IT would be a difficult task to find a more familiar garden flower than the blue nemophila; for it is one of the first favourites of the amateur gardener, and never ceases--as some first favourites do--to retain a hold upon his affections, even when he has bloomed into the veteran horticulturist. The beginner may doat upon the clumps of lovely blue flowers that appear in the borders where, for the first time in his life, he has sown some seeds; but if he goes on as he began, taking constant interest in flowers, he may chance to see this same plant in a shape that tells emphatically its popularity. On all the great flower-seed farms it is grown in astonishing quantities, and the growers amuse their visitors by measuring the lines to state the sum-total in parts of a mile. The last measurement we witnessed amounted to three-quarters of a mile.

This plant represents a series of hardy annuals obtained from California in the early days of exploration in the "Far West," by David Douglas, who was sent out by the Horticultural Society of London to secure new floral treasures for British gardens. He was eminently successful, for he not only collected plants that have proved of immense value in this country, but he also contributed important papers to the "Horticultural Transactions" and to other publications of his time. This man ranks amongst the "martyrs of science," and the very best of our hardy annuals may be regarded as memorials of his honourable labours and of his unhappy end. He was born in Scotland in the year 1798, and early in life devoted his mind to the science of botany. Being in the employ of the Horticultural Society as a plant-collector, he explored the Columbia River and California in the years 1825 to 1827, securing in the interest of British horticulture a great many of our now most valued hardy plants. From the Pacific coast he proceeded to the Sandwich Islands, where he met with a dreadful death on the 12th of July, 1834. It was the custom then in the Sandwich Islands to capture wild cattle by means of pitfalls. Into one of these pits the unhappy Douglas fell, and, meeting there a captured bullock, was attacked by the beast and gored to death, no help being near and nothing being known of the event until the next day.

The nemophilas, eschscholtzias, gilias, collinsias, and the rest of the Californian annuals, make a finer growth and richer bloom when sown in autumn than when sown in spring. The best mode of procedure is to sow at the end of August or early in September, on poor, dry ground; and during severe winter weather put evergreen boughs over the beds to afford a slight protection. If the plants are not too thick in the beds, and do not become at any time excessively wet through defective drainage, they will pass through the winter with but little harm; but if crowded or damp, the frost will seriously reduce their numbers. Early in the spring they should be lifted in patches and carefully transplanted to well-prepared beds of rich soil, and there remain to flower. The way of their flowering under such treatment will surprise those who know them only as sown in spring and left in crowds to struggle for light and air, to finish their career with a mere apology for their proper flowers.

But spring-sown annuals may be made to render honourable service by sowing in February or March on soil well broken up and liberally manured, and by taking special care to thin the plants so that they do not anywhere touch or overlap their leafage. It is truly astounding to see patches of annuals grown in the customary way by inexperienced amateurs, for they usually leave a hundred or so of plants where there is, perhaps, proper room for only one; and of course they begin the business by sowing the seed in the most prodigal manner, as though the seed itself should embellish the ground.

The nemophilas are quite worthy of pot-culture for the decoration of the conservatory and the window. The pots should be filled with rich light soil, and only about three plants should be allowed in a pot of five inches diameter, which is the best size to grow them in. The garden nemophilas have to take their share of sunshine, and it does not harm them; but those sown in pots should be shaded from the mid-day sun on bright days, as they cannot so well endure the strong light. These sweet little flowers belong more to the grove than the open prairie, and when grown under glass, as pot plants should be, full sunshine is hurtful to them.

The best nemophila for all general purposes is the one here figured. There are several varieties of it in commerce, such as grandiflora, with larger flowers, and striata, with striped flowers. Nemophila atomaria has white flowers dotted with blue specks; N. aurita has violet flowers, smaller than those of N. insignis; N. discoidalis is a showy plant with dark flowers margined with white; and N. maculata has white flowers blotched with purple.