SCHIZANTHUS. 245 



It is of easy culture, and is fast gaming its way into pub- 

 lic favor. The footstalk of the plant is erect ; tubes of 

 the corolla longer than the calyx ; lips variously cut, mid- 

 dle one, narrow shaped ; the upper, square and abrupt ; the 

 seed simple, shell-like, possessing a wrinkled integument ; 

 albumen fleshy. There are a number of varieties of the 

 Schizanthus ; their flowers are rather fanciful and novel in 

 appearance. 



All of this family grow readily in a rich loam ; the 

 treatment of one suits the whole ; and the plant is found to 

 do best if the seed be sown in August. When the seed- 

 lings have formed two leaves they should be potted off into 

 thumb pots, and when the pots are filled with roots, they 

 should be shifted into one of three inches. Great care 

 must be observed against injuring the root fibres, as they 

 are tender, and cause the leaves to droop. When you dis- 

 cover your plants in this condition, you must not give 

 them water, even if their appearance should lead you to 

 suppose that to be necessary. It should be kept from the 

 frost, and in May repotted into one of five inches, if in 

 tended to flower in the house ; or it may be placed in the 

 open ground. To secure a second crop of this delightful 

 flower, sow more seed in the spring. Such is the nature 

 of its disposition to flower, that, if well grown, it will be 

 studded with from five to eight hundred flowers at a time, 

 and it will continue to flower about five months ; this 

 makes it a desirable plant for the parlor or flower garden. 

 The Schizanthus does not like a moist situation, neither 

 should it be planted where the wind will affect it, or 

 it will be destroyed. The soil should be a sandy loam. * 



