PO EXTRACTS. 



iii the open air! To show you that this effect must arise from the action of 

 the snu's rays, you must remember to have noticed the long stalks from pota- 

 toes that we have growing in the cellar where no light could come to them. 

 Thev were always perfectly white, and the leaves were paler than the lightest 

 straw-colour. All plauts become pale and feeble when shut up for a length 

 .if time in dark rooms. So earnestly, too, do they seem to desire the light, 

 that potatoes and other vegetables with long stems, when laid in a dark 

 corner of a cellar in which there is a small window at a distance, will uni- 

 formly stretch out aud grow towards the light; and as soon as they reach it, 

 the portion presented to the light will become green, while all the remainder 

 of the stalk that is still in darkness will continue white. I cannot tell you 

 why the light should make them green, any more than I can explain to you 

 why one flower should always be red, another blue, and another yellow. A 

 reason can of course be given for it, as a reason could be given for every thing 

 that happens iu nature ; nothing takes place without a cause, and this cause 

 was ordered by the same infinitely-wise Being that created the plant. Some 

 chemical philosophers have, with great ingenuity accounted for the different 

 colours in flowers and plants, aud when you are a few years older, you will do 

 well to make yourself acquainted with their clever reasonings; at your present 

 age it would be impossible to make you comprehend them." 



(to be continced.) 



New and Rare Plants figured in the Periodicals for March. 



C talis s Botanical Magazine. Edited by Dr. Hooker, King's 

 Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow, Price 

 3s. 6d. coloured, 3s. plain. 



1. Billbergia purpurco-roseo, Rose-purple Billbergia. Class, Hexandria ; 

 order, Monogynia; natural order, Bromeliaceac. Among the remarkable 

 features in a tropical forest, are the numerous and beautiful species of plants 

 which attach themselves parasitically to the trunks of trees, investing the 

 stems and branches, and adorning them with adventitious flowers and foliage. 

 The chief of these are the Orchis aud Bromelia, or Pine Apple families. 

 The Billbergia belongs to the latter of these, a group of vegetables, which uot 

 only affords the most richly coloured blossoms, accompanied by foliage armed 

 with exceedingly annoying spines; but one of the choicest of productions for 

 our desserts, aud, according to the information of scientific travellers, a truly 

 refreshing beverage in the water that collects in the hollows formed by the 

 inflated leaves, and which is eagerly sought after by the natives iff those hot 

 countries. The present species is one of the most beaatiful of its tribe. It 

 is a native of Brazil, was introduced by that zealous cultivator, Mrs. Arnold 

 Harrison, and flowered for the first time in this country, 1 believe, iu lt>33. 

 in the hot houses of the Liverpool Botanic Garden. Flowers : in a compound 

 raceme, from eight to ten inches long, bearing numerous rose-coloured 

 flowers, the petals alone beiug purple. Billbergia, from J. G. Biixberg, a 

 Swedish botanist. 



2. Ficus comosa, Tufted Tig. Polygamia, Diorcia. Irticeae. A most ele- 

 gant tree, growing in Madeira forty feet high, with gracefully waving, sub- 

 pendulous, tressy masses of dark rich evergreen, shining foliage. Introduced 

 into Kugland from Circars in 1808, 



3. Orni thulium album, livnandria, Monandria. Orchidea\ A native of 

 Trinidad, whence it was sent to the Glasgow Botanic Garden, by Mr. D.wiu 

 Lockuart. It flowered in November, 1833. Flowers: rather large, white, 

 sessile, solitary. Oruithidiuin, from Or n is, bird; and cidus, like, — the upper 

 lip of the stigma being beak-like. 



4. Wcslrinijia riiurea, Ash-coloured. Diaudria, Monogynia. Labiata\ 

 The present species is a very desirable one for cultivation, ami was, disc 



