MARCH. 65 



PHILESIA BUXIFOLIA,— BOX-LEAVED PHILESIA. 



[Plate 85.] 



We are indebted to Messrs. Veitch and Son, of Exeter and 

 the Exotic Nursery, Chelsea, for our representation of this 

 interesting and valuable plant, it having been received some 

 three or four years ago from their collector, Mr. William 

 Lobb, who discovered it in the island of Chiloe. 



It is a compact-growing dwarf shrub, of the natural order 

 Smilaceae. It succeeds best in well-drained fibrous peat, with 

 the temperature of a cool greenhouse, and blooms freely in 

 May and June. Small plants not more than four inches in 

 height produce flowers ; and in every respect it promises to 

 be a most valuable introduction. In habit it is close and 

 erect, somewhat resembling the hardy Andromeda polifolia, 

 and it has delicate waxy rose-coloured flowers. Notwith- 

 standing its treatment as a greenhouse plant, we are informed 

 by Mr. James Yeitch that it has lived in the open borders at 

 Exeter without protection for three winters ; there is there- 

 fore every probability of its proving a hardy plant. It is 

 nearly allied to Lapageria rosea. 



It was exhibited at Chiswick at the June Show last year, 

 when it was awarded the highest prize for new plants ; and it 

 was also exhibited at the National Floricultural Society, where 

 it was greatly admired. 



THE CARNATION AND PICOTEE, AND THEIR PERIOD 

 OF FLOWERING. 



Experienced cultivators of these flowers are well aware that any 

 attempt largely to anticipate or retard their period of flowering, by 

 subjecting them to a course of stove or greenhouse culture, is certain 

 to result in failure, and generally in the destruction of both flowers 

 and plants. But whilst the indubitable fact exists, that these plants 

 are most impatient of any interference with their natural habits, it is 

 equally a fact that a great modification may be effected in the period 

 of bloom, without the slightest evil, provided the process adopted 

 does no violence to the rules on which their successful culture 

 depends. 



NEW SERIES, VOL. IV. NO. XXXIX. ¥ 



