46 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



truly-elegant, well-grown plant is, but also those who, having the knowl- 

 edge, are willing to take the pains and bestow the care necessary to insure 

 beauty and perfection. It is a false mistaken idea that the only object to 

 be attained in raising plants is abundance of bloom, and still more erro- 

 neous to suppose that an ill-grown plant will produce more flowers than 

 one grown into fine shape, and properly trained and cared for. These 

 errors will in time be overcome, for the true principles of beauty will at 

 length be evident to all, and must prevail. 



Many verbenas, which for greenhouse blooming are unsurpassed, are 

 worthless for bedding purposes ; the petal of the flower being too thin, or 

 the color fading or changing. Again, some bloom well in winter, others far 

 better in summer ; some form large masses and flower well, others are of 

 rambling growth and poor bloomers ; some of creeping, others of more 

 upright habit ; while a few possess every desirable quality, and in making 

 a selection all these properties are to be considered. 



We have said that seedlings were produced with great ease. The verbena 

 seeds well where the plants have not been too long propagated by cut- 

 tings ; a long-continued propagation by cuttings seems to diminish the 

 power of the plants to produce seed, and, as a general rule, the further 

 removed a plant is from a seedling the less the chance of its perfecting 

 good seed. The seeds may be sown in a hotbed or greenhouse, early in 

 spring, and the plants, when about an inch and a half high, pricked out in 

 the border ; it is a good plan to pinch out the leading shoot, as thus the 

 plants branch and become stronger; the plants grow rapidly, and soon 

 show bloom. 



But, to raise a seedling is one thing, to raise a fine seedling, a far differ- 

 ent. Of many hundred raised in the course of the last few years, by the 

 writer, not more than half a dozen have been worthy of preservation, and 

 only one (and that produced by chance) really a first-class flower. 



In raising seed nmch may be done to insure its quality by planting fine 

 varieties together and allowing them to intertwine, then gathering the seed 

 from these plants. No rule can be laid down to obtain any desired color, 

 for the seedlings sport infinitely ; we can only approximate towards definite 

 results ; thus, if we plant Annie (white) and Robinson's Defiance (red) to- 

 gether, the seedling will be likely to be pink. 



The flowers of the verbena are of every color and shade, except light 

 blue and yellow, which colors have never been obtained. The writer, 

 some years since, by a curious process of watering and fertilization with a 

 white verbena, obtained a seedling which proved on blooming to be of a 

 light straw color; the plant was weak and sickly, and died before cuttings 

 could be taken. Since that time he has tried the result often, but never 

 with any successful result. 



The qualities of a first-class verbena, as laid down by florists, are: 

 roundness ofjloiver, without indenture, notch or serrature ; petals thick, Jlat, 

 bright and smooth; the plant should be compact, with short, si rons; joints, 

 either distinctly of a shrubby habit, or a close ground creeper or climber; the 

 trusses of bloom compact, standing out from the foliage, the flowers meeting, 



