ing two or three feet high. But it is one of those uncertain 
plants which will die suddenly during the hot weather in 
July and August, especially after a few hours rain, if planted 
in the open border, although it may have been previously in 
the highest state of health and vigour. Mr. Gordon, who 
has had the management of it in the garden of the Horticul- 
tural Society, has given us the following note concerning its 
management. 
** It seldom can be kept alive for more than two or three . 
seasons after being raised from seeds, even in pots, unless 
treated in the following manner. 
* The seeds should be sown in pans, filled with a mixture 
of peat and loam, to which should be added a small portion of 
decomposed cow-dung, and placed in a close pit or frame. 
They soon come up if sown in the spring or summer, but if 
sown late in the autumn the seeds lie in the soil until the 
following spring before they vegetate. When up, and before 
they make à rough leaf, prick them off into a fresh pan filled 
with the same kind of soil as that in which the seed was 
sown. Afterwards keep them shut up close and well shaded, 
and finally pot them off singly when they have made three or 
four proper leaves, giving them at once a shift into larger pots, 
and return them to the frame, which should now have the 
back turned to the sun, and be kept close for a few weeks; 
air not being given at any time until the plants are fairly 
started and growing again. Afterwards remove the lights en- 
tirely during the night time, and keep them on quite close in the 
day, during the summer and autumn. When the nights be- 
come wet and. frosty, remove the plants to a cold pit for the 
winter, where there is plenty of light and air and no damp." 
