68 
The collection will be arranged in one of the new floor cases 
in the palaeobotanical museum. 
ARTHUR HOLLIcK. 
INTERESTING PLANTS IN BLOOM. 
The most interesting plant which has flowered the past month 
is Strelitsia Nicolai, named in honor of Prince Nicolajevitsch. It 
is a native of southern Africa, as are the other 3 or 4 species of 
this genus. Southern Africa is a large area, and the exact loca- 
tion from which this species was derived is at present a matter of 
uncertainty. Its large leaves at once make manifest its relation-, 
ship with the banana family, to which it belongs, but its flowers 
do not at all resemble those of the banana. This noble member 
of the genus attains a height sometimes of 25 feet, but the plant 
in the conservatories is still relatively small, although in its way 
a goodly sized plant, and has not yet begun to show its trunk. 
The large banana-like leaf-blades are 4 or 5 feet long and about 
2 feet broad, truncate at the base and rounded and hood-shaped 
at the apex ; these are supported on petioles about 4 feet long. 
he flowers first opened on March 15 and were photo- 
graphed; a reproduction of this photograph accompanies this 
article. The inflorescence consists of two large dull gray green 
horizontal bracts, measuring about 14 inches in length, from 
each of which emerge 2 or 3 large flowers. The outer divisions 
of the perianth are broadly lanceolate, acuminate, about 7 inches 
long, and are of a pale yellowish white. The inner divisions are 
united into an organ much resembling a bird’s tongue; this is 
mainly pale blue, narrow at the base and with a hastate blade 
which runs out into along white acumination, measuring over all 
about 8% inches. This plant will be found in no. 4, opposite 
to the bananas. 
In the same house are two large plants of Zamonea magnifica, 
the Mexican Blue-leaf, a native of Mexico. These are near the 
large plant of Meainilla magnifica, referred to in the last number 
of the Journal and which is still in bloom; they are both mem- 
bers of the Melastomaceae. One of this pair flowered for the 
