242 Notes of a Visit to several Gardens. 



King, with coppery yellow flowers, said by Mr. Breckenridge 

 to be very fine ; Mammillaria sulcata Dr. King, and a new 

 species from Texas. Nerine corusca was superbly in bloom, 

 and also venusta, very beautiful. A species of O'xalis, with 

 bright rose-colored flowers, neat foliage, reddish underneath, 

 and of dwarf habit, was among the plants collected by the 

 Expedition, and is a pretty addition to this elegant little group 

 of winter flowers. 



In the hot-house a fine specimen of Gyrtanthus obliqua 

 was in full flower. Mr. Breckenridge showed us a plant of 

 Rochea falcata, from the Cape of Good Hope, which is quite 

 different from the plant known about Philadelphia as the 

 same species ; the leaves of the former are broader. Cereus 

 glaucescens, said to be a free flowering species, opening in the 

 evening. Rondeletm speciosa, splendid, with its umbels of 

 deep orange colored flowers. The true sensitive plant (Mi- 

 mosa sensitiva) is in this collection, and forms a bush several 

 feet high. The little annual, (M. pudica,) usually called 

 such, is not the true species. There are some fine large plants 

 here of Acacia pubescens, linearis, and others, all grown from 

 seeds. 



We have before spoken of the vigor of the tea roses in the 

 climate of Washington ; the Luxembourg, Hymenee, Elize 

 Sauvage, and others, four to five feet high, and profusely 

 laden with large and handsome blossoms. Notwithstanding 

 the thermometer occasionally falls as low as zero, they are 

 scarcely at all injured. We are inclined to believe that if the 

 hardiest of the teas — for there is a great difference in the con- 

 stitutional vigor of the varieties — were planted out in a good 

 soil, on a dry sub-soil, and protected until they have become 

 strongly rooted, they would then stand even the climate of 

 our own winters, particularly with the usual covering of a 

 few inches of straw, by bending down the tops. The multi- 

 floras and other kinds, which have heretofore been considered 

 tender, we now grow in this way ; and we believe the experi- 

 ment well worthy of trial with many of the most robust and 

 free growing teas, noisettes and bengals. 



Mr. Breckenridge has raised a great variety of roses from 

 seed, mostly teas and prairies ; a few of them had flowered, 

 but none had yet shown suflicient merit to bear a name. 



