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BEAUTIFUL GARDEN FLOWERS. 
very much like those of the common Marigold in 
appearance. Although really a perennial, plants are 
usually raised every year from seeds about March. 
VERATRUM ( False Hellebore). — Distinct peren- 
nials of the Lily family, having bold and ornamental 
leaves regularly folded or plaited. They flourish in a 
mixture of rich sandy loam, peat, and leaf soil, in 
partially shaded situations. They may be increased 
by dividing the thickish and creeping rootstocks 
about September, care being taken to wash the hands 
well afterwards as the rootstocks are poisonous. 
V. album is a fine species, about 3 to 5 feet high, with 
large broadly-oval plaited leaves, 1 foot or more long. 
The white and greenish blossoms appear in July 
on dense panicles 1 to 2 feet long. In the varieties 
Lobelianum and viride ( Helonias viride) the flowers 
are all greenish. V. nigrum grows 2 to 3 feet high, 
having oblong plaited leaves and racemes, 1 to 3 feet 
long, of blackish-purple flowers. V. Maaclci is about 2 
feet high with lance-shaped leaves about 6 inches long, 
and loose panicles of dark purple flowers. 
VERBASCUM {Mullein). — Strong-growing orna- 
mental plants of the Foxglove family. V. Cliaixi 
grows 3 to 10 feet high, having Nettle-like leaves, 
woolly on the under surface, and tall, erect racemes of 
yellow blossoms with purple stamens. V. nigrum, 2 to 
3 feet high, has leaves more or less ovate oblong in 
outline, and yellow flowers, except in the variety album 
in which they are white. V. olympicum often attains 
a height of 10 feet, and has broad lance-shaped 
woolly leaves, and bright golden flowers. V. phlomoides, 
3 to 9 feet high with oblong deeply-cut leaves, aud 
