102 FAMILIAR GARDEN FLOWERS, 
seed in hight, rich soil in the month of March, and put the 
pan contaiming the seeds on a mild hotbed or in a warm 
greenhouse. When the plants are somewhat forward they 
should be pricked out into pans or pots, aud have another 
term of culture in a warm house, and having been hardened 
by careful exposure to the air, be planted out where they 
are to flower. The rough treatment that suits some half- 
hardy annuals will simply fail to produce a fair bloom of 
this pretty plant, for it requires a long season of growth 
before flowering, and is decidedly tender in constitution. 
When well grown, however, it is replete with refined 
beauty, owing to the profusion and delicacy of its tiny 
slaty-blue flowers, and so we reeommend the diligent 
amateur who can care for little things to grow a few nice 
specimens in pots. Having raised the plants on a moderate 
hotbed, prick them out to strengthen as already advised, and 
instead of planting them out to flower, put them in eight- 
inch pots, about four plants to a pot, using rich, light soil, 
and grow them on in the greenhouse, training them up with 
care, and keeping them near the glass and well ventilated. 
The elegant Schizunthus pinnatus, 8. porrigens, 8. 
Grahami, and S. refusus are closely allied to the Browallia, 
and may be grown in the same way, but are less in need of 
heat, as they are hardier. At all events, the two first- 
named are hardy enough to be sown on the open border, 
but are good enough to repay the trouble of growing them 
well in pots, for they make most charming specimens ; and 
the better if sown in autumn, so as to have a long season 
of growth before flowering. 
These flowers belong to the important order Serophu- 
larince, im which we find not only the Browallia and 
schizanthus, but the calceolaria, verbascum, antirrhinum, 
