134 GARDEN FLOWERS, 



as its name implies, a native of the same land 

 as the one-seeded species. Both in France and 

 Spain it is cultivated as fodder for sheep, and 

 its fibres are woven into a kind of cloth, and 

 still more often made into cordage. Its hand- 

 some flowers are often double, and are of the 

 same bright golden hue as the broom of our 

 heath lands, which Cowper describes as 



" Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloyed.' 



The handsome petunias, now so general, have 

 been but recently objects of culture in this 

 country. When first introduced they were 

 treated as greenhouse plants ; now some are 

 found to be quite hardy, and others, which must 

 be raised on a hot bed, may yet flower in the 

 open air. The petunia earliest brought to 

 England, was the white flower, {Petunia mjcta- 

 ginifloi^a,) noAV so common in gardens and 

 flower-pots, and whose odour is so sweet in the 

 air of the summer evening. Tliis is a native of 

 Brazil, whence it was brought in 1823. It was 

 thought to resemble the tobacco plant, and as 

 the " fragrant weed" of America is known in 

 Brazil by the name of petun, so this flower 

 gained its name. About seven years after the 

 introduction of the white species, the equally 

 common purple kind (Petunia violacea) was 

 brought from Buenos Ayres. Since that period 

 the British gardeners have produced from tliem 

 & great variety of flowers, of white, of all shades 

 of purple and red, and streaked with many 

 beautiful tints. The dwarf shrubby petunia, 



