xlii PROCEEDINGS. 



producing a great tuft of Grass-like leaves, from among 

 which issue tall flower-stems, terminating in fine panicles of 

 hlue blossoms. 



HI.— MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS OF EXHIBITION. 



Messrs. Lucomhe, Pince, and Co. contributed the brilliant 

 large-flowered, orange-scarlet Begonia Prestoniensis grown in a 

 greenhouse; Acacia hispid issima, a new kind, with large bright 

 yellow flowers, and apparently sufficiently shrubby to be suitable 

 For pot culture ; Viburnum plicatum ; and a Calceolaria called 

 Ajax (yellow with brown blotch), which promised to be a good 

 bedding plant. 



Messrs. Henderson sent a little shrub (called a Pultenrea), 

 from Swan River. 



Mr. Burns, of Chevening, had half-a-dozen White Ischia Figs. 



IT.— ARTICLES FROM THE SOCIETY'S GARDEN. 



Medinilla magnifica, two species of Begonia, iEschynanthus 

 speciosus and a collection of Vegetables, consisting of round 

 Summer Spinach, and the following Cabbages : — Wheeler's 

 Nonpareil, Early Plaw, Tiley's Early Marrow, the best veiy early 

 kind, being sweet and tender, with no waste ; Early Battersea, 

 alias Fulham or Vanack, the best for a general crop ; London 

 Market, a large sort, but a little coarse ; Sutton's Early Coomb, 

 Early Nonpareil, and Brown's Early. The same collection like- 

 wise contained Linnaeus, Victoria, Prince Albert, and Prince of 

 Wales PJmbarb, the latter a short, deep red sort ; Cock's Hardy 

 White Cos Lettuce, Victory of Bath and Galway's Victory 

 Cucumbers, and the Virginian Poke (Phytolacca decandra), a 

 plant indigenous to the United States. The leaves of the latter 

 are unwholesome ; but the young shoots, which lose this quality 

 by boiling in water, are eaten in North America as Asparagus, 

 These shoots, which make their appearance very early in spring, 

 are cut when about six or eight inches long ; they are then 

 scalded with boiling water, and afterwards boiled for twenty 

 minutes in water, with a little salt in it ; when dished up a small 

 portiou of butter is added. Dressed in this manner, it is con- 

 sidered in America quite as good and delicate as Asparagus. 



