THE 



ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



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COLLINSIA MULTICOLOR. 



Many -coloured Collinsia. 

 Linnean Class — Didynamia. Order — Angiosperma. Natural Order — Scrophulauiacejs. 



Who does not remember the enthusiasm excited among Florists of all classes on 

 the first introduction of the Collinsias and other Californian annuals by poor 

 Douglass ! They may, indeed, be said to have created a new era in Decorative 

 Horticultui'e ; and although their beauty has been, to some extent, eclipsed by 

 the numerous showy perennials since brought into cultivation, it is veiy doubtful 

 whether they do not yet constitute the most valuable class of plants for early 

 summer flowering that we at present possess. 



Every gardener knows how difficult it is to keep up a gay appearance during the 

 sort of interregnum which succeeds the flowering of the spring bulbs, and before 

 the majority of the herbaceous perennials and bedding plants are in bloom. For 

 filling this void, the autumn-sown Californian annuals are unrivalled ; and, indeed, 

 a succession of sowings would produce throughout the season an effect but little 

 inferior to that obtained by the employment of any other plants. 



It affords us therefore great pleasure that we are enabled to commence our 

 second volume with a figm'e of the charming Collinsia multicolor, a species which 

 will, we are sure, obtain as large a circle of admirers as any of those previously 

 introduced. It is quite as robust in its habit as the well-known C. bicolor, growing 

 from twelve to eighteen inches or more high ; and its flowers are, we think, the 

 largest and handsomest of the genus, though their colour is less intense than in one 

 or two older species. Tbc foliage is larger and more coarsely toothed than 

 in bicolor ; but it is chiefly by the purple tint of its floral leaves or bracts, which 

 add greatly to the beauty of the plant, that it is distinguished from most, if not all 

 other species. The bracts beneath the lowest whorl of blossoms are cordate, 

 bluntly toothed, and pointed; the middle ones arc much narrower and without 

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