286 2Tt)e C&artoen's 



varieties the gold- and silver-leaved are the 

 most desirable, always elegant in the rock-gar- 

 den or flower-border. A singular flower at this 

 season is that of one of the tobacco-plants (Nico- 

 tiana affinis), which opens its long, pale trumpet 

 in the evening, exhaling a rich odor like that of 

 the petunia. This scent it withholds during the 

 day. When cut, the flowers remain open in 

 the house, scentless during the day, and becom- 

 ing odorous at night. The plant itself, an an- 

 nual, can scarcely be considered ornamental, and 

 its leaves are a great favorite of the potato-bug. 

 But at dusk the numerous long-tubed white 

 flowers are very conspicuous and striking, and 

 it well merits a place in the rear garden for cut- 

 ting purposes. Nicotiana tabacum, the culti- 

 vated tobacco, and its varieties, are fine tropical- 

 looking plants, with huge leaves, that may be 

 employed to excellent advantage as foliage- 

 plants, in company with the eulalias, and the 

 taller growing grasses and rushes. But, being 

 annuals and tender, they require to be raised 

 from seed sown early in the spring. The even- 

 ing primrose is likewise a curious flower, lighting 

 its pale-yellow lamps in the evening and extin- 

 guishing them by day. The flowers open audi- 

 bly, the expanding of the corolla being charac- 

 terized by a peculiar sound as the flowers pop 



