72 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



I to 2 feet, white, long-tubed flowers, sweetly scented in the 

 evening and early morning. This is a beautiful and highly 

 desirable plant for bedding or massing. N. colossea and 

 N. colossea variegata are fine as foliage plants for sub-tropical 

 effect, as they have big leaves and grow 6 feet high. A^. nocti- 

 flora, 3 feet, white and purple, fragrant at night, and its white 

 variety, arc worth attention. N. SandercB is a hybrid, 3 feet, 

 with rosy flowers, but the shade varies considerably ; it is a 

 free flowering and useful garden or greenhouse plant, and 

 was raised by crossing A'', rubra with N. alata. N. sylvestris 

 is a bold plant, rising to 5 feet high, and bearing large, deep 

 green leaves and tall spikes of pendent white flowers. N. 

 Tabacum, 4 feet, has rosy flowers and large leaves ; it is the 

 plant from which commercial Tobacco is obtained, and it has 

 some value in the garden as a foliage plant. 



NIGELLA 



" Love-in-a-Mist " 



The old Nigella damascena {Ranunculacece), with its finely 

 divided, F'ennel-Iike foliage veiling the blue flowers, has been 

 in cultivation for over three hundred years, and the double 

 form has long been a favourite plant. The way in which 

 the involucre leaves lightly veil the flowers has given rise 

 to such curious and popular names as Devil-in-the-Bush, 

 Love-in-a-Mist, and Jack-in-Prison. The greatly improved 

 and comparatively new variety named Miss Jekyll is of 

 better habit than the old form, and its double flowers are 

 of a deep blue shade. There is also a white form of N. 

 damascena. 



The Nigellas are hardy, and the finest plants are usually 

 produced from an Autumn sowing, these often reaching 2 feet 

 high, and forming perfect bushes. Good results follow a 

 Spring sowing under glass, or in the open in April. None 

 of the species likes transplanting, therefore from a sowing 



