DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 317 
tober, and there is no flower like this and its hybrids for 
massing; this is the only good quality about it. The odor 
is unpleasant, and it is not fit for bouquets. 
P. nyctaginifloéra.—Has large white flowers, coarser in 
its growth than the last, and is of the same spreading 
habit. Both are somewhat viscid in their stems and foli- 
age. From these two species have been produced innu- 
merable varieties, with colors much more brilliant. Among 
the improved sorts are the Countess of Ellesmere, rosy- 
carmine with white throat, a very profuse bloomer; 
Largeflowered, dark-red; Largejlowered, purple with 
green edge; Inimitable, red margined and blotched with 
pure white. Hybrida picturata, a most beautiful dwarf 
variety, not exceeding one foot, covered-with large flow- 
ers of fine form and great substance, of a velvety scarlet- 
crimson, beautifully marbled with white. Carnation 
striped, a very beautiful class with flowers with white, 
rosy or lilac ground, with crimson, scarlet and purple 
stripes ; veined on the same grounds with the same bright 
colors. P. kermesina splendens, pure white with purple 
or crimson throat, or blotched with purple or violet. P. 
maxima alba, very large white, and almost every conceiv- 
able combination of colors, excepting yellow and blue. 
But the greatest novelties are the double varieties, in- 
troduced within a few years, which partake of the same 
disposition to sport into a great variety of colors as do 
the single varieties ; but I donot esteem them as any im- 
provement, They are queer mis-shapen monsters, curi- 
osities to be sure, but they are more shy in flowering, 
more liable to injury by rain, and fail to make that grand 
display which the single varieties do, 
The single sorts are easily raised from seed sown in hot- 
beds in May; they may afterwards be pricked out into 
small pots, and, when sufficiently strong, turned into the 
open ground in the beginning of June. If the seed is 
