The Zinnia Family. 325 



this fiimily, consisting of scarlet,' crimson, orange, yellow, purple, and 

 white. 



Ten years ago, we did not even dream that a flower so rigid and uncouth 

 in its last stages would ever be so transformed as to take its place among 

 the so-called florist's flowers ; but so it has, showing what can be done by 

 the patience and skill of the lover of flowers. 



It is within the last twelve or fifteen 3'ears, that a florist in France per- 

 ceived on zinnia plants, flowers that had doubled their ray petals. The 

 idea was suggested, that, if they had thus overstepped their natural charac- 

 ter, there was a probability that a full double flower might be produced. 

 He carefully saved the seed of these plants, and found, in a few years, that 

 v^-hat had been a probability was a certainty, and, to his great joy, beheld a 

 perfectly double flower ; and soon found, that, as in the parents, they sport- 

 ed into all their beautiful colors and shades, excepting white. 



A box of these novelties was sent from Paris to the London Horticultural 

 Society, on exhibition, without the name. At first they were supposed to be 

 dahlias, being as large and perfect as that flower ; but, upon closer exami- 

 nation, they were surprised to find them to be double zinnias. Soon the 

 seed was in the possession of every florist. No pure double white zinnia 

 has yet been seen in this country ; but it is in existence, and in possession 

 of Messrs. Vilmorin, Andrieux, & Co., florists, of Paris, as I was informed 

 by an agent of that house. They are now accumulating a stock of this 

 seed, so that we shall soon add to our collection of these brilliant colors a 

 pure white zinnia. The double as well as the single flowers lose their per- 

 fection and beauty in the last stages of their inflorescence, unless they are 

 very double, and, even then, they indicate the source from which they sprang. 

 They produce but very little perfect seed, which should not be sowed until 

 the last of May ; for if it He long in the ground when the ground is cold 

 and wet, it will perish, and not vegetate. 



The little yellow-birds make sad havoc with this flower when seeding. 

 They will pick the flowers all to pieces to get the seeds, of which they seem 

 to be very fond, and the ground under the plants is often covered with the 

 fragments of the flower : they commit the same ravages on the marigold 

 family ; but who can blame thera ? 



Zinnia Haageana. — A beautiful species, with smaller and more delicate 



