OCTOBER. 229 



nanura is a plant of neat and distinct habit ; and I have two varieties 

 from the continent, viz. Perfection and Louis Napoleon, both very 

 dwarf and compact. I have also another, H. submoUe, a species 

 with leaves as large as Magnolia grandiflora, but what the flowers 

 may be I know not at present. 



Petunias are improving, though slowly, as they are gaining both 

 in form and substance. Young's Crimson King is certainly the king 

 of crimsons, and puts all other bedding varieties into the shade. It 

 is fine in form, good in substance, brilliant in colour, compact in 

 habit, and in every respect a very first-rate bedding-plant. Striata 

 (Smith) is also an excellent bedding variety, with flesh-coloured 

 flowers and dark-crimson throat and veining. Shrubland Rose is a 

 a good bedding variety, as is Count Zichy, a stronger-growing kind 

 of nearly the same colour. White Giant (Smith) is promising, 

 though not quite up to the mark ; in fact, I am influenced in my 

 judgment by a much finer one which I have seen. 



Among Verbenas there are a few that must not be passed un- 

 noticed. I would wish it, however, to be understood that I speak 

 of varieties adapted for bedding, and such as produce fine and good- 

 coloured trusses and a good succession of them. Among these, 

 Ormsby Beauty, a variety sent out by Mr. Turner, is certainly one 

 of the most promising. It is very compact in habit, and produces a 

 complete mass of flowers. The colour is bluish-purple, with a distinct 

 light eye. Duchess of Kent (Turner), a variety in the way of Princess 

 Alice and Beauty, is very pretty, but not quite sufliciently distinct. 

 Of the varieties sent out by Mr. George Smith, National, Koh-i- 

 noor, Eliza Cook, Standard, King, and Ariel, are very promising, 

 especially King, while Orlando, being an improvement upon Mrs. 

 Mills, speaks for itself as the best of the blues. When planted in 

 good soil, or with a little cow-dung beneath it, or when well supplied 

 with manure water, we have found Satyr make a distinct and very 

 splendid bed ; and Admirable is also an excellent variety, scarcely 

 less valuable than Figaro. Some of the continental varieties are 

 blooming with me at present. I have not noticed any thing at all 

 remarkable among them. I might enumerate a lot of new things 

 which have come under my notice, but as they are not thoroughly 

 proved, it would be premature to do so. 



Wm. P. Ayres. 



NEW PLANTS 



FIGURED IN CONTEMPORARY PERIODICALS. 



Pax ton's Flower-Garden for September contains coloured plates of — 



The Three-flowered Abelia (A. triflora). A beautiful half-hardy shrub 

 from northern India, which we doubt not will prove an acquisition. 



TheLAKGE-FLOWERED GLUTINOUS DiPLACUs (D.glutinosus, var. graudiflorus). 

 A greenhouse evergreen shrub, from California, somewhat resembling the old 

 glutinous Mimulus; but larger and more burt-coloure<l. 



The Fiery-red Mormodes (M. igneum). A distinct -looking hothouse epi- 

 phytal Orchid, from Central America. 



As usual, several pretty woodcuts ornament the miscellaneous part of the work. 



