Twenty-five species. Chiefly stove evergreen trailers, which are increased by divisions and seeds: sandy loam and peat. The hardy kinds, seeds or offsets; and the annuals, seeds and common garden soil.

C. ccelestris is one of the most beautiful of this genus, and the following directions for its cultivation are given by Mr. G. Gordon, of the Chiswick Gardens.

"About the end of February sow the seeds, in pans or pots, filled with a mixture of sandy loam and leaf mould, and place them in a warm pit, or dung-frame. When the young plants are large enough to handle, pot them off singly into sixty-sized pots, and return them to the warm frame, or pit, for a week or ten days; afterwards admit air, and finally remove them to a cold frame, or pit, to harden, ready for planting out in the open border, which should be done about the end of May, or beginning of June, when the danger from late frosts and cold nights is over.

"In planting, they must not be put in a dry or shaded situation, but in a warm, and rather damp one; and in a rich loamy soil. They will then flower freely all the summer and autumn; but like the Dahlia, their beauty is destroyed by the first frost in the autumn.

"The plants flower freely the first season from seed, but they display their delicate azure blossoms in the greatest perfection the second season, if the roots are taken up, and preserved like those of the Dahlia, over the winter, which is best done in the following way: - When the plants have done flowering, and there is danger of the roots getting injured by severe frost, they must be taken up, and placed to dry for a few days; then procure a box, or some large flower-pots, and place a little dry soil at the bottom; (the best substance for packing all kinds of roots in during winter, is dry sandy peat) - then place a layer of roots, filling in between with soil; and so on until you have disposed of all the roots, when the whole should be covered over with a thick layer of any dry substance. Place the plants either under the stage in the green-house, or in a dry cellar for the winter, out of the reach of damp or frost; they will then require no more trouble until the following March, when they should be taken out, potted, and placed either in a warm pit or dung frame, to forward them again for planting out.

"The roots will survive the winter in the open border, if slightly protected, and kept dry; but then they are late in starting, and never so fine as when the roots are taken up, and preserved through the winter, like those of the Dahlia. The old roots may be divided like those of the Garden Ranunculus." - Gard. Chron.