170 BRECK'S BOOK OF FLOWERS. 



There are many species in large collections, all handsome. It 

 becomes a large plant before autumn, five or six feet high, with 

 deep-green leaves, three feet long, and six inches in width ; 

 perfecting seed, which is round, black, and hard, having the 

 appearance of large shot. It belongs to the natural order, 

 Cannace, mostly tropical plants. 



CELOSIA. 



Cockscomb. 



Celosia cristata is common in most gardens. The following 

 account is inserted, to give some idea of what may be done by 

 artificial means. " Mr. Knight, in October, 1820, sent to the 

 London Horticultural Society a Cockscomb, the flower of which 

 measured eighteen inches in width and seven in height, from 

 the top of the stalk ; it was thick and full, and of a most 

 intense purple-red. To produce this, the great object was to 

 retard the protrusion of the flower-stalk, that it might become 

 of great strength. The compost employed was of the most 

 nutritive and stimulating kind, consisting of one part of unfer- 

 mented horse-dung, fresh from the stable, and without litter, 

 one part of burnt turf, one part of decayed leaves, and two 

 parts of green turf, the latter being in lumps of about an inch 

 in diameter, in order to keep the mass so hollow that the 

 water might escape and the air enter. The seeds were sown 

 in the spring, rather late, and the plants put first into pots of 

 four inches diameter, and then transplanted to others a foot in 

 diameter ; the object being not to compress the roots, as that 

 has a tendency to accelerate the flowering of all vegetables. 

 The plants were placed within a few inches of the glass, in a 

 heat of from 70 to 100 ; they were watered with pigeon-dung 

 water, and due attention paid to remove the side branches when 

 very young, so as to produce one strong head or flower." 



The color of the scarlet varieties is highly brilliant. None 

 of the other colors are so rich. The yellows are generally rather 

 dull some of them dirty-looking. The scarlets and crimsons 



