JANUARY. 17 



under the names of T. speciosiim and the variety Andrewsii. 

 They were treated similarly to the preceding one, and both placed 

 under a glass case, in the interior of which was formed a little 

 stone- work with broken bricks and stones. They continued to grow 

 until the rhizoma reached the outside of the pot; the roots then 

 began to adhere to the outside, and the plants grew more vigor- 

 ously than ever ; the rhizoma began to ramify, and are at this time 

 (November, 1849), if extended in a straight line, many feet long. 

 The one plant in the 4-inch pot has more than sixty fronds upon 

 it, and the other thirty-five ; they seem perfectly at home, and are 

 growing with as great luxuriance as at the Lake of Killarney or in 

 the laurel-forest of TenerifFe. The case is placed within a pit hav- 

 ing a western aspect, where it is screened from the sun on the south 

 and east sides, — the wind never reaches it, and the atmosphere is 

 kept constantly loaded with moisture. By this means it is always 

 cool in summer, and never so low as the freezing-point in winter. 

 The accompanying plate represents one of the fronds and rhizoma of 

 the natural size. 



Keio, November 1849. J. Houlston. 



SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Rose. — This flower, so celebrated by the poets of antiquity, 

 is only mentioned twice in the Bible : Solomon's Song ii. 1 ; Isaiah 

 XXXV. 1. But there is more to be learned in these two passages than 

 some who have been Rose-cultivators for years have ever imagined. 

 As in noticing other flowers referred to in the Scriptures, I have 

 mentioned the original Hebrew, I shall do so on this occasion, as it 

 is not a mere name in that language, but a word conveying ideas full 

 of instructive meaning. 



In English letters, the word translated Rose would be chahatze- 

 leth or kJiohzeleth ; and though, from old associations, we may prefer 

 our monosyllable as a name for this favourite flower, the Hebrew 

 trisyllable will be more admired the better it is understood. Some 

 roots (bulbs, for instance) contain, as we are well aware, the flower 

 in embryo ; and though the derivation of this word is a disputed 

 point among Hebraists, yet, according to our own version and other 

 high authorities, it is composed of two parts or roots, which contain, 

 I may say, a miniature of the flower in question. One of them signi- 

 fies to hide, and the other to overshadoiu ; and with all due deference to 

 our venerable translators, some learned men have judged that ' open- 

 ing Rose' would be the most literal rendering of the Hebrew word in 

 the passages of Scripture to which we refer. As to the flower itself, 

 which every true Florist will still allow to be \.\\q fioicer- royal of the 

 parterre, is there any that appears so beautiful in the opening stages ? 

 Petal overshadowing petal, one leaf hiding as it were in the bosom of 

 the next, truly describes the khohzelcth. A Rose may be a perfect 

 beauty, either when partially unclosed or in its full bloom ; and 

 some who are not scientific Florists probably esteem it most highly 



VOL. in. NO. XXV. c 



