NOTES ON NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 27 



Gyneridm argenteum ; (or, Arundo dioica, or A. Selloana). 

 The Pampas Grass of Soutli America, where it inhabits the vast 

 plains, and is said to grow ten yards high, and bear panicles of silky, 

 silvery-white flowers two feet or more long. It is a tall perennial 

 plant in our own country, and its fine plumes of flowers, borne by sucli 

 a noble plant, renders it highly interesting and ornamental. It was 

 introduced from South America by Mr. Moore, curator of the Botanic 

 Garden, Dublin. The plant appears to be hardy in this country, 

 nourishing in the garden of Robert Hutton, Esq., of Putney Park, 

 near London. It is also in the Chiswick garden. 



Hydromestds maculatus. — A stove plant, from Mexico. It is 

 an under-shrub, of the Acanthacaea order ; it blooms freely ; even 

 plants a foot high have flowered in the stove at the Royal Gardens of 

 Kew. The flowers are produced in large terminal spikes, yellow, 

 narrow tube, an inch long, and the limb spreading an incli across. 

 The heads of flowers are in form and size like those of Justicia flaves- 

 cens. (Figured in Bot. Mag., 4556.) 



Jonesia Asoca. — Found growing in gardens about Calcutta, where 

 it forms a very handsome middle-sized branching tree. It is conse- 

 crated by the Brahmins ; they plant it near their temples. The leaves 

 are six inches long, lance-shaped. The flowers are produced in ter- 

 minal corymbs, diversified with tints of orange, scarlet, and yellow. 

 The head of flowers is about three inches across, and each blossom 

 tube near an inch long, with a four-lobed limb three quarters of an 

 inch across. (Figured in Paxton's Flower Garden, 32.) 



Lonicera tartarica, var. Punicea. — Many of our readers know 

 the Tartarian Honeysuckle ; this is like it in appearance, except the 

 flowers being larger and of a deep rose-colour. It was introduced into 

 this country by the Horticultural Society, and is a native of Siberia. 



Mtrtds orbiculata. — Obtained from the Mauritius ; sent to the 

 Royal Gardens of Kew in 1824. It is a bushy shrub, six feet high, and 

 blooms profusely in autumn in the stove ; its Myrtle-like flowers, of a 

 yellowish-white, are very pretty, and shed a delightful fragrance. 

 (Figured in Bot. Mag., 4558.) 



Oncidium variegatdm. — A pretty Orchid from Havannah, intro- 

 duced by Sir Charles Lemon, Bart. The branching panicle of flowers 

 is eighteen inches high ; they are pink, richly stained with cinnamon- 

 red. Each blossom an inch across. (Figured in Paxtoii's Flower 

 Garden, 33.) 



Pjeonia Moutan, atrosanguinea. — This is the finest of the 

 number which were introduced from China by the Horticultural 

 Society. It is of vigorous growth ; leaves tinged with red ; flowers 

 very large (six inches across), and very double, witli deep blood- 

 coloured petals, which are nearly as broad in the centre of the flower 

 as at the edge. (Figured in Paxton's Flower Garden, 31.) 



Portlandia PL.VTANTHA. — A very beautiful flowering stove-shrub, 

 growing about half a yard high. The flowers are white, broad, funnel- 



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