258 



NEW PLANTS. 



^.PHRYS INSECTIFERA, tar. araxifera, Spider Ophrys {Bot. Mag., t. 

 5712 )— Orchidaceoe. A pretty terrestrial orchid from Mentone, and the 

 one which Linnreus rejrarded as the typical form of that group of OpJirys^ 

 which includes the lesser and common spider, the Bee and the Drone 

 amongst British orchids. 



HYPERicrM PATVLUM, Spreading St. John's Wort {Bot. Maq., t. 5693). 



Hypericine^. A handsome hardv perennini, native of Japan, flowering in autumn, 

 "and forming a very valuahle addition to the list of available border plants." 



Dalechampia Roezliaxa, RoezVs Dalechampia {Bot. Mag. ,t 5640).— Euphor- 

 biaceae. Amongst the many meritorious novelties of the past season, none is more 

 deserving the attention of cultivators than 

 this beautiful Mt-xican plant. It was first 

 met with in Vera Cruz by EoezI, and, accord- 

 ing to the absurd practice of naming plants 

 after persons, it bears his name for a specific 

 distinction. It is a member of the vast 

 order Euphorbiacege, and belongs to tliat 

 section of the order the plants of which liave 

 broad cotyledons. The g( nus Dalechampia 

 is characterized by the presence of a single 

 ovule in each compartment of the ovary, 

 by the anthers being trect in the bud, by the 

 segments of the calyx in the male flowers 

 touching their margins, and by the two- 

 leaved involucre enclosing flowers of both 

 sexes. These involucres, or, as tliey will, no 

 doubt be more commonly called " bracts," 

 are in the plant before us of a bright pink 

 colour ; the male and female flowers which 

 they enclose are yellow. As respects the 

 peculiarity of its decorative features, there- 

 fore, this plant may be classed with the Bou- 

 gainvillea and the Euphoibia, in both of 

 which the most highly-coloured portions are 

 not the true flowers, but their appendages. 

 There are two varieties of Dalechampia 

 Roezliana, one with green, the other with 

 pink bracts. It is the last-named that we 

 especially recommend to the favourable consideration of cultivators. One of 

 the most interesting features in the numerous admirable exhibitions of the 

 plant by Mr. Bull, of King's Road, Chelsea, during the past season, was 

 the perfection in respect both of leafage and richness of floral colouring 

 of the very small specimens that were brought forward. It does not need 

 a vast extent of space, or a great length of time, to grow this plant to per- 

 fection ; indeed, it blooms freely ia a small state at every period of the year, and 

 the coloured bracts are so persistent that the plant retains its brightness of colouring 

 for a great length of time. In habit it is an erect-growing under-shrub, with sub- 

 cordate or s^oon-shaped acuminate leaves, five to nine inches long; the stem is 

 clothed with egg-shaped stipules ; the peduncles are slender and thread-like, bearing 

 two small green bracts and two large cordate denticulate floral leaves of a bright 

 pink colour. Within these are the male and female flowers, of a pale yellow colour. 

 This is a highly ornamental plant, which may be grown to a large and grand spe- 

 cimen for the stove, or flowered in a small state for the decoration of the table. As 

 it can be flowered at any season, it may be added to the list of select winter-flowering 

 plants ; for at this season of the year its gray bracts will be of far greater value 

 than at any other time. As a winter-flowering plant it will need the stove, yet it 

 may certainly be grown and flowered successfully with only warm greenhouse treat- 

 ment, as, though a stove-plant, it happens to be well adapted for what is termed 

 cool treatment. 



STPEBICrM PATDXTTH. 



