me on the 9th of August of this year (1855) from Hoddesdon, 
Herts, with the following gratifying intelligence :—“ 1 have just 
returned from a voyage to Madagascar, and, while there, was 
enabled to obtain some plants of the Ouvirandra fenestralis, 
which I have been able, with much ease, to bring safely home. 
As M. Bojer, at Mauritius, told me you were anxious to possess 
a plant, and as he has not been able to procure it living, I shall 
have much pleasure in sending a plant to Kew for your accept- 
ance, or bringing one over soon myself.” Mr. Ellis has been 
better than his word: he has presented us with two plants, in 
September,—one of them, as here represented, in a flowering 
state. The remainder of his plants are placed in the hands of 
Messrs. Veitch and Sons, Exotic Nurseries, Exeter and Chelsea ; 
and we shall be surprised if all who are curious in horticulture 
and botany do not possess themselves of so beautiful and curi- 
ous an object, and which is cultivated with the greatest ease in a 
stove (or possibly a warm greenhouse), in a shallow pan of rain- 
___-water, including a moderate quantity of earth for the roots to 
feed upon,—being entirely aquatic, the leaves even submerged ; 
and we cannot doubt but it may be cultivated in glass Aquaria, 
and even in a glass jar placed in the drawing-room, as is done 
with the Vallisneria spiralis, etc. 
As Mr. Ellis has favoured us with the particulars of his ob- 
taining the plant, we shall quote his own words :—‘ The most 
rare and choice acquisition which I made in Madagascar, during 
this visit, was the beautiful aquatic plant, Ouvirandra fenestralis, 
which Sir W. J. Hooker designates ‘ one of the most curious of 
Nature’s vegetable productions.’ Dr. Lindley had drawn my at- 
tention to it and other Madagascar plants before my departure, 
and had shown me a drawing of it in the work of Du Petit- 
Thouars. At Mauritius, M. Bojer, a distinguished naturalist, who 
had formerly resided in Madagascar, very frankly and kindly in-’ 
formed me of the localities in which the plants I was anxious to 
obtain were most likely to be found. From the work of Du 
Petit-Thouars, in M. Bojer’s possession, I copied the Ouvirandra, 
in a size rather larger than the engraving, and by exhibiting this 
» to the natives, at length found one man who knew where it grew ; 
_ his master, who had shown me many acts of kindness, allowed 
him to go and search for it, and after two or three days he re- 
_ turned, saying he had found the plant growing in a stream of 
water, but could not get it, owing to the number of crocodiles in 
the stream: the late rains, it was said, had made these animals 
more numerous than usual at that particular place. At length 
_ however the man brought me a fine lot of plants in excellent 
condition, and I was happy to reward him for his trouble, and 
to take them immediately under my own charge. 
“The natives describe this plant as growing on the margin 
