THE FLOEAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE, 289 



LASIANDEAS. 



( With Coloured Ilhistration of Lasiandra lepidota.) 

 BY GEORGE GORDON. 



HE lovely Melastomaceous plant forming tlie subject of 

 the coloured plate in this month's number of the 

 Floral AVobld is well deserving of the honourable 

 place assigned it, for it belongs to a class of plants at pro- 

 sent but sparingly represented in our plant-houses, and 

 there is good reason for supposing that it will succeed in a much 

 lower temperature than any of its congeners. The best known 

 Melastomad in English gardens is, perhaps, our old friend Pleroma 

 elegans, which is now and again presented in grand condition at 

 provincial exhibitions held in July and August ; but, strange to say, 

 seldom presented in good condition at the metropolitan exhibitions, 

 for reasons it is not necessary to discuss at the present moment. 

 Other closel}' allied, but less well-known subjects are Lasiandra 

 inacrantlm, and Mo iwchcetum cnsiferum, which, under a proper system 

 of culture, are useful for winter decoration. The Lnsiandra requires 

 a stove temperature, and the others a warm greenhouse, or inter- 

 mediate plant-house, to insure success. But Lanandra lepidota will 

 most probably succeed in a cool house, in company with azaleas and 

 camellias, and as its flowers are wondrously attractive, and freely 

 produced, it may be regarded as a decided acquisition. It appears 

 to have been first sent to M. Linden, in whose establishment at 

 Ghent it has recently flowered, from the province of Antioquia, 

 !New Granada. It is plentiful in the cold regions of the Cordillera 

 of the Andes, and isolated groups have been found, even in the most 

 exposed part of the terrible snow plains of Zumbador and Almor- 

 zadero, in the province of Pampluna, Santander, where men and 

 horses frequently perish in the fearful tornadoes with which the 

 country is visited. Indeed, so violent are the storms to which the 

 plants are at times exposed, that the bark is torn off the stems. 

 There is, consequently, good grounds for believing that it will 

 require no more r^helter in this country than that of an ordinary 

 greenhouse or cool plant-house. It forms a bufhy shrub, furnished 

 with slender branches ; the leaves are ovate, and of a rich deep 

 green; the flowers, as shown in the accompanying illustration, are 

 large, and of a brii^ht reddish carmine, with pure white centre. A 

 well-flowered specimen has, therefore, a most beautiful and attractive 

 appearance. 



With the exception that it will grow freely in a lower tempe- 

 rature than the Pleromas, Monocha^tums, and the Lasiandras at 

 present in English collections, it will, no doubt, succeed under 

 similar conditions. The species belonging to those genera are pro- 

 pagated with but little trouble by means of the tops of the young 

 shoots taken off, prepared, and inserted in cutting pots in the usual 

 way, and assisted with a genial bottom-heat. When nicely rooted, 



October. 19 



