XXIX.] EARLY FORMS OF PETUNIA. 469 



May (1836), a season too early for them to come to 

 perfection in the open border." These hybrid pe- 

 tunias were even described as a distinct species, Nie- 

 remhergia Athinsiana ; and this fact is still remem- 

 bered in some books in Petunia violacea var. Athin- 

 siana. Harrison gave a colored plate of these hj^brid 

 petunias in 1837 in his Floricultural Cabinet, but 

 without description. He says, in an earlier issue of 

 the magazine for that year, that the ' ' impregnation 

 of P. violacea and P. nyctagini flora has produced sev- 

 eral very charming varieties, such as pale pink with 

 a dark center, sulphur with dark center, white with 

 dark center, and others streaked and veined with 

 dark. The size of the flowers of some of these 

 hybrids has been much increased, some being three 

 inches across." It would be interesting to know if 

 Petunia intermedia, which was introduced about the 

 same time as P. violacea, and which appears to be lost 

 to cultivation, entered into any of these early hybrids. 

 Here, then, our common petunias started, as hybrids; 

 but the most singular part of the history is that the 

 true old Petunia violacea is lost to cultivation ! 



The pen drawing (p. 468) shows the closest ap- 

 proach to the true P. violacea which I have observed 

 in several years' study of the petunia. Two or three 

 plants came from a packet of mixed seed. But even 

 this shows a flower -tube too long and a limb or 

 border too wide ; and perhaps the leaves are too 

 broad. The nearest approach to the true species 

 among the named varieties which I have seen, is the 

 neat little white -tubed, purple -limbed Countess of 

 Ellesmere. Vilmorin makes this variety a subdivision 

 of Petunia violacea, and calls it Gloire de Segrez, or 



