DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 255 
ca, and is probably the species from which so many beau- 
tiful varieties, that now decorate our green-houses and 
gardens, have originated. The plant is tender, but flow- 
ers in great profusion from June to October, when 
planted out in the garden, and will attain the height of 
two or three feet from small plants; but, when old plants 
are turned out, they form quite large shrubs, from four to 
eight feet high, with bushy heads two or three feet thick. 
It presents a pleasing appearance when the different 
varieties are planted in groups on the back side of the 
flower-border, on the lawn, or in front of the shrubbery. 
The flowers are arranged in numerous hemispherical com- 
pact heads, an inch or more in diameter; the varieties now 
in cultivation are: those with scarlet flowers in the outer 
rows of the head, with orange ones in the center; purple, 
delicately edged with straw outside, orange center; pure 
white, with yellow eye; yellow and white; purple and 
violet-red, etc.; the colors changeable. The heads of 
flowers are produced in pairs from the axils of the leaves. 
The stems are angular and somewhat prickly. The foli- 
age is elegant, of a deep shining green; leaves in pairs, 
opposite, ovate-acuminate, roughish, deeply veined, edges 
finely serrate. The flosvers are succeeded by clusters of 
green drupes or berries; which turn to a deep-blue when 
ripe. The flowers and foliage wilt so readily and the flow- 
ers drop so soon, that I could not recommend them for 
bouquets, even if the odor were more agreeable. 
1S 
LASTHENTA. 
Lasthénia glabrata.—A dwarf annual plant from Cal- 
ifornia, ten to twelve inches high, bearing a profusion of 
small yellow flowers, in the style of a Sunflower. Not 
likely to become very popular. 
