90 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS. 
and horticulture of his day, which were not altogether 
favourable to science. The genus has a wide geographical 
range, but a majority of the species are American. The 
plant figured is the best known of all, and is certainly a 
very charming subject for pot or border culture. Although 
a perennial, it may be grown as an annual by sowing the 
seeds in heat and nursing the plants under glass until 
May, when they should be carefully hardened by gradual 
exposure to the free air, and be planted out towards the 
end of the month. The tuberous roots may be preserved 
in the same way as dahlia roots, but should never be quite 
dry ; the best way to keep them is to take them up early 
in October, and, having removed the stems, pack them in 
moist sand ina large flower-pot, and put this under the 
greenhouse stage where no damp will reach it, for if the 
roots get wet in winter they will rot. As it is such an 
easy matter to raise a stock from seed, there is no great 
inducement to keep the roots. Nevertheless, they are 
useful to the cultivator who cannot conveniently raise 
early seedlings, because he may sow the seed in the open 
border at the end of May and take up good roots in 
October, and by keeping these make sure of a good bloom 
in the season following. If the tubers are planted at 
the end of May they will begin to grow immediately and 
make fine plants ; but a better way is to start them into 
growth in pots ina frame or greenhouse first, and defer 
planting until the early part of June. Supposing there 
is no need to save the roots, they may still be turned to 
account ; when boiled in salt and water and served with 
white sauce they constitute an agreeable table vegetable, 
and thus the flower garden may in this respect be made 
subservient to the dinner table. 
