26 NOTES ON NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 



and winter, on which account it is valuable. Introduced from South 

 America by the Horticultural Society. 



Campanula colorata. Deep coloured. — Dr. Hooker also col- 

 lected seeds of this neat flowering species in Sikkim-Himalaya, at an 

 elevation of ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is a 

 spreading perennial plant, the stems from one to two feet long ; it is 

 much branched. The flowers are terminal, borne singly, both on the 

 end shoots and the side ones. Each flower is of a regular bell-shape, 

 about three parts of an inch long, and as much across the five parted 

 mouth, of a bright deep purple colour. It is a very neat species, and 

 bloomed in the Royal Gardens of Kew the last summer and autumn. 

 (Figured in JBot. Mag., 4555.) 



Coxsolida Aconitii (Syti. Delphinium Aconitii). — A weak erect 

 annual, half a yard high ; flowers about an inch across, single, of a 

 deep blue-lavender colour. Interesting and pretty. 



Daphne Houtteana. The purple-leaved Mezereum. — An old 

 plant in this country, but very rare. The leaves are of a deep purple 

 colour, and the flowers of a violet-lilac colour : The flowers of the 

 common Mezereum appear before the foliage, but this has its leaves 

 and flowers at the same time. It is quite hardy, and merits a place in 

 every shrubbery. It is figured in Van Houtte's Flora. 



Didymocarpus cRiNiTA. The Hairy. — Messrs. Veitch's collector 

 discovered it at Singapore ; it has bloomed in their establishment at 

 Exeter, in the stove. The plant is half-shrubby, erect, about nine 

 inches high, large leaves, of a rich coppery-green, with a velvet hue, 

 above; but beneath, of a rich purple-red. It is a lovely dwarf plant, 

 its beauty rather depending on the rich coloured leaves than on the 

 flowers. Each flower is narrowish, funnel-shaped, bellying below the 

 broad spreading five-lobed limb (mouth). The tube is an inch and a 

 half long, and about half that across the limb (similar to some of the 

 Pentstemons). The limb is white, tube yellow. (Figured in Hot. 

 May., 4554. 



ECHINOCACTUS VlSNAGA. The TOOTH-PICK, OR MONSTER CaCTCS. 



— This magnificent plant has bloomed in the fine collection of the 

 Royal Gardens of Kew. The flowers appear in numbers from among 

 the woolly mass at the top of the plant. "When fully open they are 

 nearly four inches across, yellow. Many of our readers have seen 

 these extraordinary large Cactuses in the Royal Gardens of Kew ; and 

 some, the very remarkable one which in 1846 was nine feet high, and 

 nine feet and a-half in girth, and weight a ton. At that time it was 

 in vigorous health, but soon exhibited symptoms of internal injury, 

 and the inside became a putrid mass, and the entire perished. Other 

 lesser plants were already and are still in the collection, and one has 

 bloomed, i ts weight being 713 lbs. ; height four feet six inches, and 

 girth eight feet seven inches. It has forty-four ribs. These plants 

 were procured from Mexico, and presented to the Royal Gardens by 

 Frederick Staines, Esq. (Figured in Bot. Mag., 4559). 



