PHFACELIA. 
scribed by Professor Don, in Sweet’s 
British Flower Garden, second se- | 
ries, t. 172, under the name of Nie- | 
rembérgia phenicia; and lastly, 
by Dr. Lindley in the Botanical Re- 
gister, t. 1626, as Petunia violdcea. 
It is very remarkable that there 
should have been so many doubts 
among botanists as to the genus of 
the purple Petunia, as it appears -to 
317 
| even as far south as the Straits of 
common observers to differ from the 
white only in colour ; and it is also 
remarkable that it should have been 
first called pheenicea, which signi- 
fies crimson, when it is decidedly | 
of a violet-coloured purple. The 
flowers of the white Petunia, and | 
of all the hybrids raised from it, are 
iragrant, particularly at night ; 
PHALENOPSIS. 
Magellan. Some of the species are 
perennials, and others biennial or 
annual. The Californian species 
are annuals with blue flowers, but 
the South American kinds are b:en- 
|nials or perennials witk pink flow- 
ers. They all grow fzsely in any 
common garden soil. 
Puat'us.—Orchiddcee. — P. al- 
bus, which is an exccedingly beau- 
tiful East Indian epiphyte, is re- 
markable fer the dry and withered 
appearance which if presents when 
it enters into its dormant state. 
_At this period it sheds its leaves, 
and its stems become covered with 
a dry brownish skia, which makes 
- them look exactly as if they were 
while the few hybrids raised be- 
tween P. violdcea, and P. bicolor, 
and the numerous seedlings of the | 
former species, have no fragrance. 
P. bicolor does not hybridize so 
freely as the other kinds, and it is, 
more tender; 
mouthed and streaked kinds are. 
raised partly from it, and they are 
but all the dark- | 
generally hybrids between it and) 
the white Petunia; the latter kind | 
producing the seed, as P. bicolor 
rarely ripens seeds. No plants are 
more easily trained than the Petu- | 
nias; and with a little care and at- 
tention, they may be made to cover | 
trellis-work or wire-frames of vari- 
ous different forms. 
Peyro'usta.—IJridee.— A genus 
of bulbous-rooted plants with rather 
small flowers, generally in corymbs, 
which require the usual treatment 
of Cape bulbs.—See I’x1a. 
Puace'tua. — Hydrophy'llee. — 
Very curious plants, which produce 
dead. It should then be removed 
to a cool situation, where the heat 
is not greater than 40° or 45° of 
Fahrenheit, and kept with only 
enough water to prevent it from 
dying. In the course of a few 
weeks, a young shoot will begin to 
push out from the crown of the 
root; and as soon as this is per- 
ceived, the plant should be repot- 
ted in sandy peat, (the pot being 
first nearly half filled with pot- 
sherds,) and removed to the orchi- 
deous house, where it should be ex- 
posed to a strong heat and syringed 
twice a day with a copious supply 
of water to the roots till the ap- 
pearance of the flowers, when it 
should be removed to a cooler at- 
mosphere, say that of a drawing- 
room, and be no longer syringed. 
PuaLano’psis. — Orchiddcee. — 
The white Butterfly Plant. This 
beautiful plant, which certainly re- 
sembles a white butterfly as much 
their flowers in one-sided fascicles | as O. papilio does a tortoise-shell 
which unrol 
themselves slowly. | | one, should be grown on a piece of 
The flowers are rather pretty in| wood with the bark on, hung from 
we 
leaves. 
emselves, but are half hidden by) the roof of the hothouse, the roots 
eir bracts and coarse-growing being wrapped in moss and tied on 
All the species are natives | the branch. 
It flowers profusely, 
of America, but some are found in| but it is very difficult to propagate. 
California, some in Peru, and some | —See OrcuipEous Epipuy'rss. 
~y 
27 
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