NICOTIANA SANDERAE. 



217 



decorative value as a pot-plant for the 

 conservatory. I learn that it produces 

 seeds freely and that it comes true from 

 seed. 



It may be worth while to give par- 

 ticulars of the treatment which produced 

 the plants just described. The seeds were 

 sown in heat and the seedlings treated 

 like young Begonias fora fewweeks un- 

 til they were strong enough to be potted 

 into three-inch pots, when they were re- 

 moved into a sunny greenhouse, where 

 they remained all winter. They were re- 

 potted, the final shift being into nine- 

 inch pots . The soil used was the ordinary 

 mixture of loam, leaf-mould, and sand. 

 In March they commenced to flower, 

 and in June were still flowering freely. 

 For cultivation in the open air the seeds 

 should be sown in a little warmth in 

 February and the seedlings afterwards 

 treated as for Stocks, Asters, &c. But 

 any one who can grow th e popular white- 

 flowered N. alata (affinis) will have no 

 difficulty in growing its red -flowered 

 offspring, N. Sanderce. 



W. WATSON. 



Royal Gardens, Kew. 



THE TOBACCOS {Nicotiana).— 

 Whatever be one's estimate of the in- 

 dustrial value of the Tobacco family, 

 there can be only one opinion as to 

 its beauty in the garden and the con- 

 servatory, where the graceful habit 

 and rich fragrance of many kinds have 

 made them welcome. For beauty under 

 glass in the winter and in the open 

 garden during summer few plants are 

 more reliable than the free-flowered 

 border kinds; the value of those grown 

 for their fine foliage depends upon place 

 and season, a warm soil and fine weather 



alone insuring a good result. All the 

 kinds are of the simplest culture in rich 

 soil, being easily raised from seed, and 

 many from cuttings of the root or side- 

 shoots; being very small, seedlings re- 

 quire care in their early stages. Tobaccos 

 should not be planted near crops grown 

 as food, the greatest risk in this respect 

 being with the Common Tobacco; in 

 the south of Europe land which has been 

 devoted to its culture is rendered unfit 

 for other crops, beans, tomatoes, and 

 other vegetables grown in the same soil 

 being so tainted as to violently disagree 

 with the consumer. The Nicotianas — 

 named after Jean Nicot, who brought 

 the Tobacco to France — form a large 

 group of fifty or more species of wide 

 distribution ; those best known are as 

 follows: — 



Petunia-flowered Tobacco (N. acumi- 

 nata) . — A slender perennial herb of about 3feet, 

 bearing during summer few-flowered clusters 

 of tubular white flowers, threaded with green 

 veins. Rare in gardens. Argentine. Syn. Pe- 

 tunia acuminata. 



Starry White Tobacco (N. acutiflora). 

 — A handsome Brazilian herb of 2 to 3 feet, 

 bearing white flowers 4 inches long in thetube, 

 spreading into five equal lobes set star-wise, 

 and about \\ inches across. Arranged in sparse 

 heads of fifteen or twenty, the flowers are borne 

 for a long time, and are held more erect than 

 in most kinds, opening towards evening and 

 fading before noon next day. Though some- 

 what rough in leaf, it is a pretty plant, and its 

 scentless flowers are sometimes preferred to 

 the strongly-scented blossoms of other kinds. 

 Syn. N. acutifolia. 



White Tobacco (N. alata). — The best 

 known of the group, very fragrant, with a long 

 season of bloom, and nearly hardy in places 

 with a mild winter. In any case, if the fleshy 

 roots be lifted with soil and stored dry through 

 the winter, they will give root-cuttings yield- 

 ing plants that are dwarfer and of finer habit 

 than seedlings. Planted in rich soil it grows 



