Plate Id I. 



SEMI-DOUBLE GLOXINIAS, LADY CREMORNE 

 AND JOHN (J KEY. 



The Gloxinia, like many other flowers, has, in the hands of 

 the cultivator, not merely been improved in its appearance, in 

 its size, or the variety of its colouring, hut its very character has 

 been apparently altered. We had first the drooping or normal 

 condition of the flower, when the great beauty of the hand- 

 somest part of it was hidden, viz. the rich and deeply-coloured 

 throat ; then we had a semi-erect form, in which the character 

 of the flower seemed to be altering; then the perfectly erect 

 ones, in which the whole of the throat and lip were exposed to 

 \iew ; and now we have what may be called a double variety, 

 similar in character to those semi-double Mimulas which Mr. 

 Bull introduced a few years ago. 



The flowers now figured were raised in Ireland by Mr. John 

 Grey, gardener to Lady Cremorne (now Countess of Dartrey), 

 from whom they have passed into the possession of Messrs. 

 Veitch and Sons, of Chelsea, and have thence been named 

 respectively Lady Cremorne and John Grey. We are informed 

 by the Messrs. Veitch that they were first obtained four years 

 ago, and that other varieties are in existence, and, although 

 they may perhaps present no very great intrinsic merits, they 

 are probahly the forerunners of another race equally effective as 

 those which have preceded them. They are of upright habit, 

 and the calyx is so prolonged as to give the flower a semi- 

 double appearance. Lady Cremorne (Fig. 1) has the throat of 

 a deep rich blue, shading off to darker tint, while the outside 

 of the calyx is marked with lines of a deep lavender colour. 

 John Grey (Fig. 2) has a rich deep crimson with a darker shade 

 in the centre; while the outside of the calyx is of a light 



