20 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



It should be free from worms, and moist enough without 

 being wet in fact, a good test of a potting compost is 

 that it may be handled without soiling the fingers. 

 Where there is no accommodation for raising half-hardy 

 annuals under glass, the seed may be sown where the 

 plants are required in the open ground, but this should 

 not be done until the end of April. 



In the " Loves of the Plants," by the elder Darwin, 

 the tropseolum is the subject of a fanciful description, in 

 which the poet contrives to inform us that the flower has 

 eight stamens and one pistil, and that it occasionally emits 

 flashes' of phosphoric light : 



" Ere the bright star which tends the morning sky 

 Hangs o'er the flushing east his diamond eye, 

 The chaste Tropaeo leaves her secret bed ; 

 A saint-like glory trembles round her head ; 

 Eight watchful swains along the lawns of night 

 With amorous steps pursue the virgin light ; 

 O'er her fair form the electric lustre plays, 

 And cold she moves amid the lambent blaze. 

 So shines the glow-fly when the sun retiree, 

 And gems the night air with phosphoric fires ; 

 Thus o'er the marsh aerial lights betray 

 And charm the unwary wanderer fiom his way." 



