NOTES ON NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 53 



Pistia Str^tiotes. Water Lettuce (Synonyme, Plantago 

 aquatica.) — This singular plant only requires a vessel, or tank, supplied 

 with water, and tufts of it float along the surface, appearing like a half 

 grown Cabbage Lettuce, which continues in great beauty all summer 

 and autumn. The flowers are nestled among the leaves, and of little 

 beauty. The roots hang down in the water, and are a very pretty 

 object on lifting out the plant ; they are beautifully feathery, and do 

 not attach to any soil, &c. 



In the West Indies, this plant covers the surface of stagnant waters, 

 in the same way as the Duck's Meat do in our own country. It requires 

 to be grown under glass in Great Britain, and in a cistern of water at 

 seventy degrees of temperature. (Figured in JBot. Mag., 4564.) 



Potentilla ochreata. — From the Himalaya Mountains. A pretty 

 dwarf hardy shrub. The flowers are terminal (end of shoots), of a 

 bright yellow colour, each about an inch across. Major Madden 

 introduced this handsome shrub to the Dublin Botanic Garden. 



Scilenia oppositifolia. — This is a very lovely annual, from the 

 Swan River colony. It is nearly allied to the Helichrysum. It is quite 

 equal in beauty to the charming Rhodanthe Manglesii, and the flowers 

 are of a similar form, but erect, and of a similar beautiful rose colour. 

 The flower stem rises a foot or more high, and the flowers are borne in 

 broad corymbous heads, twenty or more blossoms in each. A separate 

 flower is nearly an inch across. Seeds were sent to the Royal Gardens 

 of Kew by Mr. Drummond. Seeds require to be sown early in spring ; 

 plants potted off singly, or three in a pot, to have a larger display, and 

 otherwise treated as greenhouse ornamental annuals for summer display 

 therein. It is a very charming plant, and a valuable substitute in the 

 greenhouse, when the usual collection is out of doors in summer. 

 (Figured in Bot. Mag., 4560.) 



Tamarindus officinalis. Tamarind Tree. — The West Indian 

 kind is, in the Royal Gardens of Kew, about fourteen feet high. Its 

 beautiful Acacia-like foliage has a pretty appearance. The flowers are 

 borne in short racemes terminal on the side shoots, each raceme having 

 from six to eight. A separate blossom is an inch across, has six 

 spreading petals, of a pale yellow streaked with red. (Figured in 

 Bot. Mag., 4563.) 



Vanda Ccerulea. The blue flowered.— This is said to be the 

 noblest of the Indian race of Orchids, and Mr. Griffith found it growing 

 among the Khasya or Cossya Hills. The leaves of this wonderful 

 plant are five inches long, by one wide ; at their end, two-lobed, and 

 each lobe sharp pointed, so that the end looks as if a piece had been 

 struck oft' by a punch. The flowers grow in upright spikes. A piece 

 of a stem, but four inches long, bears four such spikes, which are from 

 six to nine inches long, and carry from nine to twelve flowers. Each 

 blossom is about four inches across, of a delicate lilac-blue colour. 

 Messrs. Veitch's have received this very charming plant from their 

 valuable collector, Mr. Lobb. 



The above description is of a dried specimen which had been sent, 



