scrimping, in the seed bed, to cut for house decoration, as with the
perennials. Of course if annuals are desired for very early flowering,
many species may be started in a hotbed and taken from thence to the
borders. Biennials that it is desired shall flower the first season are
best hurried in this way, yet for the gardenerless garden of a woman
this makes o'er muckle work. The occasional help of the "general useful"
is not very efficient when it comes to tending hotbeds, giving the
exact quantity of water necessary to quench the thirst of seedlings
without producing dropsy, and the consequent "damping off" which, when
it suddenly appears, seems as intangible and makes one feel as helpless
as trying to check a backing horse by helpless force of bit. A frame for
Margaret carnations, early asters, and experiments in seedling Dahlias
and chrysanthemums will be quite enough.

The woman who lives all the year in the country can so manage that her
spring bulbs and hardy borders, together with the roses, last well into
July. After this the annuals must be depended upon for ground colour,
and to supplement the phloxes, gladioli, Dahlias, and the like. By the
raising of these seeds in hotbeds they are apt to reach their high tide
of bloom during the most intense heat of August, when they quickly
mature and dry away; while, on the other hand, if they are reared in an
open-air seed bed, they are not only stronger but they last longer,
owing to more deliberate growth. Asters sown out-of-doors in May bloom
well into October, when the forced plants barely outlast August.

Of many annuals it is writ in the catalogues, "sow at intervals of two
weeks or a month for succession." This sounds very plausible, for are
not vegetables so dealt with, the green string-beans in our garden being
always sown every two weeks from early April until September first? Yes,
but to vegetables is usually given fresher and deeper soil for the crop