336 Marvel of Peru. 



Jalapa, consequently our plant is known often as the False 

 Jalap. We are indebted to Dr. Houston for this discovery, 

 he having ascertained the fact in the Spanish West Indies, 

 from whence he brought over a drawing of the plant, made by 

 a Spaniard at Xalapa or Hala.pa. 



The Marvel of Peru has a fusiform root, which should be 

 taken up in the autumn, and kept undercover in dry sand until 

 the spring, when it may be planted where it is to flower ; but 

 as the seeds which arc sown in the spring produce plants that 

 flower in the summer, this mode of preserving the roots is not 

 usually attended to. 



The seeds should be sown in early spring, quite early, on a 

 moderate hot-bed. When the plants come up, plenty of air 

 should be admitted as often as the weather is mild, and when 

 they are about two inches in height they may be transplanted 

 into a second very moderate hot-bed; or each plant be put 

 into a small pot filled with light rich earth, and plunged into a 

 hot-bed, from whence they maybe taken out into the borders 

 with more security than those that are planted in the bed. 

 As soon as the plants have taken root in the second hot-bed, 

 they should be gradually inured to the open air, which will 

 prepare them for the open garden about the beginning of June. 

 The seeds may be sown in a warm open border in April, 

 which will give plants for the autumn flowering. 



From the size of these plants, being branchy, and from three 

 to five feet in height, they are better calculated for the fore- 

 ground of the shrubbery than for the smaller borders of the 

 parterre. They retain their beauty for a great length of time, 

 being frequently covered with blossoms from the beginning of 

 July to the'end of October, and the flowers are so numerous 

 that the plants have a most cheerful appearance, particularly 

 towards the evening, as they seldom expand in warm weather 

 before four o'clock in the afternoon, on which account it is 

 sometimes called the " Four o'clock Flower." But when the 

 sun is obscured, and the weather is moderately cool, these 

 timid blossoms remain open during the whole day. 



It is necessary to preserve seeds from different plants, since 

 those of the white or purple varieties, however they may sport 



