80 THE FLORIST. 



THE AMHERSTIA NOBILIS. 



To Mrs. Lawrence of Ealing Park belongs the merit of first flower- 

 ing this fine leguminous plant in this country. Three bunches (one 

 of which was presented to the Queen,) of most beautiful flowers were 

 first cut off" it early in 1849. During that season many more suc- 

 ceeded them ; and this year it has produced blossoms in such pro- 

 fusion, that, at a late meeting of the Horticultural Society, that lady 

 was able to exhibit not one bunch but several, charmingly adorned 

 with scarlet and yellow flowers. This floricultural achievement has 

 been brought about by Mrs. Lawrence in a very short period of time, 

 as the following brief history of the plant will shew. When received 

 at Ealing Park in July 1847, it was only 18 inches high, with eleven 

 leaves on it. In the beginning of September 1848, such was the 

 rapidity with which it had grown, that it measured 6 feet 7 inches 

 high from the pot, about 10 feet through, and was profusely clothed 

 with luxuriant foliage. Many of the young leaves measured then 

 2 feet 4 inches long, with leaflets 1 1 inches in length. After it had 

 received a shift or two, it soon became too large for the house it was 

 growing in, and, in order to give it room, a compartment was formed 

 lor it in the large Orchid-house. Here the tub in which it was 

 growing was placed on low brick pillars, in order to secure for it 

 perfect drainage. To assist the bottom-heat, a bed of tan was formed 

 round the tub ; and a hot- water pipe, over which were placed zinc 

 evaporating troughs, ran round the tan. The ground temperature 

 was thus kept up to between 80° and 90°, and the top-heat 75° to 80°, 

 and even to 100° and 110° with sun-heat. While growing fast, it 

 received plenty of water ; but as the wood began to ripen, it was kept 

 somewhat drier. Such is the treatment this truly fine tropical tree 

 has received at Ealing Park, and the results have been all that well- 

 directed skill could have desired. 



Dr. Wallich says : " The first notice I had of the existence of 

 this magnificent tree was at Rangoon, in August 1826, when Mr. 

 Crawfurd favoured me with some dried unopened flowers, together 

 with the following account, taken from a statement of his visit to the 

 province of Martaban : ' At Kogun, on the Saluen river, is a garden 

 belonging to a neighbouring monastery. The only plant in it which 

 struck me as remarkable was a tree about 20 feet high aboundins: in 

 long and pendulous panicles of rich geranium-coloured blossoms, and 

 long and elegant lance-shaped leaves. It is too beautiful an object 

 to be passed unobserved even by the uninitiated in botany. Hand- 

 fuls of the flowers were found as oflFerings in the cave before the 

 images of Buddha.' " In his report of a journey on the river Saluen, 

 undertaken in March 1827, Dr. Wallich again says: "In about an 

 hour I came to a decayed kioum (a sort of monastery) close to the 

 large hill of Kogun, distant about 27 miles from the town of Mar- 

 taban. I had been prepared to find a tree growing here, an account 

 of which had been communicated to me long ago by Mr. Crawfurd, 

 nor was I disappointed. There were two individuals of this tree 



