FEBRUARY. 33 
ANNUALS. 
'(PLates 160 anv 161.) 
WE are pleased to find that the better class of Annuals is on 
the eve of a much wider application to ornamental gardening 
than has been allotted to them of late. This advance in 
public favour is doubtless owing to two causes; the principal 
one points to the extreme want of variety, which for years past 
has been a noticeable defect, even in very first-class gardens. 
The passion for strong masses of colour has led to the too 
frequent use of Geraniums, Calceolarias, and Verbenas, varied 
occasionally by Salvias or Petunias. This arrangement no 
doubt produced masses of brilliant and effective colours, so far 
as they went, but failed to impart to flower gardens the still 
greater charm of variety and gracefulness, without which the 
mere repetition of groups, confined to three or four variations 
of colour, produced an unsatisfactory effect to the eye of taste, 
and failed even to please minds less tutored to comprehend 
how necessary different shades and gradations of colour are to 
complete the ensemble of the parterre or flower garden, and to 
sober down the glare produced by the repetition of the blue, 
red, and yellow colours of which we complain. 
We have always been of opinion that the fashion in this 
respect would undergo a change, and that ere long plants 
would be selected for massing and mixing, less showy perhaps 
than those named above, but equally interesting to the lover 
of flowers, and adding the great desideratum of variety, both 
in form and colour, to our gardens. Of this class, Annuals 
undoubtedly form the largest proportion. 
A second reason why Annuals are becoming more generally 
grown, is the ease with which they are raised and the very 
small amount of trouble their cultivation entails, compared 
with the other section. The yearly propagation required with 
Geraniums, Verbenas, &c.; the potting and planting, the 
relifting and wintering, involve expense, care, and appliances 
not within every one’s means. It will therefore create no 
surprise, now that the love for flowers is become universal, to 
find that those who have not the means to grow plants re- 
quiring a winter's care and glass erections, fall back on Annuals 
to make their gardens attractive and gay through the summer, 
which they can do with little trouble and small cost. An 
ordinary garden soil, well dug and loosened, and a few shillings’ 
worth of seeds, are a trifling matter, compared to the cultiva- 
VOL, XIV., NO. CXLVI, D 
