and the plant is now far from uncommon among us, but no in- 
stance has been known of its flowering in Europe, till August of 
the present year, when Mr. Osborne, of the Fulham Nursery, 
sent to us an excellent flowering specimen, not two feet high, in 
a small pot. In fact it was a cutting recently struck, and it is 
more than probable that the check given to the more rapid de- 
velopment of foliage encouraged it to flower. Indeed it must 
have struck many cultivators, as it has done us, how many plants. 
come into good flower soon after having been received from 
abroad, and then seldom or never flower again. May it not be 
that the nearly uniform degree of close heat at which we keep 
our stove-plants is.calculated to hinder the flowering? There are 
few plants in their native soils which have not a period of rest, 
occasioned sometimes by cold, sometimes by heat and drought,— 
in either case contributing to the health and well-being of the 
plant. 
Drs. Hooker and Thomson describe this tree as inhabiting 
thick woods throughout the whole of tropical India, from Malabar 
and Ceylon on the west, to Ava and the Malay Islands, often 
cultivated too on account of its beauty. The agreeable-looking 
fruit, about the size and with somewhat the appearance of an 
apple, is eatable, though very acid, and, as Rheede informs us, 
“requires sugar, broth, or some other addition to make it pala- 
table.’ Roxburgh tells us that it makes a tolerably pleasant 
jelly, and that the wood of the tree is both hard and tough and 
used for gun-stocks. 
Descr. Trunk, in its native country, stout, but of no great 
height. Branches numerous, spreading, then ascending. Leaves 
very much confined to the extremities, on short, broad, channelled 
and sheathing petioles, the blade six to eight inches to a foot 
long, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, attenuate at the base, rather 
suddenly acuminated at the extremity, the margin very strongly 
serrated, penniveined, the veins or ribs copious, oblique, close and 
parallel, simple, stout, straight, each terminating at the points of 
the serratures. Peduncle solitary among the terminal leaves, 
slightly curved so as to bring the very large flower (of which the 
diameter is six inches) into an oblique position. Calya of five, 
very large, concave, pale green, thick and fleshy sepals, thin and 
membranous at the edge, enlarging with the fruit which they 
permanently enclose. Pefa/s full three inches long, obovato-cu- 
neate, white, concave in the upper portion, obscurely veined and 
slightly waved. Stamens numerous, forming a dense compact 
mass around the pistil, which they entirely conceal except the 
stigmas, or, as Roxburgh expresses it, “forming a large yellow 
globe in the centre, which is elegantly crowned with the white, 
lanceolate, spreading rays of the stigma.” Filaments short, 
white : anthers linear, yellow, opening by two pores at the extre- 
