NOTES ON NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 195 
require to be often syringed over head, as well as the under side of the 
leaves, during spring up to the period when the blossoms begin to 
burst the calyx. The plants should always be kept well apart, so that 
the air may circulate round them freely. Liquid manure should ocea- 
sionally be given in the growing season. During November, December, 
and January, the plants should be watered sparingly, and be kept cool, 
at from 40° to 45°, this being their period of rest. 
Raising Seedlings—When ripe seed is obtained, up to the early 
part of August, it should be sown as soon as gathered, and the plants 
potted singly when well rooted. By this early sowing, potting, &e., 
they become strong enough to bear the winter season, and thus a year 
is gained upon the method usually adopted of sowing the following 
spring. When seed ripens after August it is best not to sow it till 
February. In order to induce seedlings to bloom early and fine, stop 
the lead, in autumn or very early in spring, to induce the production 
of side shoots, which will produce flowers much earlier than the lead- 
ing stem. 
NOTES ON NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 
AMHERSTIA NOBILIS—THE NoBLE AMHERSTIA, 
Leguminosae. Diadelphia Decandria. 
Mr. Gregson sent this singularly handsome species from the Burman 
Empire, East Indies, tothe Chatsworth Gardens. It first flowered in 
this country in the collection of Mrs. Lawrence’s stove-plants at 
Ealing Park. Dr. Wallich, speaking of it, styles it the prince of 
flowering trees; that he had gathered it in a garden belonging to a 
monastery. Handfuls of the flowers were found as offerings in the 
caves before the images of Buddha. Of the two trees he saw in the 
garden, the largest was forty feet high, and the girth at the base six 
feet. They were profusely ornamented with pendulous racemes of 
large vermilion-scarlet-coloured flowers. Each flower is about five 
inches across, and the petals being rather narrow in comparison with 
the size of the flower, gives it a straggling appearance. (Figured in 
Bot. Mag. 4453.) 
ALLOPLECTIS CAPITATUS—THE HEADED. 
Gesneriacee. Didynamia Angiospermia, 
It is probably a native of the tropics of South America. It was 
presented to the Royal Gardens of Kew by Messrs, Knight and Perry, 
where it has bloomed in the stove. The leaves are about a foot long, 
of a velvetty-green above, and purplish beneath. The stem, petioles, 
peduncules, and calyx, are of a deep blood colour. The flowers are 
tubular ventricose, about an inch long, yellow, contrasting beautifully 
with the rich red calyx, &c. (Figured in Bot. Mag. 4452.) 
CyRTOCHILUM CITRINUM—CITRON-COLOURED. 
A pretty stove orchidez, sent from America to Mrs. Lawrence, and 
bloomed last April. The flower scape is erect, about a foot. high, 
R 2 
