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ESCALLONIA macrantha. 



Large-flowered Escalhnia. 

 Linnean Class — Pentandria. Order — Monogynia. Natural Order— Escalloniace^:. 



The number of hardy evergreens in cultivation producing showy flowers, has 

 increased considerably of late years ; but they are still so much less numerous than 

 deciduous shrubs, that any addition to this class of plants would be favourably 

 received, even had it fewer claims to notice than the very handsome Escalhnia we 

 now figure. Several species of this genus, with small white or red flowers, are to 

 be found in the gardens of the curious, but for the Escallonia macrantha we may 

 safely venture to predict a much wider popularity ; and it is, in fact, although so 

 recently introduced, already tolerably well known, thanks to its rapid growth, and 

 the ease with which it is propagated. 



For this interesting shrub the floricultural public are indebted to the enterprise 

 of Messrs. Yeitch of Exeter, by whose collector it was found in Chiloe, an island to 

 which we owe several highly ornamental plants, and which, as might be anticipated, 

 are most of them sufficiently hardy to bear the winters of our southern counties with 

 little or no protection. It is true that frost and snow are comparatively unknown 

 in Chiloe, but the climate, to use the words of Mr. Darwin, ' is detestable ; rain 

 falling during ten months of the year, and a week of fine weather being regarded 

 as an extraordinary event."* However favourable such atmospheric conditions, 

 aided as they are by the fertile soil of the decomposed volcanic rocks of which the 

 island consists, may be to the growth of the Chiloen flora, there can be no doubt 

 that plants produced under these circumstances, would be less able to resist a very 

 low temperature than when cultivated in our own climate. 



We believe, therefore, that the Escallonia macrantha will be found considerably 

 more hardy than was at first supposed, and that if planted in situations not too 

 much exposed, nor in soil too retentive of moisture, it will bear our winters even in 

 the open border. Some of the species hitherto cultivated succeed best against a 

 wall; and in such situations, the E. macrantha would probably resist the climate of 

 our northern counties. 



It is increased with great facility by cuttings, under a hand glass in summer, and 

 also by layers of the lower branches. 



It is usually grown in peat ; but in localities where this is not obtainable, a 

 * See this gentleman's very interesting Journal of a Naturalist in the Voynge of the Beagle. 



