130 
GLEANINGS AND ORIGIN"AL MEMORANDA. 
lobed. The flowers are sraall^ pale green, VGVy sweet-scented, and appear in threes or fours from the axils of the leaves. 
Tiieir stalks are long and hairy, and each has a pair of small bracts below the middle. The sepals are very uniformly 
six in number, of a narrowly oblong form, and spreading so as to form a small green star. Contrary to tlie usual 
structure of the genus, the stamens are constantly six only in number, and about half as long as the sepals. The late Mr. 
Allan Cunningham gathered it in the northern island of New Zealand, but it was first found by Sir Joseph Banks in 17G9, 
and a drawing of it is said to be preserved in the Banksian Libi^aiy. It is a hardy greenhouse plant, requiring a light 
loamy soil to gi'ow in, and is easily increased by cuttings of the half ripened wood. It only requires the protection of a 
cold pit or frame during winter, and flowers abundantly in April. Although its blossoms are green and inconspicuous, 
it is far from an unimportant species, on account of its blooming freely, and being very sweet-scented. — Journ, of Ilort, 
Soc, vol. i. 
400. Abelia eupestms. Lindley. A fine dwarf slirub, 
found amongst rocks on the Chamoo Hills of China, Flowers 
white. Belongs to Caprifoils. (Fig. 201.) 
A small spreading bush, with deciduous, bright green foliage. The 
branches are very slender, covered with fine down, and deep reddish 
brown, when fully exposed to the sun. The leaves are opposite, ovate, 
distantly serrated, on very short stalks, quite smooth except at the midrib 
on the underside, where they are closely covered with short hairs. The 
flowers are pure white, something like those from the honeysuckle, and 
come in pairs from the axils of leaves belonging to the short lateral 
branches. At the base of the ovary stand three very small bracts. The 
ovary itself is slender and downy ; surmounted by a calyx of five obovate 
ciliated sepals, which are slightly stained rose-colour, and rather mem- 
branous. The corolla when expanded is half an inch long, funnel-shaped, 
downy with a spreading border of five convex ovate blunt equal lobes, 
beyond whose tube extend four smooth filaments. The plant is distin- 
guishable from Ahdla cMnerms of Brown, by its want of involucre, 
smooth leaves, and not trichotomous flowers; and from the Ahdia 
serrata of Zuccarini and Siebold, by its 5-leaved calyx. It has hitherto 
been treated as a greenhouse plant, but will probably prove hardy enough 
to stand out of doors in mild winters. The soil which appears most 
suitable is rough sandy loam, mixed with a httle peat. Being of free 
growth, an ample supply of water is necessary dui-iug the summer season. 
In winter nothing different from the general treatment of greenhouse 
plants is required. It is propagated from cuttings of young wood, in the 
usual way. From its being sweet-scented, and the length of time it re- 
mains in flower, this will be of considerable importance as a greenhouse 
plant; and should it prove hardy, it will doubtless be a good addition 
to the shrubbery in consequence of its flowering in autumn. [The 
foregoing remarks were made in the Journal of the Horticultural 
Society soon after the introduction of this plant. We have now to 
add, that although a most useful greenhouse plant, it does not prove 
hardy enough for the open air in the neighbourhood of London.] 
401. Ophiopogon PROLiPER. Liudleij, A whitc-flowercd 
hothouse perennial. Native of Penang. 
Belongs to Lily- 
worts [LiUacece). 
This is an evergreen herbaceous plant, with a slender stem slowly rising 
by means of roots which its leafy stems throw out, in the manner of a 
Bcrew pine. The stems are not thicker than a swan's quill, and bear at 
intervals clusters of bright green sword-shaped leaves, which curve down- 
■^'ards and are longer than the flowering stems. The latter are bright 
purple, and bear in an interrupted manner a few clusters of nearly sessile small white obovate flowers, whose texture is 
jetween fleshy and spongy. In this species the stamens are united in a very short fleshy ring. The ovary is very thin- 
skmued, and adheres, but does not grow, to the perianth. In each of its three cells stands a pair of fleshy ascending 
anatropal ovules. The style is pyramidal and terminated by three small point-like stigmas. It is a stove plant, which 
