commeli'na. 



61 



COMPOST. 



same, and they are smaller plants, 

 with rather small, but bright-coloured 

 flowers. They grow best in stiff clay. 

 For the general culture of the genus, 

 see Californian Annuals. 



Collo v mia. — Polemoniacece. — 

 Hardy annuals, natives of Cali- 

 fornia, but scarcely worth growing, 

 from their coarse and weedy appear- 

 ance. C. coccinea is, perhaps, the best. 



Coltsfoot. — See Tussila'go. 



Columbine. — See AquileVjia. 



Colu v tea. — Leguminosece. — The 

 Bladder Senna. Large deciduous 

 hardy shrubs, growing and flowering 

 freely in any common soil. C. om- 

 enta is the smallest and the hand- 

 somest species. They are all propa- 

 gated by layers or cuttings. 



CombreVum. — Combretacece. — 

 Splendid climbing stove-shrubs, na- 

 tives of Sierra Leone, where they sup- 

 port themselves by means of a very 

 curious kind of hook, formed by the 

 persistent footstalks of the withered 

 leaves. The principal kinds are C. 

 purpureum, C. comosum, and C. 

 grandiflbrum. They are all very 

 beautiful, and all require to be grown 

 in a mixture of loam and peat. They 

 are propagated by cuttings or layers. 

 Though generally grown in a stove, 

 they may be made to flower in a 

 greenhouse, or in the open air. See 

 Allamanda. 



Commeli^na. — CornmelmecB. — Pe- 

 rennial and annual plants, hardy and 

 tender, with beautiful bright blue 

 flowers. C. ccelestis, L., has tuberous 

 roots, but it may be raised from seed, 

 by sowing it in a hotbed early in the 

 season, and turning it out into the 

 open border in common garden soil, 

 tolerably rich, during the summer ; 

 and in autumn its tuberous roots may 

 be taken up, and preserved during the 

 winter, to be replanted in the open 

 ground in spring ; or they may be 

 protected by covering the ground with 

 ashes or sand. 



Cona'nthera. — Asphodelacece. — 

 Chilian bulbs, requiring the green- 

 house ; useful from their small sta- 

 ture, which seldom exceeds six inches, 

 and from their producing their blue 

 flowers in March. 



Composite. — The composite flow- 

 ers, such as the daisy, are in fact 

 heads of flowers, composed of hun- 

 dreds of little flowers or florets, as 

 they are called by botanists, each of 

 which has its corolla, stamens, pistil, 

 and fruit. The central part, which 

 in the daisy is yellow, is called the 

 disk, and the florets composing it are 

 nearly tubular ; while the outer part, 

 whicl in the daisy is white, is called 

 the ray, and its florets are ligulate, or 

 flat and open at the extremity, and 

 tubular at the base. In many species, 

 the seeds are crowned with a kind of 

 feathery wing, like those of the Dan- 

 delion, which botanists call the pappus. 



Compost-Ground. — A space in 

 some secluded part of a garden, near 

 the hothouses and pits, and near the 

 tool-house and reserve ground, in 

 which differentkinds of soils, manures, 

 and composts are prepared and kept. 

 Though secluded, it should not be 

 shaded altogether from the sun ; and 

 the ground should be drained, in 

 order that the manure, &c, may not 

 be soaked with moisture. 



Compost. — This word is applied to 

 any soil that is composed of several 

 different ingredients ; such as sand, 

 loam, and peat, or vegetable mould, 

 &c. These mixed soils are found to 

 be much better for plants than any 

 soil consisting of only one material ; 

 and thus, whenever choice plants are 

 to be grown, directions are generally 

 given for making a compost for them. 

 In all large gardens, heaps of several 

 different kinds of earths are kept in 

 the reserve ground, ready for mixing 

 as they may be required ; but in 

 small suburban gardens, peat, loam, 

 and sand will suffice. These st>ils 



