NOTICES OF NEW NATIVE PLANTS, 29 



It may be well to observe, that in growing the delicate bulbous varieties 

 of the Tropseolum, daily attention to training is indispensable ; a day's neg- 

 lect may ruin the plant, for the growth is so rapid that the slender branches, 

 if not directed, often become intertwisted; it is then very difficult, if not 

 impossible, to separate them without injury to the plant. 



Trusting that the foregoing hints may not be without profit to some, this 

 little article is given to the public. 



NOTICES OF NEW NATIVE PLANTS, 

 Introduced to our Gardens from the Cambridge Botanic Garden. 



BY PROFESSOR ASA GRAY. 



To E. S. Rand, Jr., Esq., Chairman of the Flower Committee 

 of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society — 

 I accede with pleasure to your request that I should furnish a brief no- 

 tice of some of the plants which have been introduced into cultivation by 

 the Botanic Garden of Harvard University since it has been under my 

 charge. I restrict myself, of course, to those which are of floricultural 

 interest, and naturally to species indigenous to the United States, since I 

 am to speak only of plants here first brought into cultivation. The princi- 

 pal exception is that of a South American Passion-flower. 



1. Tacsonia ii5:v[s, Benth. This handsome species was described by 

 Bentham several years ago, from a collection made by Mr. Hartweg. Only 

 dried specimens were taken to England. It was found in woods near Guay- 

 aquil. Seeds which prove to be of this species occurred in a valuable 

 parcel of seeds which were collected in the Quitensian Andes, and at their 

 western base, by Captain Joseph P. Couthouy, who kindly communicated 

 them to this establishment. Plants came into flower in our conservatory 

 early last summer, and continued to blossom freely until late in autumn. 

 Although described as a Tacsonia, this species is so exactly intermediate 

 between that tubular-flowered genus and the true Passion-flowers, that it 

 might almost equally well be referred to either. It has the tube of a Tac- 

 sonia, but the tube is not longer than the spreading part of the blossom. 

 The latter consists of ten narrow lobes, between one and two inches in 

 length, and of that peculiar, lively, purplish-pink hue, now so fashionable 

 under the name o? mauve color. The crown is remarkably short and incon- 

 spicuous ; the column very slender. The smooth and light green foliage is 

 very neat; and the plant grows freely and climbs extensively at our ordi- 

 nary summer temperature. But its great merits are that it blossoms far 

 more copiously than most other Passion-flowers, keeps its flowers open 

 longer, usually for two full days, and continues to bloom the whole summer 

 long. If not strikingly showy, it is a particularly elegant species. 



2. Berberis trifoliata, Moricand. Tliis Barberry, a native of the 

 southern and western part of Texas, will not bear our northern winters ; 



