3/8 GENERAL REVIEW. 



ordinary species, has been wrought by domestication. Heer 

 has lately traced the common cultivated Linseed (Linum usi- 

 tatissimuni) of the present day down into Linum angustifolium 

 at the date of the Swiss lake-dwellings." The annual and her- 

 baceous species are easily propagated from seeds, and cuttings 

 of the shrubby section root freely in heat. 



THE LOBELIA FAMILY 



A group of acrid or poisonous plants, principally natives of 

 the West Indies, Brazil, North India, the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and New Holland some representatives being also found in 

 Chili and the Sandwich Islands. Most of the species are char- 

 acterised by the syngenesious anthers which, in nearly every 

 case, discharge their pollen before the stigmatic surface of the 

 style is exposed, or capable of being impregnated. As in Com- 

 posites, the hairy tip of the style forces its way through the 

 tube formed by the adherent anthers ; only in Lobeliads the 

 tips of the anthers form a closed bilabiate mouth, fringed with 

 hairs, and from this mouth the dry bluish pollen is forcibly ex- 

 pelled, if these marginal hairs are irritated, either by the pencil 

 of the observer, or by insects in their struggles to enter the 

 hairy orifice of the curved flower-tube. The pollen of Lobe- 

 liads, if inhaled, produces symptoms of nausea analogous to 

 " hay fever." 



Lobelias are readily propagated, either by seeds sown in pans 

 of light, rich, sandy earth, and placed in a pit or frame near 

 the light, or by cuttings. Sown as soon as ripe in a gentle 

 bottom-heat of 60 to 70, they germinate readily. 



L. erinus and most of its varieties seed freely, but if any par- 

 ticular form is desired, the individual must be increased by 

 cuttings. 



We learn from the * Florist ' that the following mode of pro- 

 pagating Lobelia fulgens has been successfully practised at Mr 

 Ware's, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham: "The pots con- 

 taining the Lobelias are plunged in cocoa-nut fibre ; then the 

 flowering-stems are nearly cut through about an inch from the 

 base, and laid down on their sides, partially covered by the 

 fibre, using pegs or stones at intervals, to keep them in position 

 and close to the plunging material. The result is that plants 

 are formed at every joint of a shoot, for the joints root readily ; 

 and thus an abundant supply of plants can be obtained. This 

 plan, moreover, aids the working of the old method of taking 

 off the young growth that comes round the base of the stem, as 



