border about the middle of May. But generally the assistance of glass and a slight bottom heat is necessary. A very slight hot-bed of leaves or stable-manure, or, what is better, equal proportions of both, should be put up in March. The inside of the frame should have light moderately rich soil put over it to the depth of eight inches. In this the seeds should be sown, in rows three to four inches apart, kept regularly and moderately moist; and when two inches high, they should be hardened off by degrees, and planted out from the middle to the end of May, according to locality. In transplanting them, care should be taken to do as little injury to the roots as possible; and attention in the way of watering for a time after being put out, should the weather be dry, is of great importance. If shaded by a few evergreen boughs -especially those sorts which make tap roots and few fibres-they will of course require less attention with water, and will get hold sooner. If time and space can be afforded to prick them out when a couple of inches high, they would make much more robust and betterrooted plants for final planting; but unless frames can be afforded for this, it is best left alone.

Select List of Half-Hardy Annuals.

Amaranthus caudatus (Love-lies-bleeding), crimson, 2 to 3
feet.

Amaranthus speciosus (Prince's Feather), crimson, 2 feet.
Alonsoa Warscewiczii, bright scarlet, 1 foot.

Brachycome iberidifolia, various colours, 14 foot.

Calceolaria scabiosafolia, yellow, 1 foot.

Chrysanthemum tricolor venustum, crimson, with yellow

centre, 1 foot.

Clintonia elegans, blue, foot.

Dianthus Heddewigii, various, 1 foot.

Helichrysum brachyrhinchum, golden, 1 foot.

Marigold, African, orange, 2 feet.
Marigold, African, lemon.

Marigold, French, mixture, 14 foot.

Marigold, French, dwarf miniature, orange,

foot.

Mesembryanthemum (Fig Marigold) tricolor, red, foot. Enothera (Evening Primrose) Drummondii nana, yellow, 1 foot.

Enothera grandiflora, yellow, 2 feet.

Enothera Lamarckiana, yellow, 8 feet.

Rhodanthe Manglesii, bright rose, foot.

Salpiglossis, various, 1 foot.

Schizanthus Grahamii, rose and yellow, 2 feet.
Sedum cæruleum, blue.

Senecio Jacobea, various, 14 foot.

Sphenogyne speciosa, yellow, 1.foot.

Stocks, Ten-week, various, 1 foot.

Stocks, Intermediate, various, 1 to 1 foot.
Venidium calendulaceum, orange, foot.

Zinnia elegans, various, to 1 foot.

Zinnia Mexicana, yellow and orange, 1 foot.

BIENNIALS.-Biennials are a class of plants which do not flower the same year they are sown. The year after they are sown they are in perfection; and those of them which live over the second year are of little or no use afterwards. Various dates have been recommended for sowing these; but generally they are not sown sufficiently early in order to make fine plants by the time they should be finally planted out. From June till August is the usual time for sowing; but it is much better to sow about the middle of May, certainly not later than the third week of that month.

Sowing. A border having an east aspect is preferable for sowing them. The ground should be free, and moderately rich. The drill system of sowing is less likely to produce drawn weakly plants than the broadcast. Should the weather be dry when they are sown, a good soaking of water through a fine rose should be given, and then

some boughs or old mats, or anything that will shade, should be thrown over them till the seeds are breaking through the soil. Before the seedlings suffer from overcrowding, a rich well-exposed border should be manured and well pulverized, into which they are to be pricked off. This is the point in their culture which is perhaps of most importance to attend to, and one which it is the object of early sowing to allow plenty of opportunity for accomplishing. Plants that are allowed to remain in the seedling beds or lines till finally transplanted are never so fine as pricked-out plants. To get a fine strong plant and satisfactory bloom, they should be stocky and strong, and lifted with good balls, conditions which cannot be commanded by later sowing and only once transplanting. When pricked out, each plant should stand clear of its neighbour 6 inches, and in this way they grow into low bushy plants that can be moved with balls of soil and transplanted in autumn. They stand the winter much better from being nursed thus. All attempts at throwing up flower-stems must be checked. by pinching them off as they appear.

Soil, and Transplanting.To grow the majority of biennials well, they require a good holding loamy soil, and it should be prepared as already directed for annuals. The end of September, or from that time to the middle of October, is the best time to plant out where they are to flower. We prefer autumn to spring planting, because autumn weather is generally much milder than that of early spring, and late spring moving is not to be recommended. If carefully lifted with balls, and planted in autumn, they get a good hold before the dead of winter; but when autumn planting cannot be practised, they should be planted not later than the end of March

in spring. But the chief points of culture lie in early sowing, transplanting into nursery-beds, and planting in autumn with balls.

Honesty, purple, 2 feet.

Indian Pink, 6 inches.

Enothera fruticosa, yellow, 3 feet.

Enothera biennis alba, white, 2 feet.

Stocks, Brompton, Cape, Emperor, various, 14 foot.

Sweet-William, various, 1 to 1 foot.

Rockets, purple and white, 1 foot.

Wallflower, various, 1 foot.

Valerian, red and white, 14 foot.

Sweet Scabious, various, 14 foot.

In preparing these lists, plants that have been previously treated of are not included, and those most suited for the widest range of localities are enumerated.

CHAPTER VI.

HARDY HERBACEOUS PERENNIAL PLANTS.

HERBACEOUS perennials are a class of plants distinct in their nature from annuals and biennials, inasmuch as they live for an indefinite number of years, and differ from shrubby plants in the limited and less woody nature of their growth, and in dying down to the ground every year after they have flowered, and their leaves and stems have performed the functions necessary to their future wellbeing. They are a very extensive class, but, with comparatively few exceptions, not so well adapted for a continuous and artistic effect for grouping according to the reigning fashion in geometrical flowergardens, as their more tender rivals now popularly known as bedding plants. They are, nevertheless, a most interesting class, and, individually, many of them are exquisitely beautiful; and one feature in their character -namely, their hardiness-makes them available where the more fashionable plants cannot, for various reasons, take their place. It may perhaps be considered a little digressive here to refer to one loss which the young gardeners of the present day have sustained, to a large extent, in the exclusion of hardy perennials from the prominent position they occupied in the days of their predecessors. That loss consists in the study and observation which were absolutely necessary in order to their