THE ABUTILON 



Abutilmi striatum. 



never rains but it pours" may 

 be a suitable text for a discourse 

 on the abutilon. Only the other 

 day — say the day before yesterday 

 — somebody discovered that the 

 abutilon might by careful cross- 

 breeding be made to yield a vast 

 variety of characters and colours. 

 Presto ! Now there are dozens 

 of new names and varieties, and 

 they constitute attractive and in- 

 teresting collections of decorative 

 plants for festive dressings as 

 well as for the quiet conservatory, 

 as the florists multiplied the 

 vaueties they forgot the native inborn 

 elegance of the plant, and were con- 

 tent to grow their named varieties in the form of diminu- 

 tive bushes, certainly very pretty, but affording no idea of 

 the proper splendour of the plant. Let us, then, turn from 

 the new to the old fashion. The turn tabes us into a snug 

 conservatory, where the plants are allowed to show a little 

 of the negligence of nature "' wild and wide." Here the 

 abutilon appears as a luxurious vine, with elegant leaves 



