ANNUALS.--_Anise_ and _Coriander_ like a warm, dry, light soil. If this is not procurable, anise should be “sown in pots in heat, and removed to a warm site in May.”[90] Coriander may be sown in February, if it be mild and dry, and the seeds must be buried half an inch. _Cumin_ is rarely seen; but it is advised that it should be sown in a warm, sunny border in March or April.
_Sweet Marjoram_ and _Summer Savory_ must both be sowed in light earth, either in drills nine inches apart, or broadcast, when they must be thinned out later on. The plants thinned out may be planted in another bed at six inches distance from each other, and must be watered. _Sweet Basil_ and _Bush Basil_ are both raised from seed sown in a hot-bed in the end of March, and the young plants should be set a foot apart in a warm border in May. They may be sown in an open border, but there is a risk of their coming up at all, and a certainty, that if they do, the plants will be late and small. Sweet Basil (_Ocymum Basilicum_) is much the largest plant, Bush Basil (_O. Mininum_) being scarcely half the size; both like a rich soil.
_Borage_ is raised from seed, and, if let alone, will seed itself and come up, year after year, in the same place. It likes a dry soil. Gardening books recommend that it should be planted in drills and thinned, but for the sake of the picturesque, it should be dotted about among low-growing herbs in single plants or little clumps.
_Marigolds_ should be planted in light, dry soil; they may be “sowed in the spring, summer, or autumn, to remain or be transplanted a foot asunder.”[91] The outer edge (near the palings) of Regent’s Park, close to Hanover Gate, testifies to their power of seeding themselves. Authorities differ as to whether _Finocchio_ is an annual, but at anyrate, in England, it must be treated as one. Finocchio should be sowed in dry, light earth, and must afterwards be thinned, or the plants transplanted to a distance of fifteen inches between each. The swelling stems “of some tolerable substance” must be earthed up five or six inches, and will be blanched and tender in a fortnight’s time, and if sowed in successive sowings, it may be eaten from June till December.