By Joseph Sabine, Esq. 231 



The darker flowers have the appearance of velvet, and have 

 consequently a richness, which the lighter-coloured ones do 

 not possess. In some cases the ground colour of the floret 

 of the ray is, as it were, striped (panachee of the French and 

 Dutch), in others, the same colour is equally diffused over 

 the whole ; the stripes are sometimes on the margins, some- 

 times in the centre of the florets, in great variety of ways ; and 

 are particularly beautiful, when one of the colours is velvety, 

 and the other bright ; but this property of being striped is 

 not permanent, it seldom shows itself with the earliest, and 

 is not more abundant in the latest flowers ; it is probably the 

 effect of some modification of the juices of the plant, as it ap- 

 proaches its decline. The florets of the ray of some plants are 

 of a darker shade at the bases, becoming paler at the mar- 

 gins, but of this description I have seen in Messrs. Whitley 

 and Cos garden, at Fulham, some peculiarly striking plants, 

 where the lower parts of the florets are of one, and the supe- 

 rior parts, of another hue ; the lower part, shewing a circle 

 of a distinct colour round the disc, making, as it were an eye 

 in the centre of the flower. Mr. Lee, of Hammersmith, 

 lately pointed out to me, in his garden, a new character of 

 variation ; the disc, in all I had hitherto observed, was a 

 bright yellow ; in three or four cases, with him, it was dark, 

 the consequence of the tips of the tubular florets being 

 tinged with brown, or purple ; these varieties are very hand- 

 some at the period when the outer florets only of the disc 

 are blown, and shew a circle formed of their yellow stamina 

 interposed between the dark colours of the ray, and those of 

 the centre of the disc, the whole flower then appearing of 

 three colours. The size of the flowers, in different plants, 



