360 breck's new book of flowers. 



beautiful. A rich, velvety, dark, reddish-brown, is the 

 most common color. This, when striped and variegated 

 with yellow, is still more beautiful ; then there are flowers 

 of a plain lemon or orange-yellow color, or dark-brown, 

 edged with yellow, and variously shaded; these, when 

 full double like the Ranunculus, are superb. Some of the 

 single varieties with brown and yellow-striped petals, 

 are also fine. The only drawback to this beautiful flower 

 is the odor, which is disagreable to many persons. This 

 species is sometimes called the Velvet or Ranunculus 

 Marigold. It is in flower from July to October, and in 

 rich ground, if planted singly, or two or three feet distant 

 fiom any other plant, will make quite a large bush before 

 it is cut down by frost. All the varieties of this and the 

 African Marigold are apt to degenerate, even when the 

 seed is saved from the most perfect flowers, unless the 

 single varieties in their neighborhood are pulled up and 

 thrown away as soon as they show flower. 



T. er^cta. — African Marigold. — This is also one of the 

 old inhabitants of the flower-garden, and although called 

 African, it, with the preceeding, came from South America. 

 The large double varieties of this species are very rich ; 

 the colors from a pale citron-yellow to deep-orange. The 

 seed may be sown any time in May. The plants should 

 be transj^lanted when large enough, into patches of four 

 or five plants each ; all inferior sorts should be pulled up 

 as soon as the flowers appear. One plant is enough for 

 one place, which, if tied up to a support and trimmed oc- 

 casionally, will give good satisfaction and will continue to 

 flower till frost. 



T. Si^nata. — This species of Marigold is of recent in- 

 troduction, and, when properly cultivated, forms a strik- 

 ing ornament of the flower-garden. The variety called 

 T. signata pumila, is not more than one foot in height, 

 forming a compact hemispherical bush from one to two 



