74 THE FLOBIST AND POMOLOGI3T. [April, 



In this country — to quote again the article already referred to — Tomatos are 

 mainly used for making sauce or for stewing, and hence the varieties producing 

 the largest fruits have been most esteemed. In warmer climates, however, as in 

 the South of Europe and the United States of America, they are consumed to a 

 much greater extent than with us, and are used in a variety of ways ; among 

 others, being much relished in the raw state as a dessert fruit. For this latter 

 mode of use, as well as for the ornamental purposes already adverted to, the 

 smaller-fruited hinds, to which our plate is chiefly devoted, are particularly 

 adapted ; and we trust that this special notice may be the means of bringing them 

 into more general cultivation. M. 



NOTES ON NEW PLANTS, 



1 IMONTHLY meetings and the monthly issues of botanical publications 

 bring numerous novelties under notice. It will be our pleasant duty 

 5^>/ from time to time to note down a few particulars of the most important 

 *X of these New Plants, such as are likely to occupy a useful place in our 

 gardens. The early meetings of the present year have yielded several plants of 

 high merit, in addition to the new florists' flowers which appear under a distinct 

 heading. Not the least important amongst those already brought forward, is the 

 Spircea (Hoteia) japonica variegata of Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son, a plant 

 with the elegant habit and inflorescence of the green type, now so extensively 

 used for forcing, but having the leaf-stalks red, and the leaflets traversed by cream- 

 coloured veins, giving it a handsome pale golden reticulated variegation. 

 Another fine variegated plant is the Thuja Lobbii aureo-variegata of Messrs. 

 J. and C. Lee, a vigorous-growing shrub, in which the branches are freely inter- 

 spersed with twigs of a rich yellow hue, giving the bush a finely golden varie- 

 gated appearance. Aralia peltata, shown by Mr. B. S. Williams, is one of a 

 fine group of handsome-leaved evergreen shrubby plants, exceedingly well 

 suited for ornamenting halls, cool conservatories, &c. ; this species has rather 

 large, thick, deep-green, 3-lobed, or obscurely 5-lobed leaves on long slender 

 brownish petioles, and is of a distinct character. Various forms of New Zealand 

 Flax (Phormium) have been brought forward at the several meetings, and as they 

 are all of a highly ornamental character, and suitable for cool conservatories, it 

 may be worth while to enumerate them. First comes the broad, drooping-leaved 

 plant taken as the type of Phormium tenax, of which there is also a variegated- 

 leaved variety. Then comes a somewhat narrower and more rigid-growing form, 

 which, under the name of P. Cookianum, has been confounded with P. Colensoi ; 

 and of this, which has now been authoritatively named P. tenax Veitchianum, 

 there is also a variegated-leaved form in cultivation. All these become split at 

 the point of the leaf. Finally, there is the much narrower and erect-growing 

 P. Colensoi, synonymous with true P. Cookianum, whose leaves do not split down 

 from the apex ; and of this, also, there is a variety handsomely striped with white, 



