COLLINSIA. 



116 



COLOUR. 



house plants grown for the sake of th 

 foliage, which is highly variegated and 

 diverse colours in strong contrast, crimson 

 white, dark and light green, bronze 

 maroon, yellow, &c., the leaves being 

 generally of one of these colours, broadb 

 edged, banded, blotched, tinted or mottlec 

 with another and sometimes more of the 

 others. The habit, form and colouring o 

 the leaves may be gathered from the ac 

 companying illustration. The plants are 

 valuable for bedding out in the open air in 

 the summer time, and for decorative pur- 

 poses in the conservatory, &c. They are 

 highly sensitive to cold, and if kept during 

 the winter should be stored in a warm 



house whose temperature is never allowed 

 to fall lower than from 60 to 55. The 

 plants can be raised from seed, but known 

 varieties, of which there are very many, 

 must be propagated by cuttings put in at 

 any time from spring to autumn, and struck 

 in a frame with good bottom heat, and 

 plenty of moisture within. They like a light 

 rich soil, and when rooted the young 

 plants should be repotted and shifted 

 frequently and pinched back to induce 

 bush-like growth. Some few of the genus 

 are annuals, but they are mostly perennials. 

 Colens Blumei or Blum's Coleus'with its 

 numerous varieties is the best known of 

 the genus. 



Collin'sia (not. ord. Scrophularla'cese). 

 An exceedingly pretty, free-flowering 



popular genus of hardy annuals, remarkably 

 attractive in beds, or mixed borders. Some 



COLLINSIA BICOLOR. A. PLANT B. FLOWER. 



five or six varieties are now supplied by 

 seedsmen. 



Colour, Arrangement of. 



Colours are separated into cool and 

 warm colours. The former should prevail 

 n gardens laid out on gravel, which is itself 

 generally a warm colour ; the latter is those 

 aid out on grass, which is invariably a cold 

 colour. For instance, in gardens on gravel, 

 rey, lilac, yellow, white, blue, green, &c., 

 should predominate ; in those on grass, 

 Durple, pink, scarlet, and orange should 

 prevail. White, however, is equally suitable 

 "or gardens of both descriptions, and, unless 

 where the gravel is very light, is always 

 triking and effective ; and nothing can 

 well be more chaste or beautiful than beds, 

 >road margins, or lines of white contiguous 

 o grass it is equally striking in juxta- 

 osition to bright red gravel. As a practical 

 ule, the most intense colours should be 

 laced in the centre of beds, and the less 

 ecided tints used for contrasting rings or 

 dgings. Generally, too, the smaller the 

 >eds the more liberally may the intense 

 olours as scarlet, &c. be introduced, 

 nd vice versd. A bed containing fifty 

 lants of "Defiance" verbena is a gem of 

 eauty; a large bed of 500 dazzles and 

 ffends by its excessive glare. In nearly 

 11 cases, such masses require broad margins 



