NOTES ON NEW OK BAKE PIjANTS. 7S 



DlPTERACANTHUS SCANDENS. 



A new stove climber, exhibited by Mr. Glendenning, of Chiswick, 

 at the Horticultural Society's Rooms, in Regent-street, March 16. It 

 is a native of Sierra Leone, and possesses shining dark-green coriaceous 

 leaves. The flowers are produced freely, in short racemes at tiie joints, 

 and bear some resemblance to those of a small white Petunia. It is 

 a i)retty addition to our stoves, 



Deutzia staminea — Bkoad-stamened. 



^ Philadelpltacecc. Decandria Tetragynia. 



It is a native of the high mountains of Nortli India, and forms a 

 liardy deciduous shrub in England, which flowers abundantly in tlie 

 early part of summer. The blossoms are produced numerously in 

 cj^nes on short lateral shoots along the branches, white, sweet-scented. 

 I^cli blossom is about half an inch across. It has bloomed in the 

 garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick. Figured in Bot. liey. 



Nepenthes Rafflesiana — Sir S. Raffle's Pitcher Plant. 



NepenthacecE. Diacia Monadelphia. 



This most singular and highly beautiful plant is figured in the Bo- 

 (atiical 3Iagazi)ie for March, and the following interesting account 

 accompanies it : — ■" To Dr. Jack is due the discovei'y of this remarkable 

 species of Nepenthes, in the island of Singapore. It was our privilege, 

 in tlie first volume of the ' Companion to the Botaniccd Magazine,' 

 to publish the letters of that distinguished botanist, so early lost to 

 science. He relates the circumstance of finding this pitcher plant in 

 one of his many valued communications, addressed to his family at 

 Aberdeen. Writing from Singapore, June 20, 1819, Dr. Jack says, 

 ' My last letter from hence was sent by way of Penang ; this goes home 

 via, Bengal. It is impossible to conceive anything more beautiful than 

 the approach to Singapore, through the Archipelago of Islands that lie 

 at the extremities of the Straits of Malacca. Seas of glass wind among 

 innumerable islets, clothed in all the luxuriance of tropical vegetation, 

 and basking in the full brilliancy of a tropical sky. The island of 

 St. John's, which forms the western point of the Bay of Singapore, 

 would, if fortified, command with cannon the Straits, through which 

 every vessel passes to China and all the eastern settlements. A moi-e 

 convenient site and more formidable position could not possibly be 

 selected ; and it is really astonishing that it should have remained 

 so long unnoticed. It was the capital of the Malaj^s in the twelfth 

 century, but they were obliged to abandon it during the unfortunate 

 wars \\\i\\ the Javan empire of Ma,japulail, and retire to Malacca ; and 

 when the latter was taken by the Portuguese, tiiey settled at Johore ; 

 and Singapore has, till now, been almost forgotten. I have no doubt 

 it will soon rise to more than its ancient consequence. I have just 

 arrived in time to explore the woods, l)efore they yield to the axe, and 

 Imve made many interesting discoveries, particularly of two n;nv and 

 splendid species of pitcher plant {iVeptnth s Raffhsiui.a, and N. ani- 

 puUaria), far surpassing any yet known in Europe. I have completed 

 two perfect drawings of them, w itli ample descriptions. Sir S. RatHes 



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