FOREIGN AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



/orfiga mi^ 3ilisrdlanfniis JMim, 



IIORTICULTUnAL NOVELTIES AT ExETER. — If 



tlie retider would wisli to know what is doing in 

 this country, in the importation of new plants, 

 he must visit Exeter. Near that ancient city 

 lies a gentle valley, forming tlie nursery occu- 

 pied hy ]\[essrs. Veitcli St .Sou, in which alone 

 will be found more new and valuable [jlant.s than 

 in any place in Europe, witli the single excep- 

 tion of the Rcjyal Botanic Garden at Kew — 

 plants obtained by private enterprise for com- 

 mercial purposes, and not gathered together by 

 the power of a mighty government. By means 

 of excellent collectors, (two brothers of the 

 name of Lobb,) and liberal disbursements, Ca- 

 lifornia, Peru, Chili, Chiloe. Patagonia, in the 

 West ; and the Khasija hills, the provinces of 

 Tenasserim, Java, Malacca, and the ghauts of 

 Malabar, in the East, have been gleaned, and 

 the result is gathered into hot houses or trans- 

 ferred to the open air, in the fertile soil and 

 happy climate of Devonshire. Let us record a 

 few of the species which caught our eye on a 

 recent visit to tliis wealthy establishment. 



First among the new plants is to be mention- 

 ed Saxc Gothf)caconspicua,a most beautiful ev- 

 ergreen from the Andes of Patagonia, with the 

 aspect of a Yew tree, which H.R.H. Prince 

 Albert, has pei-mittcd to bear one of his names. 

 This tree has lived four years in the open air, 

 and has all the appearance of being as hardy as 

 an Araucaria. From the same country comes 

 Fitz-Roya patagonica. another valuable Conifer. 

 with drooping branches, and also the habit of a 

 Yew; with the Libocedrus tetragona, an Arbor- 

 vitte-like tree, having four-cornered shoots; all 

 exclusively in the possession of Messrs. Veitch. 



Among other evergreens, the existence of 

 which in England is unsuspected, is the great 

 Oblique Beech tree from Patagonia, (Fungus 

 obliiiua;) Eucryphia cordata, with hard heart- 

 shaped leaves, and flowers like a Tea plant; 

 Castenea chrysopliylla, the Evergi-een Califor- 

 nian Chesnut; great bushes of Philesia, just be- 

 ginning to produce their crimson tubular flow- 

 ers, two inches long, in the midst of hard stifi:' 

 deep green leaves; Pernettya ciliaris, with its 

 black-green broad leaves and heaps of dull pur- 

 ple berries, not to mention the other species mu- 

 cronata and augustifolia, loaded with pale ber- 

 ries, gay witli ruddy tints; Larus aromatica, a 

 Chilian evergreen, whose leaves are much more 

 fragrant than Sweet Bay; Embothrium cocci- 

 neuni, with long tufts of crimson blossoms; Eu- 

 genia apiculata and Myrtus Ugni, Chilian Myr- 

 tles, the latter with a fruit like a purple Guava; 

 and finally, the rare and curious Desfontainia 

 spinosa, with the air of a Ilollybush, and the 

 flower of a scarlet trumpet Honeysuckle. Of 

 this, one single flower Las been produced upon a 

 in a pot. 

 are the new or little known evergreen 



Berberries collected here; B.Darwinii, growing 

 into a round, glittering, exijuisitely beautiful 

 bush; B. flexuoso, a handsome shrub, with 

 straggling branches; B, lutea, a pretty diminu- 

 tive thing; and several other species at present 

 undetermined. Eurybia alpina, fron.i ISJew Zea- 

 land, here vindicates its claim to hardiness, 

 along with the Escallonia Picppigiana, a Peru- 

 vian bush, loaded witli white flowers early in 

 the summer, and a great stiff-leaved Dracaena, 

 from New Zealand, which may be Dr. indivisa. 



Nor are deciduous hardy plants less common 

 here. An Indian palmated Rubus is loaded 

 with yellow fruit as lai-ge as an Antwerp Rasp- 

 berry ; great masses of a north wall are covered 

 with the scarlet perennial Tropoeolum specio- 

 sum, which disregards frost but abhors the sun; 

 the hairy-stemmed Tropoeolum Lobbianum, is 

 curling round a rough stake, and decorating it 

 with its Vermillion colored flowers; and Pavia 

 Californica, the California Horse Chestnut, has 

 established itself in the open quarters of the 

 nursery. Quantities of the huge Indian Liliuni 

 giganteum are hastening to prepare for flower- 

 ing another year, and heaps of rock-work are 

 glittering with Oxalis speciosa. 



Among plants of home origin, we ought to 

 point out tlie Iledera Ragncriana, a kind of Ivy, 

 with monstrous heart-shaped leaves; Cotoneas- 

 ters and such plants worked half standard high 

 on the common thorn; a noble looking Holly 

 called Ilex alta-clerensis, which seems to have 

 some of the blood of balcarica in it; a hand- 

 some variety of Arbutus Andrachine, called 

 photinia2folia, and most beautiful specimens of 

 that noble Fuchsia corallina, whose origin has 

 lately been disputed, but which bears unmista- 

 kable evidence of having been derived in part 

 from F. radicans or some allied species. 



This sketch of the hardy plants that are al- 

 ready saleable in this establishment, renders an 

 account of the tender plants less interesting for 

 the moment. To them we may return hereaf- 

 ter. For tlie present it is sufficient to name 

 among the new plants, Lapageria rosea, aclimb- 

 ber from Chiloe, with very large crimson blos- 

 soms; a fine Iloya, with long leathery leaves, 

 some most elegant Indian Sonerilas with varie- 

 gated foliage, a Peruvian Begonia, whose leaves 

 are one confused stain of crimson, purple, green, 

 and silver gray; Cinchona Condaminea, one of 

 the true peruvian bark trees, aplant with a most 

 delicious perfume, now flowering for the flrst 

 time in Europe ; and quantities of Indian Or- 

 chids, among which the D. albosanguineum 

 stand pre-eminent. As to the Orchids, no plants 

 can exceed their health and beauty, unless it be 

 the choicest of M. Ruckcr's collection. In short, 

 turn where you will, the eye meets nothing but 

 what is most fine and rare, in this sur{ 

 collection of the Messrs Veitch. — Gard. 



