134 FA^IIIIAT! GAIIDEX FLOjrERS. 



Iinliii, whereas it is a native of Peru, whence it was iiitro- 

 diued in l.j'.JO — a date full of suggestions to the reader 

 who can surround it with a circle of great names and im- 

 jiortant events. 



Tlie common major iropaohi m is as well known as any 

 llower of the garden. We see it festooning the ciittage 

 fence \\ith its distinct glaucous leafage and flaunting 

 orange or deep crimson flowers, and we know that if we 

 get a nicely-hoiled leg of mutton with cajier sauce in wliich 

 the green seeds are substituted for real capers, we shall do 

 remarkalily well, especially if the same garden sujiplies a 

 dish of delicate turnips. For pickling, the major tropd'olimi 

 is the best, but the dwarf kind answers very well, and it is 

 invaluable for bedding and for covering rough, dry, sunny 

 ground — for dryness, warmth, and a jjoor soil are conditions 

 favourable to their full development. The seed-growers 

 have estaljlished several very distinct races of dwarf annual 

 I riiji<rii/i(iiix for bedding purposes, and they are extremely 

 showy, l->ut so far coarse and weedy that thov are not to lie 

 regarded as fu'st-class bedding plants. But this deprecia- 

 tif)n of them would hardly stand in the face of a group 

 that appeared on one of the lawns between the bridge and 

 the corridor of the Paris Exhilution nf 1S7S. This gnuip 

 contained about thirty sorts, every plant being a model 

 of growth and lieauty. The flijwers comprised white, 

 primrose, yellow, orange, scarlet, crimson, and purple, 

 and a few that inclined to chocolate and slate-colour. 

 They are the cheapest of all bedding plants, and the 

 easiest to grow; and the best way to manage them is to 

 sow the seed in iiots towards the end of T^farch, and jilant 

 Ihem out alioui the miildle of jMay, selecting for them a 

 sunny situation and a poor soil. Put Ihev may be sown 



