402 GENERAL REVIEW. 



from seeds taken from the same capsule. The male parent is 

 stated to have been N. kkasyana, the female an unknown 

 species from Borneo. 



N. hybrida metadata. Stem glabrous; leaves glabrous, 

 coriaceous, oblong-lanceolate ; pitchers 5 inches long by i ^ 

 wide, cylindric, oblong, purple-spotted. This form resembles 

 N. Bosckiana in the pitcher, but is winged. 



N. intermedia. This is evidently a robust and free-growing 

 variety, and is the result of a cross between N. Rafflesiana and 

 an unnamed species with small spotted pitchers. The pitch- 

 ers are about the size of those of N. hybrida maadata, but 

 resemble those of N. Rafflesiana in shape and colour. This 

 interesting hybrid was obtained by Mr Court, one of Messrs 

 Veitch's foremen, and was first exhibited in 1875. 



Wherever N. Rafflesiana has been used in raising the above 

 hybrids, no matter whether as male or female, its prepotence 

 over the other species used with it is very evident in the off- 

 spring. 



THE MARVEL OF PERU FAMILY (Nyctaginacece). 



This is a small group containing but few garden plants 

 of especial interest. Mirabilis jalapa (see ' Bot. Mag.,' 

 t. 371), the common Marvel of Peru, is still a^ favour- 

 ite flower in some gardens, on account of its evening and 

 night-blooming habit, and fragrance. Although often grown 

 from - seeds and treated as an annual, it is a perennial, and 

 its roots may be taken up and preserved in sand just like 

 Dahlias. In the work above cited the different coloured 

 varieties are said to come true from seed. The species are all 

 natives of Peru and Mexico. They are very readily propa- 

 gated by seeds and by careful division of the tuberous roots. 

 Cuttings root readily in heat, and form tubers and flower the 

 same year. The type of M. jalapa bears rosy flowers, and of 

 this, two of the earliest variations were two sports, the one 

 bearing yellow and the other white flowers. The flowers 

 opening in the evening gives this plant an especial value, as it 

 forms an attractive companion to the night - scented Stock, 

 Mignonette, and other fragrant flowers. Between 1846 and 

 1862,* M. Lecoq obtained numerous self-coloured, bicolor, 

 and tricolor, or striped forms of M. jalapa ; and in 1847 ne 

 obtained plants intermediate between M. jalapa and M. longi- 



* For a full and interesting account of M. Lecoq's hybrid and cross-bred 

 Mirabilis, see ' De la Fecondation et de THybridatiori,' p. 300 ; see also 

 Naudin on Hybridism, 'Jour. Royal Hort. Soc.' (New Series), i. 5. 



