xliv THE HISTORY OF THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE 
sented on plate 5076. Apart from the skeleton-like leaves, 
Ouvirandra does not differ materially from the more familiar 
Aponogeton, with which Bentham and Hooker have united 
it. Several other species have been published since, though 
none possessing the interest of the one under consideration. 
Among other remarkable plants introduced by Mr. Ellis I 
may mention the Angreecum sesquipedale. 
WELWI'TSCHIA MIRABILIS. 
A few weeks after my arrival at Kew, in 1860, the 
botanical world was excited to the highest pitch, consequent 
on a letter, received by Sir William Hooker from Dr. 
Welwitsch, describing this extremely singular cone-bearing 
plant, then recently discovered by the latter near Cape 
Negro in Western Tropical Africa, and in the following 
year, some 500 miles further south, by Mr. Thomas Baines. 
In 1863 this strange plant was illustrated in the Magazine 
(plates 5368 and 4369) from material communicated by 
J. Monteiro and C. J. N. Anderson. Subsequently copious 
specimens were received at Kew from various sources, and 
several fruitless attempts to introduce living plants were 
made; or if the plants arrived with any vitality in them 
they failed to grow. In 1882 several seedlings were raised 
at Kew, and they served to reveal some important points in 
the life-history of the plant. Their growth is exceedingly 
slow, and their cultivation very difficult. Welwitschia is 
very fully described and elaborately illustrated in the 
twenty-fourth volume of the Transactions of the Linnean 
Society. 
Sir William Hooker dedicated the ninetieth volume of 
the Magazine, the last he lived to complete, to Dr. Welwitsch, 
who survived him seven years. 
MISCELLANEA. 
I will now briefly indicate a few other noteworthy plants, 
chiefly of the last decade of the third period. Coleus 
Blumei (pl. 4754) is a native of Java, or is cultivated 
there, and Mr. Low, of Clapton, imported it from Belgium 
into this country, where it soon was followed by other 
varieties, such as Verschaffeltii, Gibsoni, and Veitchii: all 
somewhat sombre in coloration, and by no means suggesting 
the infinite and dazzling variety of a later date. Kniphofia 
Uvaria (pl. 4816), which is one of the hardiest of the 
South African Liliacex, would hardly be recognized as the 
