NEW AND RARE PLANTS. 209 



« 



PART II. 



NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 



(Noticed since our last.) 



1. LGELIA AUTUMNALIS. Autumnal flowering Lcelia. 



(Pax. Mag. Bot. & Baleman's Orchid. 9. 



ORCH1DACEJE. GYNANDR1A MONAIMDRIA. 



A very beautiful species introduced from Mexico in 183G; where it was 

 found growing upon trees at a considerable elevalion. The flowers are of a 

 lovely transparent pink colour, and are produced in spikes of from one to 

 three feet in length, according to the strength of the plant. Messrs. Lod- 

 diges, Rollinsons, and others, possess plants for sale and every cultivator of 

 orchidaceous plants should possess it. Mr. Bateman observes " it thrives 

 best in a moderate temperature, and requires to be high potted, as by that 

 means, the roots are more likely to be retained in a healthy state, and are 

 better able to withstand the extremes of heat and moisture which will some- 

 times occur, and which have been found excessively injurious to Loelias, 

 Cattleyas, and species of some allied genera. In winter they should be 

 very sparingly watered, and kept in almost a dormant state." 



2. LIL1UM THUNBERG1UM. Mr. Tliunberg's Lily. (Bot. Reg. 38. 



LILIACE.f. HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



This splendid lily was introduced along with various others from Japan, 

 by Dr. Siebold ; and is now cultivated by Messrs. Rollissons and Youngs, 

 The flowers are large and of a splendid orange colour. J}r. Siebold in his 

 "Flora Japonica," observes, "that in more than twenty kinds of lilies 

 brought by me from Japan to Europe, and deposited in the Ghent Botanic 

 Garden, are varieties of L. speciosum. To the one with flowers rose-colored 

 blotched with purple, I gave the name of L. speciosum Koeropferi, because it 

 was the indefatigable botanist Kosmpfer, who first made il known to Euro- 

 peans. For the second with pure white flowers, I preserve the Japanese 

 name Tametorao, which it bears in its own country, in consequence of having 

 been first brought by that hero from the Loo choo islands, as the Japanese 

 assert. The beauty and fragrance of the flowers of these two kinds rank 

 them amongst the most magnificent of their genus ; I should even say that 

 L. speciosum Kcempferi stood at the head of them all, if a variety of L. 

 longiflorum, which I have seen in Japan with flowers often eight or ten 

 iaches long, did not dispute the palm on account of its sweetness. L. spe- 

 ciosum Kosmpferi, is cultivated all over Japan as an ornamental plant. 

 Its true country is probably China, or rather Korii, if we may judge from 

 its name Korai-juri or Korai-lily. It flowers in May and June ; in the Botanic 

 garden at Ghent it did not flower in 1832 (the firtt time in Europe) till Au- 

 gust. Like other kinds of lily it is freely propagated by scales ; it does not 

 however bear bulbs in the axils of the leaves It succeeds very well in a 

 cold greenhouse, and even in the open air if protected. The variety of L. 

 tametomo, although it has pleased some botanists to make a peculiar species 

 of it, under the name of L. eximium, differs nevertheless, only in its flow- 

 ers being quite white, and the leaves rather more distinctly stalked. Ac- 

 cording to some of the Japanese botanists it is found wild, not only in the 

 Loo-choo islands, but also in the north of Japan , but it has, perhaps, been 

 confounded with L. japonicum, which is often wild in those countries." 

 Vol. VII. No. 79. im 



