1869.] ACANTHUS LATIFOLIUS. 261 



exhibitor, for Tropceolum ochroleucum, a golden-leaved dwarf Nasturtium, having 

 the foliage of a soft yellow hue, and a good acquisition as a bedder. Mr. Turner 

 has had a line of it bedded out at Slough during the summer, and it has proved 

 most effective, promising even to surpass in usefulness the popular Golden Feather 

 Pyrethrum. The Tropaeolum has not only a brighter appearance, but scarcely 

 produces any flowers, so that there is no head of bloom to interfere with its 

 leaf-colouring, as in the case of the Pyrethrum. A new white Bedding Dahlia, 

 Princess Mathilde, was produced by Messrs. Downie Laird and Laing, Stanstead 

 Park Nursery, Forest Hill ; it appears to be an improvement on the old Alba 

 floribunda nana in point of habit, being a little dwarfer, and more branching. 



At the meeting of the same Committee, held on October 19, but one example 

 of a new Florists' flower worthy of notice put in appearance, and this somewhat 

 late, namely, Zonal Pelargonium Purity, from Mr. Eckford, of Ooleshill Gardens ; 

 it is in the way of Madame Werle, but as shown at this season certainly superior 

 to it in the purity of the white, and in the depth and regularity of the carmine 

 centre, as well as in the form and texture of the flowers. 



There has been such a rapid and marked improvement in the Pentstemon during 

 the past three or four years, that I must claim space to allude to a few of the new 

 seedling flowers of the present year, as it is very difficult to produce the plants 

 at the meetings of the Floral Committee. Messrs. Downie Laird and Laing are 

 quite in the van as regards the improvement of the Pentstemon, and at their 

 Nurseries, both at Edinburgh and Forest Hill, they have this season flowered a fine 

 batch of seedlings. The following eight new kinds, which can be confidently 

 recommended, have been selected from the batch at the Stanstead Park Nursery, 

 viz. : — Bridesmaid, flushed with delicate pale rose on a white ground, the 

 interior of the tube primrose, novel, and very pretty ; Grandis, carmine red, 

 white throat, pencilled with dark ; Stanstead Surprise, purplish blue, with pure 

 white throat, distinct and fine ; Agnes Laing, violet rose, pure white throat, verj^ 

 pretty and distinct ; Black Prince, very dark claret, white throat, pencilled with 

 the same ; Painted Lady, clear rose, with white throat, marked with crimson ; 

 Mrs. Gator, bright pale rose, white throat, pencilled with lines of deep rosy 

 crimson ; and Henry King, very bright scarlet, with white throat, slightly pencilled 

 with dark markings. B. D. 



ACANTHUS LATIFOLIUS. 



'HIS plant, observe MM. Vilmorin Andrieux et Cie., in their Fleurs de 

 Pleine Terre, is without doubt only a variety of Acanthus mollis, and is 

 distinguished by the larger development of all its parts. Its leaves are 

 numerous, ample, rising to a height of about 2 ft., and forming when 

 mature tufts of foliage of more than a yard in diameter. Its robust stems attain 

 from 5 ft. to 6 ft. in height, simple or slightly branched, and terminated by a 

 long spike of flowers, these being somewhat more highly coloured than in the 



