136 VEsriDruM calendtjlaceuh. 



the disadvantage of fugacious flowers, but most of the species yield a consider- 

 able number. We have only to add, that nearly all the species of Hemerocallis 

 and Funokia are of very easy attainment, and are among the cheapest of 

 hardy plants. 



VENIDIUM CALENDULACEUM. 



Mary- Gold-like Venidium. 

 Linnean Class — Syngenesia. Order — Necessaria. Natural Order — Composite. 



To the long list of ornamental annuals contributed to our gardens by the 

 extensive natural order of Composite plants, the Venidium calendulaccum proves 

 to be a not unimportant addition ; and, perhaps, among the recently introduced 

 species few will be found of a more showy character. 



Its specific name is so far appropriate, that some of our readers may suspect 

 it to be an old acquaintance under a new designation ; but, although it certainly 

 resembles, in colour and form, some of the Mary-golds, botanically it is 

 sufficiently distinct. In the Calendulas, of which the common Marygold may 

 be taken as a type, the involucre surrounding the flower-head is composed of 

 many narrow, pointed, erect leaflets, nearly equal in size, and arrngaed in one 

 series. In the genus Venidium, the scales of the involucre are of two kinds • 

 those composing the innermost series, immediately next the florets of the ray, 

 are of an oval form, with a thin transparent colourless margin ; external to these 

 are several rows of imbricated scales of a narrower form, and covered with 

 shaggy hairs, especially at the tip, which is reflexed. 



The seed is also of a different structure to that of the Calendulas, as our 

 figure will show. The Venidiums are more closely allied to the old genus 

 Arctotis, with which some of them were formerly incorporated ; but in 

 Arctotis the seeds are furnished with a chaffy pappus, an appendage which 

 appears to be wanting in Venidium. 



The present species is a dwarf annual plant, not often exceeding, even when 

 in flower, five or six inches in height; the radical leaves are of a broadly 

 ovate, almost orbicular, form, with a sinuate margin, and long foot-stalks, 

 more or less winged at their edge; the whole leaf, but especially its margin, 

 nerves, and petiole, being clothed with long white, clammy, spreading hairs. 

 The leaves at the base of the flower stalk are of a similar form, but rather 



