THE PLANE-TREE FAMILY. 443 



and in the degree of profuseness with which their flowers are 

 produced. L. rosea is quite hardy in Devon, Cornwall, and 

 other southern counties. Philesia buxifolia may be propagated 

 by cuttings of the young wood in heat. 



Two or three years ago, Messrs Veitch succeeded in pro- 

 ducing a hybrid of peculiar interest between Philesia buxifolia 

 and Lapageria rosea, the latter being the seed-bearing or 

 female parent. This plant is in many respects intermediate 

 between its parents, and is very interesting as a bi-generic 

 hybrid, and one second only in interest to the Phaius irroratus 

 raised by Mr Dominy in the same establishment, between the 

 evergreen Phaius grandifolius and the pseudo-bulbous decid- 

 uous Calanthe vestita (see Orchids). This plant has been 

 described and figured in the 'Gardeners' Chronicle' (see volume 

 for 1872, p. 353) by Dr M. T. Masters, under the name of 

 Philageria Veitchii, a name which euphoniously indicates the 

 hybrid origin of the plant. I cannot do better than quote the 

 following 'description from the * Florist : ' " Messrs Veitch's 

 plant is a scrambling shrub, with slender, cylindrical, flexuose, 

 rigid, smooth, wiry branches, having alternate, petiolate, oblong- 

 lanceolate, pointed leaves, about i J^ in. long by % in. broad, 

 leathery, smooth, and dark shining green above, paler and 

 marked by three prominent converging ribs below, and with a 

 cartilaginous very finely serrulated edge. The flower-stalks are 

 axillary, and bear numerous overlapping, ovate-concave, glab- 

 rous bracts ; and the flower is solitary, pendulous, with a calyx 

 of three fleshy, glaucous, pale rosy-purple, oblong-lanceolate, 

 boat-shaped sepals, and a corolla of an equal number of fleshy, 

 bright, rose-coloured petals, which are slightly unequal in size, 

 overlapping, broadly ovate-acute, with a circular honey-pore on 

 the inner surface at the base. The stamens are six in number, 

 free, hypogynous, or attached at the very base of the segments 

 of the perianth, a little shorter than the petals ; the filaments 

 fleshy, subulate, spotted with pink; and the anthers yellow, 

 linear-oblong, tubular at the base, so that the extremity of the 

 filament is concealed at its point of insertion by a kind of 

 sheath. The ovary is i -celled, with three parietal placentae, 

 and the numerous ovules are anatropal." 



THE PLANE-TREE FAMILY (Platanacea). 



The Plane-trees of our gardens, and especially of our town 

 gardens, have a natural order to themselves ; and we have few 

 nobler trees in cultivation for ornamental purposes. They are 



