148 1EPT0SIPH0N LUTEUS. 



in terminal clusters, and are remarkable for the tenuity of the tube of the corolla, 

 which is often from one-and-a-half to two inches long, and in most of the blossoms 

 slightly curved, the limb expanding into five broad blunt lobes. The stamens are 

 attached by short filaments to the interior of the throat, and have their anthers 

 exserted, or in other words, protruding beyond the orifice of the flower ; the style, 

 which is also exserted, is divided at its extremity into three long narrow stigmas. 



Messrs. Veitch inform us that they have raised both the varieties discovered 

 by Douglass, one with pale yellow flowers, of which our figure is a representation, 

 the other with blossoms of a dark yellow or orange colour. In the variety figured, 

 the eye of the flower is darker than the limb, and at the base of each segment an 

 orange spot occurs, more or less distinct in different specimens. We have under- 

 stood that, in its native habitat, it usually blooms at the end of summer ; but in tbis 

 country it appears likely to produce its flowers about the same period as the other 

 species, that is, from May to July or August, according to the date of sowing. 

 When sown early in autumn, they will bloom about the end of May, whilst those 

 sown in spring will follow in succession. As in the case of most of the hardy 

 annuals, by far the finest specimens are produced from autumn-sown seed ; 

 indeed, the unfavourable springs of the last two or three years render it highly 

 expedient to adopt this period, if flowers are to be looked for with any certainty. 



The Leptosiphons prefer a sandy loam, well enriched with thoroughly rotten 

 manure or leaf mould ; but for autumn sowing, a poor dry soil should be chosen, 

 that the plants may be less succulent, and better fitted to endure the capricious 

 severities of our winters. Agricultural writers are now very properly insisting on 

 the advantages of thin sowing, and the recommendation is no less appropriate to 

 our pages. The difference between plants which have come up singly, and those 

 resulting from seeds thickly sown, is immense, and cannot fail to have struck the 

 most inattentive Florist ; nor is the contrast much less striking even when the patch 

 has been thinned out, for it is on the conditions of the early stages of their growth 

 that the future character and habit of most plants depends. Whether performed 

 in autumn or spring, we would therefore strongly impress on our readers the 

 importance of sowing thinly, and, apart from the seemingly paradoxical result of an 

 increased return, it has an additional recommendation on the score of economy. 

 The precise period of the autumn at which the seeds of the Californian annuals are 

 sown, is not unimportant ; for most parts of the country the middle of September 

 appears to be most suitable ; if sown earlier, they become too far advanced in their 

 growth before the arrival of winter, and then receive a sudden check ; whilst at a 

 later period, the decreased temperature is unfavourable to germination, and such 

 plants as succeed in passing this stage, are but too liable to perish on the first 

 sharp frost. 



We have said that the Leptosiphons delight in a generous compost ; such plants 



