118 
GLEANINGS AND ORIGINAL MEMOEANDA 
393. Arbutus VAEiANS, Bentham. {alias A, xah-pen^is Zinrlki/ ; alias A. mollis IIoo/ce7\) An 
evergreen gTcenlioiise shrub^ with panicles of wliite and pink flowers^ and dull green leaves hoary 
beneath. Native of Mexico. (Pig. 197.) 
This plant has been recently well, figured in the Botanical Magazlne^i. 4595^ as the .4 rSw^ws mo?Zis of Humboldt. 
It had previously found a place in the Journal of the Horticultural Society ^y. 193, under the name of A.xalapensis 
of Humboldt. Both Sir W. 
Hooker and ourselves overlooked 
the undoubted fact that it is the 
A. varianB of Mr. Bentham in 
the Plantce Hartwerjianmi No. 
542. A, xalapensis seems to 
have a differently formed corolla, 
and in A. mollis the leaves are 
downy on the upper side. Sir 
VV, Hooker thus describes the 
flowers 
*^ Corolla large, ampullaceous 
or lageniform, glabrous or downy, 
white or greenish rose-colour ; 
the lower portion forms an in- 
flated ring, the rest of the tube 
is hemispherical, tapering into a 
short contracted mouth ; limb of 
five small rounded lobes." 
In the Journal of the Horti- 
cultural Society it is mentioned in 
the following terms 
" Baised from Mexican seed, 
received from Hartweg in Febru- 
ary, 1846, from the mountain of 
Angauguco. A low, dull brownish 
green evergreen bush. Branches, 
petioles, and underside of leaves 
covered with a short soft down, 
without any trace of setse. Leaves oblong, flat, long- 
stalked, rounded at the base, perfectly entire, or very 
slightly serrate, with a hard, firm, reddish edge ; 
somewhat downy on the upper side. Flowers dirty 
reddish-white, in close do^vny terminal short pyra- 
midal panicles. Peduncles glandular and woolly. Calyx 
nearly smooth. Corolla ovate, at the base almost flat 
and unequally gibbous, with a contraction below the 
. ^ middle, and a very small limb. Ovai'y with a granular 
This little bush is by no means ornamental. It grows slowly, requires protection in winter, has dull spotted 
leaves, and remains in flower only for a week or two in April. Although a true Arbutus, it seems to have none of the 
beauty of its race, and must be consigned to the collectors of mere botanical curiosities." 
We are still of opinion that the species has no horticultural value ; at least when cultivated in a cold pit it has 
invariablv a din^v rustv asrippt. th^ -rt^vc^i^co r.f K^nn+jAii 
surface, 
393. Nymph.ea elegans. ffc 
sweet-scented flowers. Native of New Mexico. Introduced 
A charming greenhouse aq^uatic^ with very pale violet 
This has been discovered in New Mexico by Dr. Wright. 
44 G9. Our plants flowered in the early summer in the tank 
form 
will belong. 
Its nearest affinity, perhaps, is N. ampla, Bot. Mag. t. 
3f the tropical aquarium. The blossoms are not only 
It will be difficult to say to which of the divisions of De Candolle this 
, - ^ -^ , ^ purplish 
aainity with that etoud. One of the most remarkahlft olrniimGtnTinoo i« tKc flr.,^o^ r^f thCo , 
arrange- 
ment of the stamens in (apparently) as many phalanges as there 
observing if, at a late period of inflorescence, they separated. Leaves floating, about six mches long, and four and 
a uau or tive broad, thus nearly orbicular, nkne. th** yr^^Tcnr^ cimm+nrl nn,l c,,M-.,.*«t^ . *t, _?„„„ j— i 
lobes to the stigma. I had not the opportimity of 
■5 
