Plates 423 & 424. 



HYBRID COLEUS, PRINCESS ROYAL, PRINCE 

 ALBERT VICTOR, AND REFULGENS. 



Probably in the whole history of horticulture of late years 

 there has been nothing more extraordinary than the sale of the 

 Coleus raised at the Royal Horticultural Society's Gardens last 

 year : that a batch of twelve hybrid plants should have sold foi- 

 nearly £400 was in itself remarkable enough ; but that this sum 

 should have been given for plants so utterly useless for the 

 purpose which the buyers supposed them available (out-door 

 culture) is well nigh incredible ; yet, having tried them and seen 

 them tried at Battersea and elsewhere, we feel we are not wrong 

 in disregarding them as failures. 



It was probably owing to this cause that so very different a 

 result attended the sale of tlie new set of what we may perhaps 

 call Golden Coleus, in December, when a very remarkable lot, 

 hybridized by the same raiser, Mr. Bause, were sold for hardly 

 more than the price of one variety at the former sale. They 

 are the result of crosses between some of his former seedlings 

 and Coleus Blumei ; and as they promise to be most valuable and 

 attractive plants for the greenhouse, and some of them may 

 also probably be found veiy useful for the borders, we have 

 selected two for our present Plate, and have added another 

 raised by Mr. Bull. They have passed into the hands of different 

 nurserymen, but all of them are spoken of in very high terms ; 

 tliey are: — Fig. 1. Prince Albert Victor, is in the hands of 

 Messrs. Downie, Laird, and Laing, of Stanstead Park, Forest 

 Hill ; it is a variety of very distinct character, bright golden- 

 yellow with very dai'k pencillings, evidently traceable to the 



