312 GAKDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



ACANTHACE^]. 

 Thunbergia. 



T. alata. A very beautiful small climbing annual, all but 

 naturalised in this country ; bears round, flat flowers of moderate 

 size, and of a great variety of shades of colour, white, yellow, 

 buff, and orange, with and without a dark purple eye. Sow 

 the seed in October. Some attention should be given to the 

 gathering of the seed-pods, otherwise when quite ripe they fly 

 open suddenly, and the seed becomes lost. 



SCROPHULARIACE.E. 



Browallia. 



i 



B. elata. A small annual of upright growth, comes into 

 blossom seven or eight weeks from the time of sowing, and 

 produces a profusion of small bright-blue flowers, which last a 

 very long time. To be effective several plants must be grown 

 together in a group. Sow the seed in October. 



Salpiglossis. 



S. sinuata. A tall, erect-growing annual, of exquisite beauty 

 when in full blossom, with its numerous delicately-pencilled 

 velvety flowers, of the size and form of a thimble, and of 

 various shades of colour. Sir J. Paxton says it is a native of 

 Chili, " where it grows on dry clay banks, which are baked by 

 the sun till they are little less hard than flints."* Sow the seed 

 in October, and prick out the plants when about an inch or so 

 high to the places where they are to remain. They come into 

 blossom very late, not before the end of April, but thrive well 

 in the border, and continue to flower till the Rains set in and 

 destroy them. 



Schizanthus. 



Annuals of rather straggling, untidy habit, but very pretty 

 when in full blossom, with their numberless, curiously-formed, 

 somewhat small flowers of various colours. I have never seen 

 them blossom freely enough in this country to make amends 



* ' Flower Garden/ vol. ii. p. 1C7. 



