CDETURE OF FRANCISCEA EXIMIA. 127 



Loudon's list of garden varieties numbered only 180, but were a com- 

 plete descriptive list now to be made of those which have been and now 

 are not, and those in present cultivation, the labour required would 

 almost rival that bestowed on the Great Exhibition Catalogue. It has 

 been computed that somewhere between two and three thousand 

 varieties have already appeared and passed away. But to those who 

 are desirous of more fully investigating the botanical history of this 

 class, Sweet's Geraniacje is a work well adapted, and to it I would 

 refer them. 



But to the subject — " the progress which has been made during the 

 last few years in the Pelargonium." The remarks about to be given 

 are guided by the observations of one who has lived amongst these 

 flowers for eleven years, and a book of jotting will be referred to occa- 

 sionally, which the writer has kept during that time, assisted also by a 

 collection of upwards of three hundred varieties of dried flowers, care- 

 fully preserved in a book, with the year of sending out, the price, and 

 the raiser's name attached to each ; but having, perhaps, already 

 exceeded the amount of space which can be allotted to one article in 

 one number, further remarks are reserved for another month. 



CULTURE OF FRANCISCEA EXIMIA. 



EY M. DE JONGHE, OF BRUSSELS. 



The great difficulty with which every one who attempts to cultivate a 

 tropical plant in an European hothouse has to contend is ignorance 

 of the habits of the plant, of its period of growth, of its period of rest. 

 In consequence of this ignorance, which can only be dispelled by 

 careful observation during two or three years after the plant's arrival, 

 and in consequence of the eagerness of people to attain perfection all 

 at once, and of their tendency to condemn everything that falls short, 

 Though for a brief time, of their expectations, many a new plant has 

 been neglected and set aside, which, had a little more time been spent 

 in endeavouring to bring it to perfection, would have proved well 

 worthy of continued favour and increased popularity. It is then, in 

 my opinion, the duty of every one who introduces new plants to make 

 known everything concerning them which may enable the gardener to 

 bring them as soon as possible into the highest degree of beauty, that 

 they may not be prejudged, and thrown away as unworthy of notice. 

 This I shall now proceed to do for the Franciscea eximia, which is 

 certainly one of the most beautiful of newty-introdueed plants, and of 

 any hitherto brought from Brazil, and cultivated in European houses. 

 The botanical description of this plant, which would be out of place in 

 the columns of the Gardeners' Chronicle, is to be found in several of 

 the journals more exclusively devoted to botany. 



The Franciscea eximia was found by M. Libon in a virgin forest 

 not far from Villa Franca, in the province of St. Paul, in Brazil. It 

 grows naturally in shady places, in small open spaces in the forest, 

 where it forms a bush two or three feet high. The flowers are nume- 



