210 BRECK'S BOOK OF FLOWERS. 



SPHCENOGYNE. 



Sphcenogyne speciosa. This is a most beautiful flowering 

 annual, growing about a foot high. The plant is of handsome 

 foliage, and a most profuse bloomer. The flowers open fully 

 when the sun shines upon them, and then display a show of 

 the most pleasing kind. It is in bloom from June to October. 

 A bed of it would be a delightful contrast to one of an opposite 

 color. It has some resemblance to the Calliopsis ; rays, yel- 

 low ; disk dark-brown ; flowers about two and a half inches 

 across. 



SENECIO. 



Senecio elegans. Ragwort, or Double Groundsel. There 

 are four kinds of this plant, viz., double red, double crimson, 

 double white and double flesh-colored. Each of these kinds 

 will make a most handsome bed. The plant is very pretty in 

 its foliage, grows freely and most profusely ; scarcely anything 

 surpassing it for a neat and handsome show. It will grow about 

 eighteen inches high, and continue in bloom from June to the 

 end of the season. The soil I grow it in very successfully is 

 fresh loam, mixed with leaf mould, and about eight inches deep, 

 upon a dry subsoil. I find that when the soil is much enriched, 

 the plant has a tendency to produce too much foliage ; but, 

 grown in turf, loam, &c., as above stated, an amazing produc- 

 tion of bloom is the result. The plant is readily increased by 

 slips, scarcely one in a hundred failing to grow. It is also 

 raised from seed; but few of the plants will produce double 

 flowers. 



SILENE. 

 Catch-Fly. 



This is a large family of plants, many of them mere weeds, 

 whiie others are handsome flowers, suitable for the garden. 



