DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 297 



the front of the border, and are beautiful annuals for pots. 



N. atomaria. — Dotted Love-grove. — The growth is the 

 same as the preceeding, with flowers which are white, dot- 

 ted with dark-purple. It is the original of several of the 

 garden varieties, among which are : iV^ discoidalis elegans, 

 in which the flowers are of a light chocolate, or reddish- 

 maroon color, conspicuously and distinctly bordered with 

 white, and iV^ discoidalis vittata with nearly black flow- 

 ers, broadly margined with white. 



N. macillata. — Spotted Love-grove. — Similar in habit 

 and size of flowers to I^. insignis, but the white flower 

 has a dark-violet blotch on each one of the petals. JV. 

 aurita, with purplish-blue flowers, is sometimes cultivated. 



NICOTIANA.-ToBAcco. 



[Named for Jean Nicot, who first introduced the plant hito France.] 



Mcotiana Tabacum. — Tobacco. — This is cultivated in 

 fields for its narcotic leaves. The flower is somewhat 

 showy, and it may be grown in the garden as a curiosity, 

 as well as for its leaves, which are useful to destroy in- 

 sects. Its decoction, the powder of the leaves, and the 

 smoke produced when they are burned, are all used by the 

 gardener in freeing his plants from insects. It Avould be 

 well if the plant were raised only for the destruction of 

 insects, rather than, as I fear is the cause, for the destruc- 

 tion of human beings. 



N. longiflora. — Long-flowered Tobacco. — Star Petunia. 

 — An annual species, with much the habit of a Petunia, 

 with pure white flowers, having a long tube and a star- 

 like limb to the corolla. 



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