88 The Petunia. 



THE PETUNIA. > 



By Joseph Breck, Ex-President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



The petunia is a flower of rather recent introduction. It is not noticed 

 in the edition of "Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Plants" published in 1829. 

 I find from another source that the purple petunia {Petunia purpurea) was 

 introduced into England from South America (its native place) in 183 1. 

 " The name is said to be from petun, the Brazilian name for tobacco, a 

 plant to which the petunia is closely related." The white species, P. nyc- 

 taginiflora^ has large white flowers. The foliage of both these species is 

 characterized by possessing a viscid or glutinous substance, unpleasant to 

 the touch, and not very agreeable in its odoriferous qualities. It is, there- 

 fore, unfit for a nice bouquet, as the flowers partake in some degree the 

 offensive properties of the leaves and stems, though the improved varieties 

 are somewhat modified in this respect. The fine hybrid flowers, in all 

 their gay colors, are very effective when arranged in a flat dish, with some 

 green foliage, like that of the smilax. From these two distinct species 

 have proceeded the numerous showy and improved varieties now culti- 

 vated by florists. Their number and beauty appear to be increasing every 

 year by the wonderful process of hybridization. Thus they break out into 

 beautiful shades and colors, of rose, purple, crimson, and dark maroon, 

 striped, blotched, or edged with white ; or pure white or rose richly veined 

 with purple, rose, or carmine ; or any of these varieties, with a lively green 

 border ; also every color and shade found in the single sorts may be seen 

 in the numerous double and semi-double varieties. 



Some of the last-named are very beautiful, and have rather gained on 

 my fancy of late, since I have produced many beautiful varieties from fecun- 

 dated seed obtained from Prussian florists the present season. 



The seed comes in homcEopathic doses, very little being obtained from 

 these improved sorts, as there is only here and there a capsule upon a 

 plant, and these containing but a few seeds. It does not come to us by the 

 ounce, or by the sixteenth or thirty-second of an ounce, as do many other 

 choice seeds, but by the thousand seeds. Now, ten thousand petunia- 

 seeds will not make much of a show in a teaspoon : so that it will be per- 



