238 GENERAL REVIEW. 



the most valuable of all the economic products ; but numerous 

 other plants in this order afford medicinal extracts more or less 

 valuable. In our gardens the following genera, among others, 

 are generally met with, and as a rule are readily propagated t>y 

 cuttings of the partially-hardened young wood in bottom-heat, 

 or by seeds sown in a temperature of 7o-8o : Coprosma, Ceph- 

 aelis (Ipecacuanha), Coffea, Pavetta, Ixora, Nertera, Pentas, 

 Rondolelia, Bouvardia, Liiciilia, Cinchona, Higginsia, Coccosyp- 

 selum, Randia, Gardenia, Musscznda, Burchellia, and many 

 others. 



Bouvardia. A genus of dwarf-growing and free-blooming 

 Mexican shrubs, much grown in gardens for cut flowers during 

 winter. B. triphylla, a scarlet -flowered, summer-blooming 

 plant, was the first species introduced to this country, having 

 been cultivated since 1794; and this was followed by B. ver si- 

 color (1814), B. longiflora (1827), B. splendens (1834), and B. 

 angustifolia (1838). All the species or varieties are readily 

 propagated by inserting herbaceous or partly-hardened cuttings 

 of the young growth in spring, or by cutting the thicker portions 

 of the roots into lengths of an inch, and sowing them in pans of 

 light earth like seeds. Placed on a genial bottom-heat of 70- 

 80, they soon emit roots and develop adventitious buds. Seeds 

 are readily obtainable from well-grown plants ; but this method 

 is rarely worth adopting, unless the object is to raise new and 

 improved varieties, in which case the flowers must be carefully 

 hybridised. 



Mr Baird of the Wellington Nursery, a skilful hybridist, gives 

 the following history of the hybrids and sports raised in this 

 genus : "In 1855, the late Mr Parsons, of Brighton, was very 

 successful in raising some beautiful hybrids between B. longi- 

 flora and B. leiantha, using the latter as the male and the 

 former as the female parent. The following four were in com- 

 merce in 1857 viz., Rosalinda, Laura, Oriana, and Hogarth. 

 Of these the last is by far the best, being bright scarlet. Laura 

 is at times inclined to sport in colour ; for example, last year I had 

 flowers of it the exact counterpart of those of Hogarth ; while 

 some trusses of others have been pink, scarlet, and other shades 

 of these colours. In 1869, a very fine sport from B. Hogarth, 

 named B. elegans, was imported from America a remarkably 

 robust and free-growing kind, its trusses and individual florets 

 being nearly double the size of those of Hogarth, while in colour 

 it is bright scarlet. In the autumn of the year just named both 

 Hogarth and B. longiflora were crossed with B. jasminiflora, 

 and from the former was obtained Queen of Roses, the first 

 Bouvardia with coloured flowers that were sweet-scented. In 



