244 



MY GARDEN. 



a large plant, with leaves more than two feet long, so that it should 

 not be used in too prominent a position, although I find it very 

 ornamental in my garden. 



Another striking plant of rare beauty is the variegated Indian Corn 



(Zea Mays, fig. 489). The male and 

 female flowers are separate, and 

 every future corn has a slender hair- 

 like prolongation to receive the 

 pollen as it falls. It is worth grow- 

 ing for this phenomenon alone, but 

 the whole is graceful and beautiful, 

 especially in warm summers. The 

 corn should be sown in a frame in 

 FK, 489-indian Corn. March, and transplanted in May. 



Of all the annuals, the most charming florists' flower, for late 

 summer, is unquestionably the Aster (A. chincnsis, fig. 490), from the 

 brightness and diversity of the colour of its flower. They are divided 

 into varieties called chrysanthemum-flowered, pyramidal, peony-flowered, 

 quilled (fig. 491), miniature, and other varieties, We depend upon 



FIG. 490. French Tassellfid 

 Aster. 



FIG. 491. German Quilled 1 

 Aster. 



FK;. 492. Garden Scabixis. 



foreigners for the seed of these beautiful flowers. Sometimes it is 

 excellent, and the flowers lovely. At other times, I have purchased 

 seed which was very indifferent. When I go to Paris I generally 

 purchase a packet of seed, though I have sometimes had it better, 

 and sometimes worse, from the seedsmen of this country. The seed 

 should be sown thinly in a pan, in a cold frame, and transplanted 



