TO THE FLOWER GARDEN. 193 



should be reared in a hotbed, potted separately, and shifted 

 on into larger pots as they advance in growth, using a light 

 rich compost of loam, leaf - mould, peat soil, and sand, 

 gradually hardening off tlie plants by transferring to cooler 

 frames, and at lengtJi to the greenhouse. It is increased by 

 cuttings as well as by seeds. M. lobata, flowers crimson, 

 changing to orange. 



MIRABILIS. Marvel of Peru. [Nyctagineae.] Showy 

 half-hardy perennials, with thick fusiform roots. These plants 

 are deservedly a great favourite in gardens, where they make 

 towards autumn a splendid appearance. The branching 

 stems bear roundish flowers, with rather a long tube, and, as 

 these come at every joint when fairly open, they cover the 

 plant. The individual blooms are in one respect like the 

 Convolvulus — they shut up on dull days, so that it is an 

 ungracious-looking plant in bad weather. In some kinds the 

 tubes of the flowers are two or three inches long ; in others 

 they are shorter. The colours vary from yellow to red, white, 

 and all shades between them, and sometimes two of the colours 

 are disposed in stripes. To have choice varieties sow the best 

 seed that can be got, and select each year the best that are 

 produced for seed-bearing. Sow the seed in a hotbed in 

 March, and as soon as the plants are large enough pot them 

 three or four or half a dozen in a pot, to grow until the middle 

 of May, when they may be planted out in the beds or borders 

 at a foot apart. Here they will only require to be kept clear 

 of weeds, and be watered in the event of the weather proving 

 more than usually parching, but not if the weather be at all 

 seasonable. The foliage will be touched by the first frost, 

 after which the roots may be dug up, and stored away amongst 

 dry sand where the frost cannot reach them. In April they 

 may be put in the ground where they are to flow^er, whether 

 that be in beds or borders ; or, if any good ones are worth pro- 

 pagating, put thetn in heat in March, and strike the shoots 

 like those of the Dahlia. To effect improvements a few seeds 

 from the very best should be saved every year, and these 

 plants are then best grown in beds, as they can then be more 

 readily examined, and the worthless ones destroyed. It is in 

 the size, colours, and markings of the flowers that improve- 

 ments are chiefly to be effected. 



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