214 glenny's handbook 



etfected such a revolution as in this ; for from the flimsy 

 flowers of the old white, and the pointed hlossoms of the old 

 purple, have been produced flowers of circular outline, with 

 thick corollas and fluctuating beautiful colours. Petunias 

 are propagated either bv seed or cuttings. Seeds may be 

 sown in March on a hotbed, and the plants treated as half- 

 hardy annuals. Cuttings strike freely placed in a frame with 

 bottom heat : they should be planted in March and April, 

 being obtained from old plants placed in heat, and from the 

 tops of the earlier- planted cuttings, if a supply of young 

 plants was not provided the previous autumn. The young 

 plants require to be separately potted, hardened in a cold 

 frame, and planted out in May, when the danger of frost is 

 past. A few plants should be kept in pots, rather stunted, 

 for preservation through the winter, in order to supply cuttings 

 in spi'ing ; or young plants may be struck in August, and well 

 hardened, and kept in the greenhouse on an airy shelf through 

 the winter: such plants will, if vigorous and healthy, bloom 

 earlier than spiing cuttings. For this reason a supply, more 

 or less abundant, should always be struck at the end of the 

 summer, to keep over for planting out in spring. Many 

 varieties are grown yearly. 



PHACA. [Leguminosse, § Papilionaceaj.] Hardy herba- 

 ceous perennials. Sandy loam. Seeds or division. 



PHACELIA. [Hydrophyllacece.] Pretty annuals of the 

 easiest culture in the open ground, the seeds being sown in 

 March and April. There are some unimportant perennials. 



PHiEDRANiVSSA. [Araaryllidaceae.] A showy genus 

 of greenhouse bulbous plants, requiring the treatment of 

 Phycella ; that is, strong rich loamy soil, and multiplied by 

 offsets from the bulbs. 



PHALANGIUM. [Liliaceae.] Hardy herbaceous peren- 

 nials, with pretty blossoms. Common soil. Division. 



PHALARIS. [Gramineae.] Hardy annuals. Common 

 soil. Seeds. 



PHALOCALLIS. See Cypella. 



PHAPiBlTIS. Gay-btxe. [Convolvulaceae.] Annual 

 and perennial twiners of graceful habit, with extremely gay 

 flowers. Some of the species are tender ; others may he 

 treated as half-hardy annuals. The genus contains the well- 



