THE ZINNIA. 



Zinnia eleyiois. 



HERE are some eight or ten 

 species of zinnia known to gardens, 

 but only one of them has become 

 a favourite, and that abundantly 

 deserves the pre-eminence it has 

 attained as one of the most 

 splendid of our annual flowers. 

 The figure carries us back to the 

 original form of the flower as it 

 was known fifty years ago, and 

 it represents very faithfully the 

 variety known as "coccinea," or 

 the scarlet-rayed zinnia . The 

 species was introduced from Mexico 

 in 1796, and the scarlet-rayed 

 variety came into our hands in 

 1829, and was thought much of 

 for its brilliant colour and stately habit. During the fifty 

 years that have elapsed since it appeared, the flower has been 

 improved in all its characters, and we now possess a race 

 of perfectly double zinnias, the flowers of which show no 

 central disc, but are perfect rosettes of exquisite form, and 

 of every shade of colour except blue. There is not a more 

 striking instance of floral advancement, accomplished by 



