Do not little things posses a special value of their own, as great or even exceeding the value of larger things? Pearls, rubies, emeralds, diamonds, and forget-me-nots, for instance, which are certainly small as compared with cabbages, cauli-flowers, and pumpkins. And having mentioned forget-me-nots, we are tempted to speak of this Browallia as the American, or more properly, perhaps, the Occidental forget-me-not, for it comes from the tropical parts of the western continent, which nobody ever thinks of when America is mentioned, the northern parts thereof having a monopoly of our attention. There is another and nearly allied species called B. demissa, but it is not much grown, for the simple reason that it is not so good a plant as elata, of which there are two varieties--the blue, which is here figured, and the white, which differs only in the colour of the flowers.

To grow this pretty annual it is necessary to sow the seed in light, rich soil in the month of March, and put the pan containing the seeds on a mild hotbed or in a warm greenhouse. When the plants are somewhat forward they should be pricked out into pans or pots, and have another term of culture in a warm house, and having been hardened by careful exposure to the air, be planted out where they are to flower. The rough treatment that suits some half-hardy annuals will simply fail to produce a fair bloom of this pretty plant, for it requires a long season of growth before flowering, and is decidedly tender in constitution. When well grown, however, it is replete with refined beauty, owing to the profusion and delicacy of its tiny slaty-blue flowers, and so we recommend the diligent amateur who can care for little things to grow a few nice specimens in pots. Having raised the plants on a moderate hotbed, prick them out to strengthen as already advised, and instead of planting them out to flower, put them in eight-inch pots, about four plants to a pot, using rich, light soil, and grow them on in the greenhouse, training them up with care, and keeping them near the glass and well ventilated.

The elegant Schizanthus pinnatus, S. porrigens, S. Grahami, and S. retusus are closely allied to the Browallia, and may be grown in the same way, but are less in need of heat, as they are hardier. At all events, the two first-named are hardy enough to be sown on the open border, but are good enough to repay the trouble of growing them well in pots, for they make most charming specimens; and the better if sown in autumn, so as to have a long season of growth before flowering.

These flowers belong to the important order Scrophularinoe, in which we find not only the Browallia and schizanthus, but the calceolaria, verbascum, antirrhinum, the pentstemon, and the mimulus, with many more garden favourites that to the casual eye have but few traces of a family likeness.

The Browallia was so named by Linnaeus in remembrance of J. Browallius, Bishop of Abo, which was formerly the seat of government in Swedish Finland, and still is the seat of a Lutheran archbishopric, although now it is a Russian and not a Swedish city, having passed over with the whole of Finland at the peace of Frederickshamm in 1809. Finland was a botanical playground to Linnaeus, and its capital Abo was to him the most important, because it was the nearest centre of learning and liberal thought. Commemorative names of plants are in many respects objectionable, but there is something to be said in their favour, and in any case the names that Linnaeus bestowed on plants "the world will not willingly let die." Of one flower in particular may this be said, for the delicate two-flowered Linnaea, the Linnoea borealis of the botanist, he named after himself. It is a humble creeping shrub of the cold morasses of the north, producing exquisitely beautiful though unattractive miniature bell-flowers in pairs. The great botanist, remembering his own humble origin, and conscious of a merit that then had not been generally recognised, chose this flower for the emblem of his own career, and described it as "a little northern plant, flowering early, depressed, abject, and long over-looked." It may not be too wide a departure from the course set before us to remark that in those few words we have a great poem, wanting neither verse, nor rhyme, nor music to indicate the pathos that cannot be concealed. Linnaeus was indeed a poet, though he was and is properly ranked among the soldiers of science.

The Browallias may be advantageously employed to embellish the greenhouse and conservatory during the summer. For this purpose we have not so great a variety of flowers as may appear from a casual consideration of the subject, because a large proportion of decorative plants thrive so much better when planted out than when kept in pots and flowered under glass. These little tropical forget-me-nots enjoy the shelter and comparatively uniform temperature of the greenhouse during the summer, and in places where the climate is usually unfavourable to tender plants in the open ground it is advisable not to plant them out, but to grow fine pot specimens for flowering in-doors. Then it will be found that the two varieties of B.elata, giving flowers white and blue; with B. pulchella, with flowers rosy purple; B. grandiflora, with flowers yellow; and B. Jamesoni, with flowers orange-will make an interesting collection. Associate with them a few fine pot specimens of the delicate schizanthus, and the conservatory will not lack interest and beauty.