MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 213 



much resembling the little British Polygala. It is a very neat and pretty 

 species. 



On Troi'eceolum tricolorum. — If the bulb be planted so near the surface 

 of the soil in the pot as to leave the upper part half bare, it will swell, and 

 the size will be very greatly increased. This mode of treatment only benefits 

 the bulb, the season it is done, for though it contributes to enlarge the bulb, 

 the shoots are rendered so weakly by it, as to bloom very sparingly. The 

 bulb, however, beiug so much increased in size, is capable of producing 

 shoots and flowers the following season proportionately larger as well as more 

 of the latter, when planted and treated in the following manner the suc- 

 ceeding season. See soil described in pages 148 and 170. 



The delicate roots of the Tricolorum are not numerous, and consequently 

 do no require a large pot, but when the roots extend to the side of the pot, 

 the operation of dry heat upon it, injures ihe roots, and causes the foliage 

 to become yellow and sickly. To obviate this, recourse has been had to plant 

 the bulb in a lart'fc pot, as the roots do not extend far from the bulb, they 

 would not thenj be liable to the injury as iu small pots; but in this mode 

 the water necessary to give the plant saturates the soil, so as to sour it, and 

 render it injurious to the plant, in which case the foliage turns yellow and 

 sickly, and sometimes ihe habit is destroyed. It has been found, however, 

 that the injury is obviated, by planting the bulb in asmallish pot when the 

 stem has pushed a foot, the pot is then placed inside a larger one, and the 

 space is tilled up with river or other sand. This is kept moist by often wa- 

 tering, and thus keep the roots, which extend to the side of the pot in which 

 the bulb is planted, cool and moist, and renders it less necessary to water 

 the soil. Plants thus treated flourish amazingly, and amply repay the atten- 

 tion paid to them. Flora. 



On the Cattley* Guttata. — There is perhaps no genus of orchideous 

 epiphytes yet in our gardens such a general favourite as Cattleya, a circum- 

 stance which is to be ascribed in part to the j;reat beauty of such species as 

 C. labiata, Loddigesii, and crispa; and doubtless also in part to the readi- 

 ness with which they adapt themselves to the artificial state of life under 

 which they are necessarily preserved in our hothouses. 



There is, however, a great difference in the degree of success with which, 

 these plants are managed, even by excellent cultivators; for if we see C la- 

 biata and crispa, with two or three flowers in a cluster, so as also we do see 

 them with a larger number ; C. crispa in particular, has been grown with se- 

 ven flowers, by Mr. Paxton, gardener to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, 

 thus forming a spectacle of almost unrivalled beauty, and pleasing to look 

 upon. The most striking instance of remarkable success in this matter that 

 has come to my knowledge, is in the case of a plant of C. guttata, flowered in 

 the hothouse of Richard Harrison, Esq. of Aighburgh, near Liverpool, and by 

 him exhibited at the meeting of this society, on the 6th of December last, 

 when the silver Kuightian medal was awarded it. 



C. guttata is a native of the woods about Rio Janeiro. It was originally 

 sent to tin; Horticultural Society ol London by the Might Hon. Sir Kobert 

 Gordon, and has recently been met with by Mr. Gardener in abundance cm 

 trees and plants in the same country. 



It generally produces two or three yellowish green flowers, richly spotted 

 with crimson, which is its condition in a wild state ; occasionally live or six 

 arc seen, and possibly more. The specimen to which 1 allude had no fewer 

 than twenty-four flowers on one raceme, and was altogether, with the exeep 

 tionofan Aerides cornutura, in the possession ol Messrs. I.mldiges, which is 

 the must noble specimen of this natural order ol plants that I have had the 

 good fortune to observe. The lovers of Flora will In- glad to learn the method 

 which Mr. W. Perriu, gardener to Mr. Harrison adopts to cultivate this, 

 beautiful plant. If is as follows. 



" The soil in which I grow Oattbyas is a compost of peat earth, and bro- 



