;purrfmstttg of 



45 



sown seeds. Verbenas mix badly, and are apt to hark 

 back to the original purple strain, or come striped. 

 The seeds of the pink variety come true, I find, and 

 some of the finest pinks I have seen were from self- 

 sown seed. They range in colour through all the 

 shades from pink to deep rose. A fair proportion 

 of white may also be expected, but scarlet and red 

 with a white eye are shy and rarely appear. 



Nasturtiums rarely come true from seed, and if one 

 desires a particular colour or shade, she must either buy 

 fresh seed or grow that particular variety alone. If, 

 however, one simply desires an abundance of bright 

 flowers with a preponderance of yellow, orange and 

 scarlet, it is worth while to save seed, as its vitality is 

 remarkable and every seed may be expected to germi- 

 nate. 



No variety of Petunia can be depended upon when 

 grown in a mixed bed. A particularly fine variety 

 may be lifted and planted on the opposite side of the 

 house, either in the ground or in a window-box, or in 

 a pot in the house. From one exceedingly fine speci- 

 men of the large ruffled variety, lifted and grown in 

 a window-box on the opposite side of the house from 

 the Petunia bed, I saved a single pod of seed from 

 which I grew, the following year, sufficient plants 

 for a large bed. No two of these were alike in colour, 

 but they retained the immense size, ruffled edges, vel- 

 vety texture and beautifully marked throats of the 

 parent strain; some were a velvety crimson, nearly 



