BALSAM. 17$ 



the hottest months, wlicn many other plants are 

 withered before tliey have flowered, wliich renders 

 it a vakiable ornament for the summer months. 



When properly treated, these succulent plants 

 reach the size of a moderate flowering shrub. Mar- 

 tyn says — '* I have seen the stem seven inches in 

 circuit, and all the parts large in proportion, 

 branched from top to bottom, loaded with its party- 

 coloured flowers, and thus forming a most beautiful 

 bush.'' Mr. Fairweather speaks of others four feet 

 in lieight and fifteen feet in circumference, with 

 strong thick stems, furnished with side branches 

 from bottom to top, and these covered with large 

 double flowers. {Hort, Trans, 3. 406.) 



We have frequently observed the Balsam in the 

 gardens of Paris having more the appearance of a 

 brilliant-flowering shrub than an annual plant, or- 

 namenting the quarters of the royal gardens of the 

 Tuillerics and tlie Luxembourg by its petals of 

 gcarlet, crimson, brick red, purple, white, varie- 

 gated, party-coloured or delicate blush ; this last 

 variety frequently being as double, and nearly as 

 large, as a moderate Hose, and the whole plant 

 covered with flowers, resembling by their transpa- 

 rent nature a shrub formed of the most delicate 

 porcelain. 



The Balsam demands our attention by two sin- 

 gularities in its nature exclusive of its beauty. The 



