tember 22nd ? where it is observed :—“A box from Paris reached 
us the other day filled with what at first sight appeared to be a 
new race of Double Dahlias. Upon being, unpacked, however, 
the box displayed a collection of Double Zinnias, of the most 
beautiful form and colour. Four and twenty flower-heads were 
there, some nearly double, the greater part as completely so 
as the best Pompon Chrysanthemums; mostly three inches in 
diameter, some two and a half inches, a few but two inches. 
Purple, deep-rose, light-rose, rose-striped, red, orange-red, 
orange, buff, and various shades of these colours formed a bou¬ 
quet of singular beauty.” It is some of the flowers thus de¬ 
scribed which are represented in our Plate. 
The new forms of Purple Zinnia, like those previously known, 
are annuals of easy cultivation. They grow from a foot and a 
half to two feet high, according to circumstances; they have 
erect hairy stems, furnished with ovate acute stem-clasping 
strongly-nerved leaves; and they bear large showy terminal 
flower-heads of various colours, differing from those of the ordi¬ 
nary forms merely in the multiplication of petaloid florets: a 
change resulting in the production of what is commonly (though 
in this class of plants erroneously) called a double flower, but 
in reality consisting merely in the transformation of the incon¬ 
spicuous florets of the disk into the more showy and differently- 
formed florets of the ray, exactly like what occurs in the Dahlia, 
in the handsome race of Chrysanthemum-flowered Asters, and 
in many other popular flowers. 
Zinnia el-egans , in the ordinary form, requires generous cul¬ 
ture as a half-hardy annual; and this, no doubt, will also be the 
case with the new race now under notice. The seeds should 
be sown on a mild hotbed, in March, as in the case of other 
half-hardy annuals, and the seedlings should be transplanted 
to store beds or pots, and aided with protection until the end 
of May, when spring frosts are over. In light rich loamy soils, 
or in peaty borders, they grow vigorously, but in dry poor soils 
they do not make satisfactory progress. 
