CACA'LIA COCCI'NEA. 



SCARLET-FLOWERED CACALIA. 

 Class. Order. 



SYNGENBSIA. POLYGAMIA /KQUALIS. 



Natural Order. 



CORYMBIFERjE. 



No. 76. 



The generic name we have now to notice was in 

 use by Dioscorides, a celebrated Greek physician 

 and botanist, who lived soon after the Christian era. 

 It is compounded of the two Greek words CACON, 

 bad, and HAN, exceedingly; from the real or sup- 

 posed mischievous properties of the plant which 

 bore the name, to the soil on which it grew. Coc- 

 cinea from the Latin, scarlet or crimson-coloured. 



According to Curtis, seeds of this plant were 

 brought to England from Paris in 1800 ; but to 

 what country it is indigenous we are not correctly 

 informed. It is a brilliant appendage to the par- 

 terre in September, and contrasts well with the pre- 

 vailing colours of that season. 



This annual is of rather delicate habits, and the 

 seed should be sown on a hotbed, in the spring. Or 

 they may be sown in pots and put into a cucumber 

 bed, where the young plants should not be crowded, 

 but have as much air as can conveniently be al- 

 lowed them. They may be planted into the open 

 ground in the latter part of May, or at the beginning 

 of June ; and care should be taken that the roots be 

 disturbed as little as possible. 



Bot. Mag. 564. 



