7O GARDEN FLOWERS. 



biennials, and perennials. The common Borage, a gay an- 

 nual, is one of the best flowers to sow in the neighborhood 

 of bees ; for it is said they derive more nourishment from it 

 than from any other flower that grows. Good garden soil. 

 Propagated by seeds, which may be scattered over the sur- 

 face and raked in, and the plants afterwards thinned where 

 they are too much crowded. The perennials may be multi- 

 plied by parting the roots. 



B. crassifolia (thick-leaved) ; herbaceous perennial ; 2 feet ; 

 flowers pink, in June; Persia; 1822. B. laxiflora (loose-flow- 

 ered) ; hardy biennial, trailing ; flowers blue, in June ; Corsica ; 

 1813. B. officinalis (common) ; hardy annual ; 3 feet ; flowers 

 blue or white, in June ; England. B. Orientalis (Oriental) ; hardy 

 perennial ; 2 feet ; flowers blue, in May ; Turkey ; 1752. 



BOTTLE-GOURD. See LAGENARIA. 



BOUVARDIA. [Cinchonaceae.] Handsome small sub- 

 shrubs, mostly greenhouse plants. Some of the species pro- 

 duce a profusion of scarlet blossoms, when planted out for 

 the summer, in a bed of good peaty earth in the flower-gar- 

 den. Of this habit are B. triphylla and a variety of it 

 called splendens. The other greenhouse kinds require sim- 

 ilar treatment ; the stove species are not of much import- 

 ance. The roots must be taken up in autumn, and potted 

 and kept rather dry in a greenhouse, and in spring excited 

 in a dung-frame, and hardened off afterwards to plant out as 

 soon as danger from frost is past. These kinds are best 

 propagated by pieces of the thicker roots, an inch or two 

 long, set round against the side of a pot, just covered with 

 soil, and the pots plunged in a dung-frame. When they 

 begin to grow up, they should be potted separately; they 

 grow well in a compost of turfy peat and loam. 



B. Cavanillesii (Cavanille's) ; greenhouse sub-shrub ; 3 feet ; 

 flowers scarlet, in May; Mexico; 1846. B. flava (yellow); 



