20 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 
It should be free from worms, and moist enough without 
being wet—in fact, a good test of a potting compost is 
that it may be handled without soiling the fingers. 
Where there is no accommodation for raising half-hardy 
annuals under glass, the seed may be sown where the 
plants are required in the open ground, but this should 
not be done until the end of April. 
In the ‘Loves of the Plants,’ by the elder Darwin, 
the tropwolum is the subject of a fanciful description, in 
which the poet contrives to inform us that the flower has 
eight stamens and one pistil, and that it oceasionally emits 
flashes of phosphoric light :— 
“Ere the bright star which tends the morning sky 
Hangs o'er the flushing east his diamond eye, 
The chaste Tropivo leaves her secret bed; 
A saint-like glory trembles round her head ; 
Fight watchful swains along the lawns of night 
With amorous steps pursue the virgin light ; 
O’er her fair form the electric lustre plays, 
And cold she moves amid the lambent blaze. 
So shines the glow-fly when the sun retires, 
And gems the night air with phosphoric fires ; 
Thus o’er the marsh acrial lights betray 
And charm the wmwary wanderer from his way.” 
