66 NEW AND RARE TLANTP. 



flowers, whose centre is occupied by a knot of large bright yellow anthers. Each 

 flower is rather more thau an inch across. It is nearly allied to the bitter-sweet 

 of our hedge-rows, but its flowers are very much larger and handsomer. In- 

 troduced from Mexico, in 1838, by Mr. Page, of the Southampton Nursery, and 

 probably about as hardy as Solanum crispum. It is a beautiful plant, and a 

 most profuse bloomer. In'Mexico it scrambles up anything it may be near, like 

 the English bitter-sweet; this circumstance will render it very acceptable as a 

 training plant. 



Sowerbjea laxifj.ora, t. 10. — Liliaceae. A pretty little greenhouse herba- 

 ceous plant from Swan River, for which we are indebted to the Earl of Orkney. 

 It differs from the old Sowerbsea juncea in having paler and smaller flowers, the 

 stalks of which are long and slender, and in the leaves being nearly as long as 

 the scapes, and triangular not tapering. The plant has much the appearance of 

 an Allium, but manifestly differs from that genus in having three of the stamens 

 imperfect, scales only appearing in the place of filaments and anthers, a circum- 

 stance far from uncommon among the Liliaceous order of New Holland. The 

 plant does not smell of garlic like most of the Alliums, nor does it show any 

 tendency to produce a bulb. Flowers of a pale rosy lilac, in umbels, numerous. 

 Each flower is about half an inch across. 



Musa.supf.rba. — Superb plantain tree. (Bot. Mag. Feb. 1841.) Musaceae. Poly- 

 gamia Moncecia. The plant was raised from seeds in the Edinburgh Botanic 

 Garden, and flowered in 14 months afterwards. " Every one who has visited the 

 Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, for some years past, has been struck with the bril- 

 liant success which has atteuded the cultivation of the many forms of Banana, 

 under the judicious management of Mr. McNab, and the immense quantity of 

 high-flavoured fruit which has been produced ; but nothing has afforded a greater 

 triumph than the rapid perfection of this beautiful species from imported seed ; 

 though we are informed, by Dr. Roxburgh, that it does not yield a fruit which can 

 be eaten, but one which resembles a dry capsule, rather than a berry. AVe learn 

 from the same authority, that it is a native of the valleys in the southern parts of 

 the peninsula of India. Iu cultivation in the Botanic Garden this and all the 

 varieties of fruit-bearing Bananas have been planted iu large tubs containing 

 extremely rich soil, have had much water, and been kept in great heat. The 

 flower-bud, as I have proved by cutting down full-grown plants of Musa rosacea 

 and Cavendishii, and I think also of M. paradisica, remains at the root till a 

 time after the plant has attained its full size, varying according to its treat- 

 ment, and then pushes its way upwards : its appearance at the top of the stem 

 being preceded by the evolution of one or more leaves smaller than the rest." 

 The flower stem is five feet high. The floral bracts of a reddish-brown. 



Pentstemon heterophyi.i.us. — -Various leaved. Scrophularina?. One of the 

 many handsome hardy herbaceous plants introduced by the late Mr. Douglas to 

 the gardens of the Horticultural Society, and by that valuable institution 

 spread far and wide in the collections of this and other countries. The plant 

 grows half a yard high, branching. Flowers of a reddish-purple, of a good 

 size, an inch and a half long. Well deserving a place in every flower 

 garden. 



ONCiDtuM Wray.se. — Mrs. Wray's. Orchidaceae. Gynandria Monandria. 

 A native of Mexico, whence it was introduced to the stove of the gardens at 

 Oakfield, near Cheltenham, by one of the most intelligent and enthusiastic of 

 cultivators, Mrs, Wray, of that place. The flower scape extends several feet 

 high, panicled, and blooms profusely. The sepals and petals are of a bright 

 yellow, blotched with reddish-brown. Lip yellow. Each flower is about an 

 inch and a half across. It is a beautiful species. 



Ipomoea platensis. — (Maund's Botanist February, 1840). Plata Ipomcea. 

 Convolvulaceee. A splendid plant ((he figure of which is given iu No. 49 for 

 January) from the banks of the river Flate, and of which some varieties have 

 already been figured in the BotanicalMagazine and the Botanical Register. 

 " The plant figured flowers freely in the garden of the Caledonian Horticul- 



