CULTURE OF THE ACHIMENES. 41 



aged by the liberal spirit and enterprise of a few leading nurserymen, 

 supplied the demands, adding fresh novelties every season from Mexico 

 and Brazil, where they are found in great abundance growing in woods and 

 shady places, where the earth is little more than rotten leaves, bark, and 

 decayed wood. This knowledge of their native haunts, and light and open 

 soil, in our efforts at successful cultivation, should never be lost sight of. 

 We may with advantage add a richer and more stimulating material, for 

 experience tells us that plants, when confined to pots, will bear wiih advan- 

 tage a stronger compost than that they may have been accustomed to in 

 their native wilds. But to those desirous of growing only moderate sized 

 plants, with plenty of bloom, nothing is better than a mixture of coarse 

 fibrous peat, half-rotten leaves, and clean, sharp sand. 



Some of the recently discovered species, are very distinct from the orig- 

 inal kinds, and seem an intermediate link between them and Gloxinias, 

 giving much trouble and dissatisfaction in their nomenclature. Otliers 

 again, apparently distinct from either, were the cause of the formation of 

 several new genera, or rather sub-genera, for they will in the end undoubt- 

 edly turn out to be Achimenes, as their habits and botanical affinities are 

 better understood, and the new names of Lochiera, Mandirola, Tydea, 

 Scheeria, and the unpronouncable Sciadocalyx Warscewiceii, will soon be 

 like the Cyprilla or Trevirana, forgotten or unknowm It is very probable 

 that most of those alluded to will hybridize freely with the true Achimenes, 

 and possibly some of them with the Gloxinias. Should it prove so, (and a 

 year or two will decide,) what was the necessity for placing them in a new 

 genus where they are unlikely to remain.' Botanists have always been 

 considered rather fond of the honor of standing godfather to a new genus, 

 and, for the most trifling differences, separating families which afterwards 

 had to be replaced where they most properly belonged. Nor are nursery- 

 men in this respect one whit better : with them, a new genus is superior to 

 a well defined and distinct species, as it will sell faster, and at a higher 

 price ; consequently we find Locheria magnifica, Tydea amabilis, &,c., 

 changing in a year to Achimenes amabilis, Achimenes magnifica — the first 

 year and under the first name selling at five dollars, the second year for 

 fifty cents. It would hardly be possible to sell many plants of Achimenes 

 at five dollars each, however fine and distinct they might be, but when it 

 is called a Locheria, or Tydea, with specific names so attractive as ama- 

 bilis or magnifica, it is not easy to avoid the bait. 



But it occurs frequently in other plants besides the present, and plainly 

 shows the need of some well defined and easily understood rules, as to 

 what actually distinguishes a genus from a species. True, we are told that 

 kinds which will hybridize together and produce varieties, can only be re- 

 garded as species of the same ; on the other hand we have well authenti- 

 cated instances of separate genera breeding freely and producing very 

 distinct mules or hybrids. Rhododendron and Azalea, for instance, are the 

 parents of many beautiful and well known kinds. Other instances if nec- 

 essary might be mentioned, and with the same results, but this is not the 

 proper place to enter more fully on a subject so difficult, and so little 



