Malcomia maritima.

O humble a flower is this that we should despair of making a sufficient vindication to justify the picture, but, happily, it is a representative of a very important class of garden flowers the hardy annuals-with which most amateurs make an agreeable beginning in garden experiences. It is a cruciferous or cross-flowered plant, and in that respect might claim a lot of attention; for the wallflower, the stock, the aubrietia, the rocket, and the cabbage are cruciferous, and have some striking properties in common.

Hardy annuals are the cheapest flowers in the world; many of them are gay,

and last long, and are delightfully fragrant, and all of them are interesting and pleasing more or less. It is usual to sow the seeds of these flowers in the month of March in patches along the borders, and the customary practice answers very well. The weak point in the practice, for the most part, consists in sowing too many

seeds and leaving too many plants in a clump, for, being crowded, they never acquire a proper degree of strength; and hence, if they flower freely, the flowers are small and are soon over. When walking round the kitchen garden, you will sometimes see a stray plant of parsley in the cabbage or onion plot, and it is sure to be robust and handsome, so that a punnet may be filled with its beautiful leaves, and still leave the plant looking pretty well. The reason this stray plant is so strong, while the parsley sown in the row next the walk is quite lean as compared with it, is that it has enjoyed plenty of air and light, as is the way of vagabonds; and hence their rude health and easy endurance of circumstances that would kill the pampered ones right away. Now and then a stray plant of Virginia stock may be seen in like manner, and then what a plant it is! We have met with single plants measuring six to nine inches across—a dense mass of healthy herbage, completely smothered with flowers half as large again as those produced on the thin, wiry plants where they are crowded in clumps on the regulation pattern.. And yet this lesson, so obvious and so forcibly taught by nature, amateur gardeners are very slow to learn, and they will go on sowing Virginia stock and mignonette as if they would pave the ground with the seed; and, when the plants are up, will throw away the second chance of success by refusing to thin the plants, as they should, to from three to six inches apart.

Annuals are occasionally grown in first-rate style, and if well selected are, in the early part of the summer, remarkably effective. There is almost only one point of importance in the practice, and it consists in sowing the seeds in the autumn.

Let us now address ourselves to this subject. When annuals are sown in autumn, it should be on poor, dry ground. The object is to build up the plant slowly, as a mountaineer that is thinly fed becomes sturdy through constant exposure to all the airs of heaven more than by the aid of such nourishments as are strewn in the lap of luxury. The time of sowing must be regulated by the latitude and local circumstances: in the far north, the end of July is none too soon; in the midlands, the middle of August is soon enough; in the south, the sowing may be prudently delayed until September; and in the far south, where geraniums often live through the winter, October is soon enough. The object of sowing in autumn is to give the plant the longest possible time to accumulate the substance requisite to the production of flowers. But if we sow too early for the district, the plants may become stout and succulent before the winter frost occurs, and when the frost comes it may kill them. Hence the necessity of in some degree adapting the season of sowing to the averages of the local climate.

The safest mode of procedure is to sow in an open spot, on poor soil, and thin the plants to about two inches apart before they touch one another. In spring, when the weather is favourable, transplant them to the spots whereon they are required to flower, and do this as early as possible, that they may become well established before they begin to throw up their flowers. In a mild, open season the middle of February is none too soon for this work; but it should anywhere be completed before March is out.

In places much exposed, where there might be a risk of losing the stock in the winter, the seed may be sown on beds made up for the purpose in turf pits. In this case

they must have plenty of air to keep them short in stature and hardy in constitution.

The following are the most useful sorts of annuals for sowing in autumn :-Calandrinia grandiflora, rich purple, twelve inches in height; C. speciosa, purple, twelve inches; Calliopsis bicolor, golden yellow, three feet; Clarkia elegans, lilac, two feet; C. pulchella, rose-purple, eighteen inches; Collinsia bicolor, purple and white, twelve inches; C. multicolor, crimson and white, twelve inches; C. verna, blue shaded, twelve inches; Erysimum Peroffskianum, orangeyellow, exceedingly showy, eighteen inches; Eschscholtzia crocea, orange, twelve inches; Gilia tricolor, white and purple, twelve inches; Godetia Lady Albemarle, brilliant crimson; G. rubicunda splendens, purple, eighteen inches; Iberis umbellata, in variety, ten inches; Nemophila insignis, blue, six inches; Platystemon californicum, sulphuryellow, six inches; Saponaria calabrica, deep rose-pink, twelve inches; Silene pendula, pink, fifteen inches; Viscaria oculata, rose-purple, eighteen inches.