There seems to be a growing interest in this deserving and really beautiful class of plants. The fact that annuals, as the name signifies, grow, bloom, and die the first year, is against them in the estimation of some people; but considering how few there are who can keep plants over winter, in a healthy condition, it should be in their favor. They are easily grown, or cheaply procured, and can be used with quite as much effect as more costly plants, thus placing them within the reach of everybody. It is also with a feeling of relief that we turn from the highly improved and carefully selected varieties of many of our green and hot-house plants, to the pure and simple handiwork of nature, which we find among our annuals; and when we come upon a clump of these in a situation adapted to their wants, it is with an entirely different feeling of pleasure that we admire them, from that which we have in admiring a carefully arranged and planted bed of our bedding plants. They carry one's thoughts to their natural habitats, the woods, meadows, and hill-sides.

Not that I would depreciate the fine and beautiful varieties of bedding plants, but it should be remembered that we can greatly add to the beauty of our lawns and flower gardens without must additional expense, by using a few of the many varieties of annuals.

There has, as we all know, been great improvement by hybridization and selection, in many of the annuals also, as the Phlox, Petunia. Aster, etc., making them valuable for bedding purposes where a mass of color is desired.

Many fail to secure good results by making the mistake of sowing the seed where they are to bloom, and then leaving them stand too close, causing a weak and spindling growth, with correspondingly poor flowers, for they like room to develop as well as plants that are larger when planted out; and will repay tenfold, later in the season, the bareness of the bed when first planted. Phlox should have six to eight inches of room, while Petunia should have from ten to twelve, and so on in proportion to their size and vigor of growth. Such varieties as Phlox, China Pink, Gaillardia, and others, will bloom much better if not allowed to bear much seed; their general appearance will also be greatly improved by the cutting of old and faded blossoms occasionally.

Abronia, Aster, Balsam, Summer Chrysanthemum, Dianthus, or China Pink, Gaillardia, Nemo-phila, Petunia, Phlox, Whitlavia, and Zinnia make a suitable list to try. and you will soon add a number more to your collection. Lancaster, Pa.