Botanical Magazine. 



135 



Art. III. Catalogue of Works on Gardening, Agriculture, Botany, 

 Rural Architecture, S^c, published since April last, 'with some 

 Account of those considered the most interesting. 



Britain. 



Curtiis Botanical Magazine, or Flower-Garden displayed; New Series. 

 Edited by Dr. Hooker. In 8vo Numbers, monthly. 5s. 63. col. j 5*. plain. 



JVb. XVI. for April, contains 

 2812 to 2818. — JVum campanulatum (^g. 49.); Monoe'cia Monan- 

 dria, and Jroidese. An extraordinary plant, from Java and Madagascar, 

 to Bury Hill, where it flowered in 

 the hot-house. " On the conti- 

 nent of India, and in the Archi- 

 pelago and Northern Circars, it 

 is cultivated and valued as the 

 potato is with us, and as the yam 

 is in the West Indies. The roots 

 often weigh from 4 to 8 lbs., and 

 often more,'each." They are com- 

 pressed tubers, from each of which 

 is produced a large leaf, from 1^ 

 to 2 ft. high. The flower appears 

 at a different season from the 

 leaf, and is very large and showy. 

 From the top of the tuber arises 

 a short, green, spotted stem, or 

 peduncle, bearing^ a very large spathe, containing a spadix 10 in. high, 

 its lower half covered with pistils of a bright yellow,and its top expanding 

 into a large, waved, deep purple, granulated head. — Pitcairnia brac- 

 teata ; Hexandria Monogynia, and Bromelzacece. From St. Vincent's to the 

 Liverpool botanic garden, in 1825. — Lycop&sicum peruvianum ; Pentan- 

 dria Monogynia, and (Solaneae. — Gomphrena globosa ; Pentan. Monog. 

 and Jmaranthacese. — Justicia calycotricha, Diandria Monog., and Jcan- 

 thacese. A desirable inhabitant of the stove, from its showy blossoms, 

 which are of considerable duration. — Bignonia Colee, General Cole's 

 Bignonia ; Didynamia Angiospermia, and B>\gnoniace<JB. A shrub, with 

 pinnated leaves, and red flowers springing from the stem remote from the 

 leaves. Figured from a drawing sent from the Mauritius, by Mrs. Telfair, 

 to Robert Barclay, Esq. ; the plants are expected soon to follow. — ^lech- 

 num longifolium ; Cryptog. i^llices, and i^'ilices. One of the rarest ferns in 

 cultivation. It was found by Humboldt in the Caraccas, almost 5000 ft. 

 above the level of the sea j and was also found in, and sent from, Trinidad, 

 by the Rev. Mr. Lockhart, along with many others, to the Glasgow botanic 

 garden. " Like the tropical Orchidese, the exotic ferns were long sup- 

 posed to be very difficult of cultivation ; but now, in many stoves of our 

 country, they form a striking and a beautiful feature ; and they possess this 

 peculiar advantage, that they flourish perhaps best where other plants will 

 scarcely live, namely, under the shade of taller plants. Thus they may be 

 advantageously employed to fill up vacancies upon the stages, which other- 

 wise look bare and unsightly, with a foliage the most varied and most 

 graceful that can be imagined. They delight in a peat or heath soil ; and in 

 the Liverpool and Glasgow botanic gardens, as well as at Messrs. Loddiges', 

 where the most numerous collections may be found, the roots are placed 

 between two broken pieces of a garden-pot, and always kept moist : a. 

 simple way of imitating the rocky situations in which so many of them are 

 seeti in a state of nature." 



K 4) 



