84 CII.EXESTES LAXCEOLATA. 



plants. But it is now well understood that the hardiness in this climate of exotic 

 plants, depends less on the latitude than on the elevation at which they occur ; an 

 altitude of a few thousand feet, even under the Equator, being sufficient to introduce 

 us to a climate as temperate as our own, and, still higher, to a region where 

 perpetual congelation reigns. 



It will, therefore, no longer appear astonishing that some of the plants peculiar 

 to the Columbian territory should prove nearly hardy in this country. We are not 

 informed of the precise elevation at which the CJxenestes was found, but it is 

 stated to have been discovered by Mr. Purdie, the collector for the Eoyal Gardens 

 at Kew, among the mountains of Quindiii. This mountain pass of the Central 

 Andes skirts the foot of the Nevado de Tolima, the highest mountain north of 

 the line, being about 18,000 feet above the sea-level; and it is to be presumed, 

 therefore, that the temperature where this beautiful shrub occurs is not much 

 higher than that of our more northern latitudes. 



"We are, however, happily relieved from conjecture as to its hardiness, a plant 

 exposed by us last summer having borne the recent severe weather with com- 

 paratively little injury, except the loss of its leaves, and the destruction of the 

 late growths, and unripe wood, for the maturing of which the mild, wet autumn 

 of 1852 was peculiarly unfavourable. The only protection afforded was a peck 

 or so of ashes over its roots, and a single mat around its stems ; both of these, 

 however, were applied late in the season, after the arrival of frosts. The plant 

 was unfortunately exposed against a west wall, where it received but little sun in 

 autumn, and the soil was of a retentive character ; as it has resisted the late winter 

 under so many unfavourable conditions, we therefore entertain but little doubt that 

 in ordinary seasons, well-drained soil, and a southerly or south west exposure, it 

 will prove almost hardy ; though under any circumstances it will require the 

 protection of a mat or screen to preserve the old wood from injury. In the case 

 of those shrubs which flower on the shoots of the current season, as the Fuschia, 

 Chmatis, and Leycesteria, the loss of the previous year's wood is a matter of no 

 moment; but in those which, like the Halrothamnus and Chcenestes, produce their 

 blossoms only from the old wood, its preservation is absolutely essential. 



The Chcenestes is naturally an evergreen, but loses its foliage when fully exposed. 

 It is of very rapid growth, the shoots often extending four or five feet in a single 

 season ; the foliage is somewhat coarse, as in the case of many other plants of this 

 tribe ; and when fully developed, the leaves are not unfrequently six to eight inches 

 long. While young they, as well as the branches, are covered with downy, stellate 

 hairs ; but this pubesence disappears as the wood ripens. The umbels of flowers 

 are produced from the axils of the leaves on the upper part of the branches, and 

 consist frequently of twenty blossoms or more, each of which is attached by a 

 slender, drooping stalk. The calyx is somewhat tubidous, with five unequal, blunt 



