TAGETES TENUIFOLIA 
571 
diameter ; the ulterior ramifications of the 
corymbs each produce three flowers ; these are 
from four to five inches long, consisting of a 
verj long slender tube, expanding into four 
ovate spreading segments ; the tube is red 
below, white above, the white buds tipped 
with rose colour, the spreading limb white, 
quickly changing to buff', and becoming 
twisted. The flowers are most deliciously 
fragrant. Sir W. Hooker states that he has 
fine native specimens from Madagascar. It 
flowers in July and August. 
Those who have attended the principal 
metropolitan floral exhibitions, will readily 
admit the extreme grandeur and magnificence 
of the Ixoras under good cultivation. Being 
all natives of tropical countries, they require 
the same kind of treatment, which may be 
briefly summed up thus : — from August till 
February they require rest, during which they 
may be in the green-house among other plants, 
where they will be kept from frost. In 
February they should be repotted, and plunged 
in a mild moist heat, of from 60° to 70° ; by 
this treatment they will show fine heads of 
flowers by April, and they may then be re- 
moved to the stove, when they will expand 
their flowers and remain in beauty for a con- 
siderable time. They require a well-drained, 
sandy, open soil, composed of a mixture of 
loam and peat. 
TAGETES TENUIFOLIA. 
(Humboldt.) 
THE SLENDER-LEAVED TAGETES, OR MARIGOLD. 
This is an annual plant, and indeed one of 
the best annuals for bedding out with which 
we are acquainted. The plant forms a dense 
compact mass of small twiggy branches, having 
numerous slender pinnatifid leaves, and a pro- 
fusion of moderate-sized orange-yellow mari- 
gold-shaped flowers. The leaves are curiously 
marked with a row of what appear to be 
minute orange-coloured dots, but which are in 
reality minute glands, the secretions of which 
give the plant a very agreeable balsamic fra- 
grance — very agreeable indeed, when but 
slightly experienced ; but if in too large a 
quantity, partaking of what is regarded as the 
disagreeable odour of the common Marigold. 
The flowers are composed of five roundish 
florets, which have a deep notch at the end. 
This plant is an incessant flowerer. If sown 
in the spring with other annuals, and kept in 
pots till the time of planting out, it blooms 
from the earlier part of the summer quite up 
to the time of frosts, when all flowers of a 
kindred nature are cut off". Long before this 
time, however, almost every other summer or- 
nament has ceased to put forth its blossoms, 
but this continues blooming on until it is de- 
stroyed by actual frost. This is a high quality 
in an annual plant, and one that renders it 
especially valuable for bedding out. 
During the past summer we have had occa- 
sion to witness a bed of this Tagetes planted out 
on a grass plat, and its beauty, and the quality 
just alluded to, has very forcibly arrested our 
attention ; some plants that had been raised 
in a frame, among other half-hardy annuals, 
and potted singly into small pots, for the pur- 
pose of being ready to plant out when required, 
were allowed to stand by till about the end of 
June ; they were then dwarf bushy plants a 
few inches high, and in bloom. After the 
decay of some early flowering annuals in June, 
these plants were planted out in a bed as 
before alluded to, and from that time up to 
the last week in October, the bed was a perfect 
picture. The plants increased but slowly in 
height, and ultimately did not exceed fifteen 
inches, but they continued to make lateral 
growths until the whole space between the 
plants was compactly covered, and the beds 
presented a dense mass of elegant foliage and 
lovely blossoms. This instance of what has 
been effected with it, will convey sufficient 
instruction as to the mode in which it may be 
managed ; nothing could be more complete 
than the bed alluded to, and nothing more than 
is here stated was done to secure this com- 
pleteness. The ground might have been in 
pretty good condition, but not particularly so. 
One quality in this plant, which can hardly 
be sufficiently esteemed, is, that it never 
appears littery from the decay of the old 
flowers ; at the end of every small lateral 
shoot a blossom is produced ; this opens in 
due time, and continues in beauty its allotted 
