Fennel (Anethum Faniculum) will flourish in almost any soil or situation: in a dry soil it is longest-lived. It is propagated both by offsets, partings of the root, and by seed; all of which modes may be practised any time between the beginning of February and the end of April. The best season, however, for sowing, is autumn, soon after the seed is ripe, at which time it may also be planted with success.

Insert the plants a foot apart, and the seed in drills, six or twelve inches asunder, according as it is intended that the plants are to be transplanted or to remain.

When advanced to the height of four or five inches, if they are intended for removal, the plants are pricked out eight inches apart, to attain strength for final planting in autumn or spring. Water must be given freely at every removal, and until established, if the weather is at all dry.

They require no other cultivation than to be kept free from weeds; and the stalks of those that are not required to produce seed to be cut down as often as they run up in summer. If this is strictly attended to, the roots will last for many years; but those which are allowed to ripen their seed seldom endure for more than five or six.