2012 



ZINNIA 



necessary. Dwarf varieties should be set 14-16 in. 

 apart: taller kinds 2 ft. each way. 



Zinnias have two kinds of seeds, triangular and heart- 

 shaped. The triangular seeds are long, narrow, thick 



2795. Double Zinnias (X %). 



and ridged. The heart-shaped seeds are short, broad 

 and flat. Some growers believe that the heart-shaped 

 seeds tend to produce single flowers; others hold the 

 opposite opinion. 



Generic Description. Zinnia is a genus of 16 

 species of annual, perennial and subshrubby 

 plants, mostly Mexican but ranging from Texas 

 and even Colorado to Chile. They have oppo- 

 site, mostly entire Ivs. and terminal heads of fls. 

 which are peduncled or sessile. Rays pistillate, 

 fertile : disk yellow or purple, its fls. herma- 

 phrodite, fertile: involucre ovate -cylindric or 

 campanulate, the scales in 3 to many series, 

 broad, obtuse or rounded, more or less colored: 

 akenes laterally compressed. 2-toothed at the 



ZINNIA 



summit and frequently 1-awned from the inner angle,, 

 rarely 2-awned. Latest botanical revision by Robinson 

 and Greenman in Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci. 32:14 

 (1897). There is a good summary of cultivated Zinnias- 

 by Voss in Vilmorin's Blumengartneri. Illustrated his- 

 torical sketch in Gn. 48, pp. 464, 465. 



A. Plant annual. 



B. Akenes of the disk fls. short and 



broad, obovate, 2-2% lines long. 

 C. Colors various: It's, clasping, cor- 

 date-ovate or elliptic elegans 



CO. Color orange: Ivs. sessile, nar- 

 rower, lanceolate Haageana 



BB. Akenes longer, narrower, oblong, 



3-4 lines long. 



c. Color of rays yellow: disk yellow, pauciflora 

 CO. Color of rays red or purple. 



D. Jtays suberect or scarcely spread- 

 ing: disk yellow multiflora 



DD. Hays revolute; disk dark-colored, tenuiflora 

 AA. Plant perennial graudiflora 



61egans, Jacq. YOUTH-AND OLD-AGE. The common 

 species from which most of the garden Zinnias are de- 

 rived. Figs. 2794-96. Erect annual, a foot or more 

 high, but varying from 3 in. to 3 ft. : Ivs. ovate or ellip- 

 tic, clasping, about 1 in. wide: rays reflexed, originally 

 purple or lilac, but now of nearly every color except 

 blue and green: disk originally yellow or orange, but 

 nearly or quite absent in the common double forms: 

 fls. 2-5 in. across. July to Oct. Mexico. Single forms 

 ill. in B.M. 527, P.M. 1:223 and B.R. 15:1294 (the last 

 two as Z. violacea). Double forms, F.S. 13:1394, R.H. 

 1861:251; 1864:331. Pompons in Gn. 48, p. 464 (Liliput) ; 

 30:562 (deceptive as to size). R.B. 20, p. 152. 



HaageStna, Regel (Z. Mexicana, Hort.). Fig. 2797. 

 Distinguished from Z. elegans by the orange-colored 

 fls., which are generally smaller; also the plant is 

 dwarfer, as a rule, and the leaves are merely sessile, 

 not clasping. Tropical America. Single forms, Gn. 30, 

 p. 270; 48, p. 464. Double, Gn. 30, p. 271; 48, p. 301. 

 F. 1871, p. 229. A.G. 1892:218.-This is considered by 

 Robinson and Greenman as a horticultural species not 



certainly distinguishable from Z. 



angustifolia in spite of its broader 



leaves, 

 pauciflora, Linn. An erect annual, 



with yellow heads about 1 in. across, 



with rather broad, spreading rays. 



Plant hirsute, with spreading hairs; 



2796. Youth-and-old-age. Common garden Zinnias, single and semi-double. 



