DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 255 



ca, and is probably the species from which so many beau- 

 tiful varieties, that now decorate our green-houses and 

 gardens, have originated. The plant is tender, but flow- 

 ers in great profusion from June to October, when 

 jjlanted out in the garden, and will .^attain the height of 

 two or three feet from small plants ; but, when old plants 

 are turned out, they form quite large shrubs, from four to 

 eight feet high, "with bushy heads two or three feet thick. 

 It presents a pleasing appearance when the different 

 varieties are planted in groups on the back side of the 

 flow^er-border, on the lawn, or in front of the shrubbery. 

 The flowers are arranged in numerous hemispherical com- 

 pact heads, an inch or more in diameter ; the varieties now 

 in cultivation are : those with scarlet flowers in the outer 

 rows of the head, with orange ones in the center ; purple, 

 delicately edged with straw outside, orange center ; pure 

 Avhite, with yellow eye; yellow and white; purple and 

 violet-red, etc. ; the colors changeable. The heads of 

 flowers are j^roduced in pairs from the axils of the leaves. 

 The stems are angular and somewhat prickly. The foli- 

 age is elegant, of a deep shining green ; leaves in pairs, 

 opposite, ovate-acuminate, roughish, deeply veined, edges 

 finely serrate. The flowers are succeeded by clusters of 

 green drupes or berries, which turn to a deep-blue when 

 ripe. The flowers and foliage wilt so readily and the flow- 

 ers drop so soon, that I could not recommend them for 

 bouquets, even if the odor were more agreeable. 



LASTHENIA. 

 Lasth^nia ^labrata. — A dwarf annual plant from Cal- 

 ifornia, ten to twelve inches high, bearing a profusion of 

 small yellow flowers, in the style of a Sunflower. Not 

 likely to become very popular. 



