Dr Graham's Description of New oi- Rare Plants. 171 



iug, central, double beak. Germen of two smooth, green, conical follicles, 

 each with many ovules attached to their inner side. Stigma common to 

 both follicles, larf,'a, flat, white. 



Several bulbs of this plant were collected in Southern Africa, by Mr Bowie, 

 and sent, with many other roots, in spring 1829 to Mr Neill,in whose stove 

 at Canonmills it flowered last montli. It approaches BrachysMma spathu- 

 iattim, Bot. Reg. t. 1113, but it seems to me to be evidently distinct. Mr 

 Neill has received another plant, which has not yet flowered, from the 

 same quarter. The leaves are flat, elliptico-spathulate, and the bulb is 

 somewhat elevated in the centre. It seems probable that it will turn ^ 

 out to be the B. spathulaium. 



in the natural group of plants to which Brachystelma belongs, there are 

 many fetid species, but I am not acquainted with any whose smell is 

 so decidedly stercoraceous, as that of B. crispum. 



Calceolariae hybrldee. 



It is with no slight feelings of disappointment that I have lately seen sent 

 to the Botanic Garden some very fine hybrid varieties of Calceolar'us. 

 The species lately introduced into cultivation in this country seemed so 

 well marked, and so entirely agreed witli native specimens which have 

 accompanied the seeds, that I did not fear a confusion of species in this 

 genus ; a confusion which in other genera seems to have rendered a dis- 

 tinction of species impossible, and has given colour to the opinion that 

 natural genera form the ultimate divisions of plants with permanent 

 characters. 



Sir Morrison, gardener to Lord President Hope at Granton, being aware 

 that several of the finest species of Calceolaria were shy in producing 

 seed, suspected that this defect might be corrected, by applying the pol- 

 len of certain kinds to the stigmata of others; and he first has had the 

 merit of presenting to the florist, hybrids thus produced, which equal, if 

 they do not surpass, in beauty, any of the species of this handsome genus. 

 Mr IMorrison's experiments have been confined to four species, all her- 

 baceous, viz. C. corymbosa, C. arachnoidea, C. plantaginea, and C. Fother- 

 gillii. He has succeeded in crossing tlie whole of these. C plantaginea 

 fae finds most apt to produce seeds of itself, and most readily to fertilize 

 others. The hybrids which Mr Morrison has sent to the Botanic Gar- 

 den are the following : 



1. C. planlaginea-corymbosa, raised from seed of C. corymbosa ; produced 



by the pollen of C. plantaginea. 

 This is an exceedingly handsome plant, with the foliage of C. plantaginea, 

 and the outline of its flowers, but they are larger than these, and with 

 fewer spots externally ; the mouth is open, as in C. corymbosa, but small- 

 er, and the dark marks on the inside of the throat are round, not in 

 streaks ; in its flowering stem there is the mode of branching of C. co- 

 rymbosa. Looking at it only with a florist's eye, it is really a splendid 

 plant. A specimen of this hybrid having been sent by Mr Morrison to 

 the meeting of the Caledonian Horticultural Society on 3d June 1830, 

 the Society's Silver Medal was voted for it. 



2. C. plantaginea-arachnoidea ; raised from seed of C. arachnoidea, pro- 



duced by the pollen of C. plantaginea. 

 This is a large healthy plant, having acquired little from C. arachnoidea, 

 except a dirty brown colour in the corolla, the mode of branching in the 

 flower-stalk, and the number of its flowers. There is very little woolli. 

 ness upon the plant, but there is none of the polished surface of C. plan- 

 taginea, and the leaves are much smaller, and very mucii resemble those 

 of C- purpurea. 



