MAY.] HOT-HOUSE OF REPOTTING, &c. 223 



valuable plant, for the many useful purposes to which 

 it is applied. It requires to be kept wet. 



Banisterias, a genus of about fourteen climbing ever- 

 green plants. Three of them are esteemed. B.fulgens, 

 yellow flowers in racemose spikes, leaves subovate, and 

 downy beneath. B. Chrisophylla has beautiful foliage, as 

 if covered with a shining gold coloured dust ; leaves 

 large, oblong, acute. B. splendens, flowers in spikes of 

 a yellow colour ; foliage large and silvery like ; the pots 

 should be well drained. 



Barringtonias, two species. B. speciosa has produced 

 a great excitement amongst cultivators, and is one of 

 the handsomest plants produced within the tropics. 

 The leaves are large, oblong, acute, shining, with 

 fleshy nerves, tinged with red ; the flowers are large, 

 full of stamens with four petals, opens in the evening 

 and fades at sunrise ; colour purple and white ; grows 

 freely in strong heat. 



Browneas, five species of splendid plants, but scarce 

 in collections. B. coccinea has scarlet flowers in pen- 

 dulous bunches, corolla semi-double, foliage bipinnate, 

 in three pairs. B. rosa, mountain rose of Trinidad. 

 B. grandiceps is the finest of the genus, leaves bipinnat- 

 ed ; leaflets cordate, accuminate. downy and pendu- 

 lous, flowers rose colour, in large close heads. Drain 

 the pots well. 



Calathea zebrlna, frequently known as Mardnta zebrina, 

 and now Phrynum zebrinum, is a plant unique in its ap- 

 pearance. The large elongated ovate leaves are beau- 

 tifully striped with green and dark purple, and called 



