372 



The HoHiculturist and Journal 



Draccena metaUica. — This robust-hab- 

 ited stove plant is the finest of all the dark- 

 colored Dracaenas, the leaves being as. much 

 as 16 inches long, and of an oblong, acumi- 

 nate form, with a marginate petiole 4 inches 

 long. These, together with the sheathy leaf- 

 stalks, are of a uniform, rich, coppery, purplish 

 hue when young, becoming a dark purplish 

 bronze when mature. The leaves are some- 

 what erect and arching. Taking into account 

 their large size, and their full and rich color- 

 ing, together with the free habit of growth, D. 

 metaUica comes into the very foremost rank 

 amongst decorative and exhibition plants. 

 Imported from the Samoon Islands. — Williain 

 Bull. 



IlibLscus {liosfi-slneiisis) minlatits 

 semi plenas. — This remarkably showy stove 

 plant has firm, almost leathery, ovate leaves, 

 which are coarsely toothed, and brilliant 

 flowers, of a vermilion-scarlet color, darker 

 towards the base of the petals. The flowers 

 are semi-double — the petals very much waved 

 and recurved, forming an irregular undulated 

 mass four inches across, from which tliree 

 partially petaloid staminal columns project 

 two inches. The brilliant and attractive 

 flowers ai'e remai-kable for the absence of for- 

 mality — the shape being wild — and abounding, 

 in fantastic curves ; but, nevertheless, they 

 are remarkably handsome. Imported from 

 the South Sea Islands. — William Bull. 



Campsidiinii fiUcifoUimi. — A free- 

 growing slender woody climber, from the 

 Feejee Islands, and referred doubtfully to 

 Campsidium, from the analogy of its foliage. 

 It has opposite imparipiimate leaves, which 

 are about five inches long, including a petiole 

 of one inch, and consists 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 general 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. It has 

 received first-class certificates both from the 

 Royal Horticultural and Royal Botanic Socie- 

 ties. — William Bull. 



VihuvHum AwaftirJcL—O^ all the bril- 

 liantly-colored autumnal plants I have ever 

 seen, the plant above named is the finest. 

 Some of its leaves are now of a bright rose 

 color. — Co7\ The Gardener'' s Chromde. 



G If inuog rannna decomposita. — A very 

 handsome and well-marked stove Fern, be- 

 longing to the group furnished with ceraceous 

 pale yellow powder. The fronds are three 

 feet long and fully half as much in width, of 

 triangular outline, and curving or arching in 

 a graceful manner ; they are decompound, 

 the pinnae being unequally triangular-elongate, 

 the pinnules triangular-lanceolate, the pinnu- 

 lets oblong lobate, the lobes being deeply cut 

 into from two to six small finger-like divisions^ 

 which gives the fronds a finely dissected ap- 

 pearance. The stipe is about one foot long, 

 freely covei'ed while young with the pale 

 golden powder. — William Bull. 



PJiyllotwniuni mirabUe. — A fine and 

 distinct stove perennial from South America, 

 referred provisionally to the genus Phyllotae- 

 nium. It is a large free-growing plant, with 

 tuberous root-stocks, throwing up a few pecu- 

 liar leaves, which have semi-terete petioles, 

 three feet high and of a purplish brown color, 

 and a three-lobed blade, two feet wide across 

 the base, which is cordate, with a deep sinus. 

 The color of this leaf-blade is green, blotched 

 with irregular patches of yellow-green, and 

 stained beneath in the central portions with 

 purple, which spreads outwards between the 

 ribs. The lobes of the leaf are so arranged 

 as to give it a sub-hastate character. It has 

 been awarded a first-class certificate by the 

 floral committee of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society. — William Bull. 



