of liurul Art and Taste. 



153 



Poiuseffia Putrherrinia Sosco-Car- 

 iniiiata.—T\\\s fine variety of one of the 

 most useful of winter decorative plants re- 

 sembles the type form of P. ptdcherrima, so 

 far as regards growth of foliage, the differ- 

 ence consisting in the color of the fine-spread- 

 ing head of bracts which are larger, smooth, 

 and of a brilliant rosy carmine hue. In the 

 specimen from which these notes are drawn 

 up, the crown of colored bracts measured 

 fiteen inches across ; the infloresence first 

 branched trichotomously, and then each of 

 these branches were forked. The number of 

 bracts displayed on these six ramifications was 

 forty-five, all perfect in form, and pure in col- 

 oring, the larger ones measuring seven inches 

 in length, and upwards of two inches in 

 breadth. The bracts are much smoother and 

 flatter than in the old form, and spread out so 

 as to form a fuller and more regular crown. 



J'Jri/thrhid I^nrccdii. — A very hand- 

 somely variegated-leaved stove plant from the 

 South Sea Isles. It has a stoutish woody 

 stem, furnished with alternate leaves, the 

 petioles of which are fully six inches long, 

 and support three leaflets, the middle one of 

 which has a footstalk of one to two inches in 

 length, and the lateral ones a stalk of half an 

 inch in length. The leaflets are upwards of 

 five inches long, sub-rhoniboidal, more or less 

 acuminate, and narrowed in a somewhat an- 

 gular manner towards the base. The varie- 

 gation is yellow, sometimes forming a feather- 

 like stripe along the costa and main veins, 

 somewhat more suffused, and forming a band 

 an inch wide, in which case the lateral veins 

 take on more color, and the colored line be- 

 comes again branched ; when at its fullest 

 coloring, the center of the leaf is mottled with 

 yellow. There is a peculiar thickening of the 

 petiole with glands just below each of the 

 leaflets. The leaves are strikingly ornamen- 

 tal in character. The flowers are very at- 

 tractive, of a bright cinnamon red color. 



Aflitfntiini Hen slovid.num is considered 

 a very beautiful addition to the list of Maiden 



Hair Ferns, and has recently been introduced 

 in England by Veitch & Sons. Fronds two 

 to three feet in height, proportionately broad- 

 er, with the lower pinnate slightly branched, 

 thus becoming tripinnate. The stipe is of 

 moderate length, erect, dark brown, glossy, 

 while the rachis is, like the under-surface of 

 the fronds, hairy. Texture of fronds rather 

 thick and herbaceous, color a light green. 

 Considered by florists and pomologists pecu- 

 liarly distinct and possessing beauty. Is a 

 native of Peru and Columbia and the Gala- 

 pagos Islands. 



Saxifrttqa Loitf/ifoUft.- A^a a flowering 

 species, this is the finest in this section, form- 

 ing large and elegant depressed rosette-like 

 leaf-crowns, 6 to 8 inches across, each formed 

 of densely set circle-like rays of rigid silvery 

 marginal linear leaves, produciftg a large and 

 noble densely -flowered conical raceme, IS to 

 24 inches high, of pure white salver-shaped 

 blossoms. 



As a decorative-leaf plant for summer gar- 

 dens, it forms a fine companion plant to the 

 Echeveria group in forming geometrical lines, 

 belts, and double-edgings. It is also admira- 

 bly adapted for ornamental panel work as link 

 groups, and to show its effective character 

 thus it requires to be grown in quantity. 



Its beautiful leaf-crowns increase in size 

 from year to year if not checked in growth 

 nor permitted to bloom. If less glaucous in 

 effect than the Echeveria, it is fixr less formal, 

 more graceful in its outline, and far more ele- 

 gant in the partial curvature of its leaves, 

 whilst the silvery sheen of its leaf surface, 

 seen under the brilliancy of a summer's sun, 

 imparts to it an interest and beauty luiequalled 

 by any of its allied species, amongst which it 

 has not been unfitly termed the Queen of Saxi- 

 frages. 



Auhrietia. Heiiflet'soiiL—Of this, Wil- 

 liam Bull says : " Whilst the predominating 

 colors in the principal groups of early spring- 

 flowering bedding plants are either white or 

 yellow, the family of Aubrietia offers the most 

 desirable and beautiful exception, in the varied 

 shades of purple and violet-blue, merging 

 into still higher tints, which its species now 



