NIGHTSHADE FAMILY 



than the other, with a decumbent base, narrower leaves, and small 

 red-purple flowers, which have a very broad or ventricose tube 

 Scarcely twice longer than the slender calyx lobes. This little plant 

 has been known under a variety of names. Lindley was the first 

 to refer it to the genus Petunia and called it Petunia violticea, the 

 name which it still bears. 



" Petunia violacea early hybridized with the older White Petunia, 

 Petunia nycfaginiflora, and as early as 1837 a number of these 

 hybrids— indistinguishable from the common garden forms of the 

 present day — ^were illustrated in colors in the Botanical Magazine. 

 Sir W. J. Hooker, who described these hybrids, declared that it 

 must be confessed that here, as in many other vegetable pro- 

 ductions, the art and skill of the horticulturist had improved 

 nature. Here then our common Petunias started as hybrids, but 

 the most singular part of the history is that the true old Petunia 

 violacea is now lost to cultivation." It could, of course, be re- 

 covered from its native land were it worth while. 



The Petunia of present cultivation seems to have divided into 

 two fairly distinct classes — one a class of general utility plants, 

 represented by the single mixed Petunias of the garden; the 

 ■plant rather low and slender and the colors sporting in every 

 combination of the red-purple and white of the original parents. 

 These make beds in sunny sandy places, and grow where other 

 plants will not. 



The other class may be considered plants of high degree. They 

 are the result of careful culture and hybridization, attained with 

 difficulty and continued only by unceasing care. They are mar- 

 vellously variable in size, form, and color. In some of the strains 

 the flower is very broad and open, measuring four or five inches 

 across. There are types with star-like markings radiating from 

 the throat and extending to the margin of the border; there are 

 flowers deeply fringed and ruffled; there are others fully double. 



The most noted of the latter forms are the California Giant 

 Petunias which were developed by Mrs. Thomas Gould, of Ven- 

 tura, California, in 1888. They embody the application of intelli- 

 gence, skill, and patience to a wonderful degree. No two Petunia 



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