Five species. Tender or half-hardy herbaceous. Seed and cuttings. Sandy loam and leaf-mould. From P. nyctaginiflora, which is white, and P. vio/acea, purple, are raised the numerous varieties adorning our gardens.

Select Varieties:

Alice Gray.

Arethusa.

Beauty.

----------superb.

Bicolor. Bumons de Will (Van Houte's). Caryophylloides. Constance. Delicata. Dwarf-pencilled. Enchantress. Exactum. Gem. Gigantea. Grandis. Highclare. Hildida. Hope (Smith's). Illuminata. Kentish Beauty.

------------Bride.

Lady Sale. Magician. Magna Charta.

Magna rosea.

Magnet.

Massengii.

Medora.

Ne plus ultra (Pearson's).

Nixenii (Harrison's).

Ornatissima.

Othello.

Ovid.

Pet (Ivery's).

Picta.

Prince Albert.

Psyche.

Punctata (Miller's).

Reliance.

Rook's Nest.

Rosea alba.

Splutherii.

Striata superb.

Unique.

-----------superb.

Variegata.

Characteristics Of Excellence

Flowers flat, circular, free from indentations, and firm of texture. Colour, bright and well-determined. Flowers numerous.

Propagation by Seed - Sow in March in a gentle hot-bed, and plant out at the end of May, like the half-hardy annuals; or sow on an open compartment, when the spring is farther advanced.

By Cuttings

May be struck almost at any time, but a good time is "early in September. The cuttings should be put into sixties, and placed in the front of a hot-bed until they have struck root, which will be in about three or four weeks, at which time they may be removed to a cold pit, or to the front of a green-house.

"Early in February they should be shifted into forty-eights, in a mixture of sandy peat, leaf-mould, and loam, and repotted as fast as the pots become full of roots, using an inch and a half of rubbly charcoal, to act as drainage, at the bottom of each pot. During the time they are growing in pots they should be watered two or three times a week with liquid manure; and the latter end of May they may be turned out into the flower garden." - Gard. Chron.

Winter Protection is best afforded them in a cold pit, frame, or greenhouse. By a little attention, and judicious watering, etc, they will begin to bloom early in the spring.