NOTES ON NEW OR RARE PLANTS. 123 



Escallonia macrantha. — This beautiful robust evergreen shrub 

 deserves a place in every warm shrub border. Its fine foliage (large 

 as Arbutus leaves), and large rosy-pink flowers, render it a valuable 

 acquisition. 



Heliotropium immortalite be Louise Marie. — This very pecu- 

 liar variety was raised from seed by M. Marchot, of Leige, named as 

 above that wherever it was cultivated it might recal the great loss 

 which Belgium has lately sustained in the death of her queen. It 

 blooms more profusely than any other Heliotropium. The leaves are 

 small, roundish, and the plant somewhat of a drooping habit, similar to 

 those which the Romans placed on the graves of their dead. The 

 cymous heads of flowers are large, and each blossom green at the 

 centre, emblematical of hope, surrounded by a crown of gold, emblem 

 of holiness ; and the five rays of the border present the virginal white- 

 ness of the celestial stars, with this peculiarity, that here the flowers, it 

 is stated, have the peculiar fragrance of the Violet and "Wallflower 

 during the period of their progressive changes. 



Helleborus atro-rubens. — A very handsome purple-flowered 

 hardy herbaceous plant, blooming in February and March. The 

 flowers are about the size of our Christmas Rose Hellebore. The dark 

 purple gradually changes to green. It inhabits woods and bushy places 

 in the mountains of Austria. It is now in the Royal Gardens of Kew. 

 (Figured in Bot. Mag., 4581.) 



Holbollia acuminata. — A stout climbing evergreen shrubby 

 plant, growing in the mountain woods of Nepaiil, so strong that the 

 trunk becomes four or five inches in diameter. The leaves are about 

 the size and shape of those of the Mandevillia suaveolens. The flowers 

 are produced in racemous clusters of six to eight in each, from the 

 axils of the leaves. A single flower is bell-shaped, about half an inch 

 long and as much across, of a purplish colour, with green tips. They 

 have the perfume of the Orange-tree flower. It has hitherto been 

 treated in this country as a greenhouse plant, and highly merits a place 

 there, but it is very probably quite hardy. (Figured in Puxton's 

 Floicer Garden.^ 



Monarda amplexicaulis. — A hardy herbaceous plant, growing 

 two feet high. It blooms freely, the flowers being produced in ter- 

 minal heads, and are white tinged with rose, each flower having four 

 rows of purple spots on the lip. It is a very pretty plant, recently 

 introduced into our nurseries from Belgium. 



MoRMODES ATRO-PURPUREA. BLACK-PURPLE FLOWERED. A 



stove orchid, from Panama, and has bloomed in the collection of these 

 plants belonging to J. 1). Llewelyn, Esq., at Penllergare, in "Wales. 

 The flower-scape grows a foot high, and the flowers are pendulous, 

 each being two inches across, of a dark chocolate blood colour. A 

 very singular, pretty species. (Figured in Hot. Mag., 4577.) 



Persea gratissima. Alligator Pear. — It is a moderate-sized 

 tree, extensively cultivated in the West Indies, especially in Jamaica. 

 Plants are in our own country, but we have not heard of its having 



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