90 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 



and horticulture of his day, which were not altogether 

 favourable to science. The genus has a wide geographical 

 range, but a majority of the species are American. The 

 plant figured is the best known of all, and is certainly a 

 very charming subject for pot or border culture. Although 

 a perennial, it may be grown as an annual by sowing the 

 seeds in heat and nursing the plants under glass until 

 May, when they should be carefully hardened by gradual 

 exposure to the free air, and be planted out towards the 

 end of the month. The tuberous roots may be preserved 

 in the same way as dahlia roots, but should never be quite 

 dry ; the best way to keep them is to take them up early 

 in October, and, having removed the stems, pack them in 

 moist sand in a large flower-pot, and put this under the 

 greenhouse stage where no damp will reach it, for if the 

 roots get wet in winter they will rot. As it is such an 

 easy matter to raise a stock from seed, there is no great 

 inducement to keep the roots. Nevertheless, they are 

 useful to the cultivator who cannot conveniently raise 

 early seedlings, because he may sow the seed in the open 

 border at the end of May and take up good roots in 

 October, and by keeping these make sure of a good bloom 

 in the season following. If the tubers are planted at 

 the end of May they will begin to grow immediately and 

 make fine plants ; but a better way is to start them into 

 growth in pots in a frame or greenhouse first, and defer 

 planting until the early part of June. Supposing there 

 is no need to save the roots, they may still be turned to 

 account ; when boiled in salt and water and served with 

 white sauce they constitute an agreeable table vegetable, 

 and thus the flower garden may in this respect be made 

 sttbservient to the dinner table. 



