soil well tilled. 
The flowers of all the Godetias show brighter when the 
plants are in this subdued growth. Godetias are a 
branch from the (Enotheras; Lindleyana is a beau¬ 
tiful purplish CEnotliera, and rubicunda means that 
beautiful tint of pink caused by a modest blush—the 
finest tint in nature. Let these two be grown as 
I say, and they will become general favourites once 
more. Gilia tricolor is the best of them, and is as hardy 
as any : this and Collinsia bicolor are the two best lilac, 
or imitation of lilac-colour we have. Erysimum Perof- 
skianum, a tall yellow flower, like a turnip flower, when 
sown in September, planted out at the beginning of 
March, and trained down to the surface of the bed as it 
grows, comes into bloom at the beginning of May, and 
lasts to Midsummer, or longer, and, so treated, is one of 
the very finest beds ever seen in May; but if allowed to 
grow its own way, you might just as well have a bed of 
seed turnips. A second sowing of it the first week in 
April, and again about the end of May, would carry it 
right through the season till the frost came. Six or 
seven plants of it, put into pots about the new year, 
would come in finely for the greenhouse in April; but 
it will not stand forcing—the protection of a greenhouse 
or pit is as much as it can safely endure. Callicltroa 
platyglossa is another style of yellow, a composite, and 
a much dwarfer plant than the last. The flowers are 
bull-eyed, like a daisy, large for the size of the plant, 
and there are two shades of yellow in them. One 
should always contrive so as to have these two in flower 
every May, when yellow flowers are scarce. Platystemon 
Californicus and Lirnnanthes Douglasii are two yellowish 
kinds, which are grown for making up this colour in 
May ; but they are at best but second-rate, if so much. 
Bartonia aurea, a beautiful clear yellow flower on a 
weedy-lookiug plant, sown now, and transplanted into 
very poor, light soil early in April, will flower in May, 
and be much better than under any other treatment. 
The flowers are of the very finest, as rich as those of 
Alamanda; but the plant is no better than a dock in 
good soil. Leptosiphon androsaceus, a very dwarf lilac, 
or purple-and-white-mixed flower, stands the winter 
well, and would flourish on the top of an old dung-heap 
better than elsewhere, so no bed can be too rich for it; 
in poor soil, the first sunny day, or, at least, the first 
