4 
ALONA CCELESTIS. 
blossoms as the common Petunia. Young plants not more than a few inches high, 
raised from cuttings during the last summer, flowered in the autumn. 
That it will bear exposure in the summer season has been fully proved by 
several specimens in pots which have flowered without any protection. It will, 
doubtless, therefore, be a most useful addition to the flower-garden ; and although 
the shoots naturally assume an upright posture, they may easily be bent down, 
and pegged to the ground ; and by thus keeping them in a recumbent position the 
emission of laterals will be encouraged, and the disposition to bloom increased. 
In its pot-culture, Mr. B. finds it indispensable to maintain a uniform 
humidity about the roots. It grows well in a good friable loam mixed with peat 
in nearly equal proportions. Fully one-third of the depth of the pot should be 
filled with potsherds, and a quantity also mixed with the soil, as the roots delight 
to cling around and run amongst them. Water must be liberally supplied, as the 
leaves soon turn yellow and fall off, if the soil is permitted to get in the least dry. 
In the winter season, it is necessary to keep them in an airy part of the green- 
house, but even then they require the mould to be kept rather moist. 
It may be propagated by cuttings prepared in the ordinary way, which take 
root immediately, when inserted in sand, with a gentle bottom-heat. Mr. B. has 
already got a tolerable stock of saleable plants at the Reading Nursery. 
The generic appellation is merely a transposition of the letters in the primi- 
tive name, Nolana, which is derived from nolo, a little bell, alluding to the 
campanulate form of the flowers. 
