Plate 68. 
THE DOUBLE-FLOWERED INIMITABLE 
PETUNIA. 
Petunia violacea , var. inimitabilis flore-pleno . 
In one of the earlier numbers of this work, two varieties of 
Petunia were figured (Plate 30), one of which, Annie Kien , is 
evidently of the same strain as the far more beautiful and dis- 
tinct variety now presented to our friends, and possibly few 
persons visited the various exhibitions held in London this 
spring without having their attention directed to it. It was 
first exhibited this season at a meeting of the Floral Committee 
of the Royal Horticultural Society, by Messrs. Veitch, of King's 
Road Chelsea, and Exeter: it then obtained a first-class certi¬ 
ficate, and was subsequently exhibited by them at the grand 
opening fete at Kensington Gore, and also by Mr, Pike, of 
Winchmore Hill, at the Royal Botanic Society’s exhibition. 
It is said to be of French origin, from whence, strange to say, 
we receive a large number of the bizarre and curiously marked 
flowers which now occur in most garden varieties, in Pelar¬ 
goniums, Dahlias, Pansies, Verbenas, etc. The first move in the 
direction of what are called fancy kinds has been made there, 
while the careful skill of the English hybridizer has given to 
them the form and substance which the foreign varieties gene¬ 
rally lack. It is a matter of some consequence to find sorts of 
this flower which are short and compact in their growth, the 
long, straggling growth of many of them, both single and 
double, being greatly against them. This, as will be seen by re¬ 
ference to the Plate, is dwarf and close in its habit, the joints 
short, and the blooming profuse; hence it is admirably adapted 
for pot culture, the stems generally supporting the flower 
without the aid of artificial props. The flowers themselves are 
very striking, being white, with broad distant bands of deep 
