Descriptions of Ten Neip Verbenas. 261 



An English writer, in speaking of the production of new 

 verbenas, truly remarks, that " in striving to get a perfectly 

 round flower, with compact truss, the required free blooming 

 habit is abandoned, merely to force nature to assume rotund- 

 ity, if we may express what Mr. Glenny has been so long 

 laboring to lay down as the perfection of beauty. It is a 

 curious fact that the better habit the flower, the less rotundity 

 of petals is there, and, vice versa, the rounder the flower, the 

 more vicious the habit." To sum up, he says, "though 

 verbenas may have progressed as regards form, it is to be 

 feared no advance has been made in color." 



We have found this to be the case in our own experience. 

 Many of the kinds with large and good formed flowers, were 

 evidently meagre and poor in habit. We have no fears, 

 however, but that continued trial will bring with it a due 

 reward ; in our own case, nothing could be nearer to it than 

 the America. It possesses all the properties laid down by 

 Mr. Glenny. 



We regret to see that our amateurs do not raise greater 

 quantities of seedlings ; want of success in one or two trials 

 should not dampen the ardor of any true lover of this most 

 beautiful plant. Our climate is far better for producing seeds 

 than that of our English friends, and there is no reason why 

 our American seedlings should not take the lead of all others. 



1. America, (Hovey''s.) Flowers very large, clear white, 

 with a small straw-colored eye ; petals large, nearly flat, 

 slightly cupped at the edge, broad, of good substance, and 

 forming almost a perfect cii'cular outline ; umbels very large, 

 nearly three and a half inches in diameter, beautifully formed, 

 compact, without being crowded, and containing, when well 

 grown, between forty and ffty flowers ; habit vigorous, sim- 

 ilar to Defiance, but a little larger foliage, and of the finest 

 habit, either for cultivation in pots or bedding out ; the 

 flower stems are stout, long, and erect, elevating the trusses 

 far above the foliage. It is one of the most profuse bloomers, 

 and a small bed appears one mass of snowy flowers. We 

 believe it to be unsurpassed among all the white verbenas 

 that have yet been raised. 



