56 Notes and Gleanings. 



Portraits of Plants, Flowers, and Fruits. — Cercits lividus (Livid 

 Cereus). Nat. ore!., Cactaceae ; Linn., Icosanclria Monogynia. — This is a colum- 

 nar cactus, twelve feet high, and from four to si.K inches in diameter. Flowers 

 white, ten inches in diameter. Native oi Brazil, La Guayra, and Cura9oa. — • 

 Bot. Mag., t. 5775. 



Croats Orphanidis (Prof Orphanides' Crocus). Nat. ord., Iridace32 ; Linn., 

 Triandria Monogynia. — Very beautiful ; native of Greece. Flowers more than 

 two inches in diameter, lilac-blue, unveined, throat yellow. They blossomed in 

 a cool frame at Kew during November. — find., t. 5776. 



Pelargonium Schoitii (Dr. Schott's Pelargonium). Nat. ord., Geraniaceze ; 

 Linn., Monadelphia Decandria. — A garden hybrid, nearly allied to P. chcero- 

 pliylluin, which had for its parent P.fulgidicm, fertilized by the pollen of P. 

 san'^HiiiL'um. Flowers crimson, with an elongated black blotch on each petal. — 

 Ibid., t. 5777. 



Odontoglossum Kraineri (Kramer's Odontoglot). Nat. ord., Orchidaceas ; 

 Linn., Gynandria Monandria. — Native of Costa Rica. Introduced by Messrs. 

 Veitch & Sons. '-Like its congeners, it flourishes under cool treatment." 

 Flowers freely and enduringly, and is exquisitely delicate in the purple tints on 

 its otherwise white flowers. — Ibid., t. 5778. 



Pliiineria lutea (Yellow Plumeria). Nat. ord., Apocynaceae ; Linn., Pentan- 

 dria Monogynia. — Native of Peru. A fine branching seven-feet-high plant, 

 flowering abundantly in June in the Kew Palm-House. Flowers four inches in 

 diameter, sweet-scented, very pale pink, yellow at the base of the petals. — Ibid., 



t- 5779 



Gladiohts critentus (Blood-colored Gladiolus). Nat. ord., Iridacex : Linn., 

 Triandria .Monogynia. — " A very beautiful and entirely novel species. It was 

 received from Natal by Mr. Bull of Chelsea, with whom it flowered during the 

 past summer. It is not only a very showy plant, but also one of a very distinct 

 character ; and we believe it will be welcomed as a grand acquisition for the 

 flower-garden, on account of its vigorous habit of growth, and its large, bril- 

 liantly-colored flowers. It will, probably, be also of great value to the hybridizer, 

 and may be expected to impart so.ne novelty of feature to the popular varieties 

 of this favorite flower. As a species, it is remarkable for its almost regular 

 perianth, with Ijlunt emarginate segments ;* but it has entirely the habit and 

 aspect of the ordinary garden varieties of gladiolus. 



"The plant produces a tall scape, two feet high or upwards, furnished with 

 long, flag-like, glaucous leaves, nearly an inch wide, the scape terminating in a 

 distichous spike of about a dozen large, broadly campanulate subringent flowers 

 of a bright, blood-red color, the segments of which are obovate or oblong-spathu- 

 late, and emarginate, — the upper ones being more prominent, somewhat larger 

 than the lower, and uniformly colored ; while the lower smaller ones are some- 

 what recurved, crimson at the base, and scarlet at the apex. The two lateral 

 ones of the lower lip are marked about halfway down with a white zone, dotted 

 with crimson, which on the exterior edge runs out into a long point, like the 

 flame of the florists' tulip. The base of the segments, where they pass into the 

 slender tube, is marbled with yellowish-green. The stamens have reil tllaments, 

 supporting linear purple anthers." — Florist and Poinologist, 3d s., ii., 121. 



