THE ASTER FAMILY. 247 



tion is a hybrid Sonchus, raised between Sonchus laciniatus and 

 S. gummifer, in the garden of W. Wilson Saunders, Esq. 

 These Sonchuses, grown to a single stem, and furnished down 

 to the pot with their elegantly-cut drooping leaves, which are 

 almost transparent under artificial light, form admirable objects 

 for the purpose above mentioned. 



Ageratum. A genus of South American Composites, the 

 best known species being A. mexicanum, which has been exten- 

 sively employed as a pale-blue or lavender-coloured bedding 

 plant. Cuttings of the young shoots strike freely in heat, 

 either in spring or autumn. Seed is frequently produced, 

 especially on pot-plants grown indoors, and it germinates 

 readily treated like Cineraria. Several dwarf-growing varieties 

 have been obtained from seeds or sports. 



Asters. A large genus of herbaceous plants, popularly 

 known as " Michaelmas Daisies," and very ornamental during 

 the late autumn months. The most showy kinds are A. 

 novcE-anglice, and its rosy and purple flowered varieties, A. 

 cassiarabicus, A. turbinellus, and A. versicolor. There are few 

 late-flowering hardy plants which would repay a little extra 

 trouble and attention on the part of the hybridiser better than 

 these. One of the best of all the late-flowering species is the 

 white and lilac flowered A. versicolor a fresh small plant, little 

 over a foot in height, and yet as showy in its way as the large- 

 growing kinds, some of which attain a height of from six to 

 eight feet in deep rich soils. To obtain ripe seed from the very 

 late kinds, it would be necessary to pot them, and remove them 

 to a dry sunny greenhouse ; and as a compact-habited seed- 

 bearing parent, A. versicolor would undoubtedly be the best 

 dwarf kind. This might be crossed reciprocally with A. nova- 

 anglicz, and its varieties pulchellus or roseus or A. turbinellus ; 

 and the result, if we mistake not, would be a hybrid race far 

 better and more ornamental than nine-tenths of the species 

 or forms now grown. Indeed it is questionable whether this 

 plant would not rival the Chrysanthemum in a few years as a 

 pot-plant for winter-flowering, if cross-breeding were intelligently 

 carried out. Even seeds, collected from the best forms, might 

 produce many improved varieties, for these flowers are much 

 visited during sunny weather by bees, flies, and other insects, 

 and doubtless cross-fecundation is, through these, accidentally 

 effected. At any rate, here is an open field for some intelligent 

 cross-breeder to try experiments, which may be easily con- 

 ducted, even by a beginner. 



Two or three hundred kinds from North America, China, and 

 North India are named in books as species, but most of these 



