50 ESCALLONIA MACRANTHA. 



suitable soil may be prepared by mixing sandy loam witb one-third of leaf-mould, 

 or of old and thoroughly pulverized rotten manure. 



We are unaware of the size attained by this shrub in its native climate, but the 

 oldest specimens in this country have many of them already reached the height of 

 four feet ; and in robustness of growth, it probably surpasses most of the other 

 species. The panicles of rosy flowers, which appear in June, and are produced for 

 several months in succession, are borne at the extremity of each branch, and smaller 

 heads are also produced by the side shoots. 



The Escallonias are found only in South America, where they are widely distri- 

 buted, from New Grenada to the Straits of Magellan ; and from the Organ mountains 

 of Brazil, to Chiloe, the habitat of the present species. Several of them are found 

 at great elevations, frequently at a supra-marine altitude of 12,000 to 14,000 feet. 



By some Botanists, the Escalloniads are considered as a section of the Saxifrage 

 tribe, with which they have some affinity: we have, however, followed those 

 writers who place them as a distinct order. The Saxifragacece are well distinguished, 

 by the two carpels of which their fruit is composed diverging at the apex, the two 

 stigmas being sessile on the tips of the lobes of the ovary. In the EscaUoniaca, the 

 two carpels are wholly adherent ; and the calyx being united to the ovary, this 

 organ is entirely inferior, whilst in the Saxifrages it is only partially so. The 

 cohesion of the petals in Escallonia, offers an additional means of discrimination 

 between the plants of the two orders. 



For the benefit of our younger readers we subjoin the technical description of 

 this shrub, which will serve as a lesson in the science of observation. They will do 

 well to remark the order in which the various parts of the plant are described, and 

 the precision with which each peculiarity is noted. Where a specimen is attainable, 

 it should be carefully compared with the following details : — 



' A handsome shrub, three feet or more high, branched. Branches terete, the 

 younger ones clothed with glandular pubescence. Leaves alternate, obovato-ellip- 

 tical, rather obtuse, cuneate at the base, strongly and doubly serrated at the margin, 

 reticulated on the surface, glabrous, dark and shining above, beneath paler, and 

 dotted with resinous points. Panicle terminal : pedicels bracteolated, the bracteoles 

 deciduous. Flowers large, red. Calyx turbinate, clothed with stipitate viscid glands ; 

 the lower portion of the tube adherent with the ovary, the upper half free, campa- 

 nulate, cut half-way down into five erect or slightly spreading, subulate teeth. Corolla 

 of five spathulate petals, the claws erect, and forming a tube, the laminoe spreading 

 horizontally. Stamens as long as the tube. Ovary two-celled. Style columnar, 

 surrounded at the base by a large furrowed gland. Stigma thick, dilated, obscurely 

 two-lobed. Fruit, turbinato-cylindrical, surmounted by the spreading persistent 

 limb of the calyx and the style.'* 



* Botanical Magazine. 



