of Rural Art and Taste. 



91 



ornamented with broad rosy pink stripes, or 

 become wholly of the same rosy pink hue, 

 which deepens into a full rosy red. Its free- 

 growing and spreading habit will render it a 

 useful plant for decorative purposes. It has 

 received a Certificate from the Royal Botanic 

 Society. 



Jiraccnn Iinperiali.s, 



A South Sea Island D^accB?ia, and one of 

 the most beautiful which has yet found its 

 way into our plant stoves. The variegation 

 is in this case of a clear white combined 

 with deep rose, and is most effective. The 

 leaf-stalks are 'about four inches long, and 

 niarginate. The blade is narrowly elliptic- 

 oblong, tapered at the apex, and narrowed 

 into the niarginate petiole. The color is a 

 deep sap green, breaking out freely in the 

 young leaves into white, which is most 

 prominent near the base of the leaf, and ex- 

 tending upwards irregularly. These varie- 

 gated portions take on, as the leaves gain 

 age, a deep bright rosy tint, so that in the 

 leaves of different age the rosy hue is vari- 

 ously blended with the white. It is a re- 

 markably fine plant, quite an acquisition to 

 our choicest collections of stove plants. In- 

 troduced in London by E. Gr. Henderson 

 & Sons. 



Oilontoytn.sfiiini Itot'zlii. 



A strikingly beautiful New Grenadan 

 epiphytal Orchid, allied to O. vexilla- 

 rium, and O. Fhalneuopsis. It has ob- 

 long-compressed pseudo-bulbs, and linear- 

 ligulate leaves, the peduncles supporting 

 several large flowers, which have oblong- 

 ligulate sepals, similar but rather wider 

 petals, and a broad cuneate-flabillate bi- 

 lobed tip. The color is pure white, the base 

 of the petals being purple, and the base of 

 the lip furnished with yellow crests and rich 

 brown streaks. It is a free-flowering plant, 

 which no collection should be without. It 

 was awarded a First Class Certificate by the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, in December, 

 1873. Introduced in England by William 

 Bull. 



Catnp.flfliuin FilicifoHwn. 



A free-growing slender woody climber, 

 from the Feejee Islands, and referred doubt- 

 fully to Can/psidiurn, from the analogy of 



its foliage. It has opposite imparipinnate 

 leaves, which are about five inches Ion or. in- 

 eluding a petiole of one inch, and consist of 

 nine pairs of leaflets, which are small, ovate, 

 deeply cut into two or three lobes on each 

 side, the larger lobes being sometimes also 

 toothed. The leaves, from their size and 

 form, are strongly suggestive of fronds of 

 some small-growing pinnate Asplenium, A. 

 viride, for example. The growth and gene- 

 ral character of the plant is so elegant that 

 whether cultivated as a small pot-plant, 

 trained on globular or other trellises, or 

 planted as a climber, it has a most charming 

 and engaging appearance. The flowers are 

 as yet unknown. 



Ci/nt/ieti Biirh-fi. 



This fine greenhouse tree fern is a native 

 of South Africa, whence it has been im- 

 ported. It has stoutish stems, five to sis 

 feet high, and shaggy with dark-colored 

 rootlets. The fronds, which are large and 

 drooping, are of an herbaceous texture, bi- 

 pinnate, the pinnules lanceolate acuminate 

 with oblong-ovate obtuse segments, which 

 are rather sparingly soriferous. The dark 

 mahogany-colored stipes, and main rachis 

 are studded with short obtuse raised points, 

 which renders them rough to the touch. The 

 drooping habit of the fronds gives this plant 

 a very ornamental character. It was award- 

 ed a First Class Certificate by the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, in June, 1873. 



Cijathea Dregei, 



This also has been imported from South 

 Africa. It forms a fine greenhouse tree 

 fern, with bipinnate fronds of stoutish tex- 

 ture, and having the pinnules lanceolate, 

 with oblong-ovate falcate segments, bluntish 

 at the point, and having the sori in the 

 lower half immersed in rufous wool. The 

 trunk grows from three to four feet high, 

 and the stipes and rachides are of a reddish 

 brown, without the tubercles or blunt aculei 

 which distinguish C. Burkei. It is a dis- 

 tinct and desirable addition to our cultivated 

 tree ferns ; and was awarded a First Class 

 Certificate by the Royal Horticultural So- 

 ciety in June, 1873. 



