Brexia — Buphthalm u m . 



83 



plants should be selected for the beds except those show- 

 ing pleasing shades of colour." 



Brexia madagascariensis. — A handsome shrub 

 with a slender erect stem (which sometimes attains a 

 height of 25 ft. or 30 ft. in its native country, but with us 

 is seldom seen more than a fourth of that), clothed with 

 alternate, leathery, long, rather narrow, light-green leaves, 

 nearly or quite smooth at the margin. It is one of the 

 tropical stove-plants that have stood well in the open 

 air from June to early in October, but very few places 

 can spare it for this purpose. It requires ordinary 

 stove culture during winter and spring, and should only 

 be placed out after having made a strong growth, and 

 having that growth hardened off. Madagascar. 



*Buphthalmum speciosum. — A hardy, distinct, 

 and vigorous herbaceous 

 plant, the stems of which are 

 stout, very slightly branch- 

 ing, and about 4 ft. high, 

 with broad, oval-acute leaves 

 mostly clustered around the 

 base of the plant, the lower 

 ones falling gracefully to- 

 wards the earth. The flow- 

 ers, which have a red or 

 purple disk and yellow rays, 

 are more than 2 ins. across, 

 and are terminal, solitary, 

 long-stalked, borne in the 

 axils of the upper leaves, and appear in June, July, or 

 August, according to the season. The plant seldom 



G 2 



Buphthalmum speciosum. 



