2+4 



MY GARDEN. 



a laro-e plant, with leaves more than two feet long, so that it should 

 not be used in too prominent a position, although I find it very 

 ornamental in my garden. 



Another striking plant of rare beauty is the variegated Indian Corn 



{Zea Mays, fig. 489). The ' male and 

 female flowers are separate, and 

 every future corn has a slender hair- 

 like prolongation to receive the 

 pollen as it falls. It is worth grow- 

 ing for this phenomenon alone, but 

 the whole is graceful and beautiful, 

 especially in warm summers. The 

 corn should be sown in a frame in 



T^^IG. 489. — Indian Com, -n »■ i , , i i - ■» «■ 



March, and transplanted m May. 

 Of all the annuals, the most charming florists' flower, for late 

 summer, is unquestionably the Aster {A. chinensis, fig. 490), from the 

 brightness and diversity of the colour of its flower. They are divided 

 into varieties called chrysanthemum-flowered, pyramidal, peony-flowered, 

 quilled (fig. 491), miniature, and otlier varieties. We depend upon 



Fig. 49a.— French Tasselled 

 Aster. 



Fig. 491. — German Quilled 

 Aster. 



Fia 492. — Garden S::abious. 



oregners for the seed of these beautiful flowers. Sometimes it is 

 excellent, and the flowers lovely. At other times, I have purchased 

 seed which was very indiff-erent. When I go to Paris I generally 

 purchase a packet of seed, though I have sometimes had it better, 

 and sometimes worse, from the seedsmen of this country. The seed 

 should be sown thinly in a pan, in a cold frame, and transplanted 



