266 REPORTS OF THE FLORAL COMMITTEE, 



between the two species just named, and equally beautiful. This 

 intermediate plant has been named S. Nobleana by Sir W, J. 

 Hooker, and has been supposed to be a hybrid between the other ■ 

 two. Wild specimens from California, where callosa does not 

 grow, have however proved identical with it. Mr. Noble 's plants 

 were raised from English-grown seed of Douglasii, and the same 

 form has been elsewhere raised where the supposed parents have 

 been growing side by side. The plant differs in external features 

 from callosa in having the flowers in short pyramidal heads, in- 

 stead of flat corymbs ; and from Douylasii in the short instead 

 of elongated spike-like flower-heads, and in the absence of the 

 entangled cobwebby hairs which cover the under surface of the 

 leaves, and give them a whitened appearance. In 8. Nobleana 

 the branches are downy, while the leaves are oblong, acute, shai-ply 

 and irregularly serrated in the upper half, paler and somewhat 

 hairy but not whitened beneath, most nearly resembling those of 

 callosa. The flowers, of a purplish-rose colour, form a depressed 

 pyramidal branched head, in which all the lesser branchlets are 

 formed on the same plan. In the specimens figured as Nohleana 

 by Sir W. J. Hooker, the calyx tube was hairless inside, as in 



calyx tube was clothed inside with silky hairs, as in callosa, so 

 that individual plants would appear to vary in these minute cha- 

 racters. Specimens of the flat-headed bright rose-coloured callosa, 

 and of the branched spike-like Douglasii, were shown for com- 

 parison. The new form was Commended as a fine hardy shrub, 

 of ornamental aspect. 



Loniceia japonica hybrida:— from Mr. IiNgkam, Frogmore. 



result of a cross between L. japonica and L. flexuosa, and to be 

 perfectly hardy. The foliage and flowers are much like those of 

 japonica, from which it differs in its greater hardiness and more 

 profuse habit of flowering. The leaves are ovate, acute; the 

 flowers have a downy tube, and are white changing to yellow. 



There were also exhibited in this class :— 

 Lobelia speciosa :— from Mr. Ingram. Two seedling 

 f this fine blue bedding Lobelia, remarkable for their vi 

 They were, however, not thought ou the wl 



