190 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



has transmitted many rare and curious plants to Kew. It flowered in a cool house 

 in October of last year. 



Agave ixtlioides {Bot. Mag., t, 5893). — A fine rigid-leaved agave, producing 

 a tall scape of candelabra-like yellow flowers. The species before us is one that 

 has long been in cultivation at Kew, but never flowered till January of the present 

 year, when it threw up a scape twelve feet high. 



Costus Malortieanus {Bot. Mag., t. 5894). — A remarkably handsome stove 

 plant from Costa Rica. It has obovate leaves eight to twelve inches long, and 

 tubular flowers of a pale yellow, striped with red. 



Gilia lixiflora {Bot. Mag., t. 5S95). — A beautiful hardy annual resembling 

 a white-flowered flax. 



Nothoscobdum aureihi {Bot. Mag., t. 5896). — A pretty liliaceous plant from 

 California. It has a small bulb like that of a snowdrop, and an elegant scape of 

 yellow flowers in the fashion of an allium. 



Begonia ckinita [Bot. Mag., t. 5897). — An extremely elegant plant, with red 

 stems and delicate pale pink or deep rose-coloured flowers. This is one of a series 

 of beautiful begonias introduced from South America by Messrs. Veitch and Sons, 

 through their energetic collector, the late Mr. Pearce. 



Caladium Mons. Barillet {Floral Mag., t. 528). — A splendid Continental 

 variety, which will be sent out by Messrs. Downie, Laird, and Laing. " The 

 groundwork of the leaf is green, the midrib and veins brilliant crimson, a large 

 irregular blotch of the same colour occupying the centre of the leaf, and between 

 it and the green a margin of cream-colour gradually shades off into the deep rich 

 ground-colour of the leaf." 



Amaryllis Rayneri {Bot. Mag., t. 5SS3). — A stately plant, producing large pale 

 purple flowers. In common with many other plants of this fine family, Amaryllis 

 Rayneri is a native of Brazil. The bulbs were introduced by Dr. Rayner, of Ux- 

 bridge, who flowered it in November last, and thereby secured the claim to be com- 

 memorated in its specific name. The plant has bold falcate leaves, and the scape 

 bears three flowers of great size and peculiar beauty, the prevailing colours of which 

 are palest purple or mauve-rose and greenish amber. 



Cvrtanthera chrysostephana {Bot. Mag., t. 5887). — A grand tropical shrub 

 with fine heads of yellow acanthaceous flowers and handsome ovate leaves of a rich 

 dark green, the midribs of which are of a vivid red colour. This species is less 

 showy than C. catalpcefolia or C. aurantiaca, but is more elegant in habit than 

 either, and conspicuous for the vivid red colour of the midrib and nerves of the leaf 

 beneath. The flowers, instead of being disposed in a dense thyrsus, or axillary 

 cymes, as in most species of the genus, are collected into a crown-like corymb at the 

 tips of the branches, and are of a bright golden yellow. 



Oncidium tigrinxjm, var. splendidum {Bot. Mag., t. 5978).— A fine variety, and 

 perhaps the grandest oncid hitherto discovered. It is a native of the Irapseen 

 mountains, near Valladolid and Paracho, and of Mechoacan, both in Mexico, and, 

 according to Van Houtte of Guatemala. It flowered in the splendid collection of 

 Lord Londesborough in February, 1870, and bore twenty flowers on a branched 

 raceme, supported by a peduncle two feet long. 



Paulinnia thalictrifolia {Bot. Mag., t. 5879). — A woody tropical climber 

 with fern-like leafage. " It is seldom," says Dr. Hooker, " that a woody tropical 

 climber of the natural family to which the subject of the present plate belongs 

 (Sapindacrea) affords a subject of much horticultural interest ; and this owes its 

 exceptional character to the beautiful feathery foliage which, accompanied by its 

 scandent habit, gives it, when in a young state, the habit and appearance of a 

 climbing Bavallia, or allied fern." 



Statice spicata (Gard. Mag., p. 93, 1871). — This is said to be a charming 

 Caucasian species, of annual duration, flowering early in the season, and con- 

 tinuing in bloom for a very long time. The leaves are prettily semi-pinnatifid, 

 of a lively emerald green, and form a spreading tuft out of which rise a multitude 

 of cylindrical earlike spikes, partly undivided, or more or less branched in a pyra- 

 midally-arranged fashion, closely set with flowers of a rosy-pink hue. The whole 

 plant represents a graceful sub-pyramidal bouquet about one foot in height, of ex- 

 ceedingly handsome shape, likely to be useful for small beds or for edgings, as it 

 succeeds in ordinary garden soil. 



