the late Comtesse de Vandes. 4-79 



with numerous stems, to do the same this autumn, or, perhaps, rather, end 

 of summer. The mandrake is abounding in green, almost globular, berries, 

 the size of half-grown oranges, and which they will, when ripe, further 

 resemble in their colour, and in their pulp being fragrant, although the 

 odours of the two kinds of pulp are different enough. 



The range of houses consists of a stove of twelve lights, a tea-room, and 

 two green-houses of six lights each ; so that the tea-room occupies the 

 centre of the range. On passing through the stove, which is richly stocked 

 with a choice collection of species, the following objects most obtained 

 attention : — Combretum comosum had been blooming profusely and 

 vigorously, and a few last lingering blossoms yet remained; Cbmbretum 

 purpureum was also now in blossom, but past its best : these two species 

 are now referred to the genus Poivrea. Erythrina Crista galli was superbly 

 splendid, in a vigorous raceme of its well known glorious blossoms ; 

 Erythrina carnea, almost without foliage, was about to flower ; and 

 Erythrina caffra promised to succeed it. Brassza maculata was adorned 

 with a raceme of six flowers, the three exterior divisions of each of which 

 are linear lanceolate, of a very pale yellow spotted with purple, and 2± in. 

 long, so as to render the extreme expansion of each flower equal to 5 in. : 

 the flowers are fragrant, and supported on an erect axillary peduncle, 

 which reached to just above the leaves. Cereus grandiflorus, the night- 

 blooming cereus, was about to flower profusely. On the night of June 25. 

 three flowers had opened ; as many as ten flowers, now, June 30., appeared, 

 of equal age and forwardness, and as if they would all expand on the 2d or 

 3d of July, [of the ten mentioned, 9 flowered on the evening of the 2d, and 

 one on the evening of the 3d,] and there were, besides, two buds so back- 

 ward, that a week or two more must elapse previously to their opening. Of 

 the genus Xylophylla, very remarkable for bearing its flowers on the edges 

 of its leaves, two species, latifolia and longifolia, were in blossom ; and the 

 flowers of X. latifolia are fragrant : those of X. longifolia, the plant not 

 being conveniently accessible, I did not smell to. Two plants of Cerbera 

 Manghas were displaying numerous flower-heads, but would not flower for 

 two or more weeks to come. Lippia dulcis was now abounding in its 

 very sweet liquorice-flavoured leaves, which remind one of those of another 

 stove plant, the wild liquorice (A v brus precatorius), as well as those of the 

 almost hardy Ferbena pulchella ,• but they far exceed in sweetness those 

 of the last. A second plant of the most interesting BillbergM! zebrina 

 (zebrina, in expression of* the transverse bands of white formed at intervals 

 across the back of its dull green leaves) was indicating the rising of a 

 scape of flowers. A plant of this species, which bloomed about three 

 weeks previous, here, was a gratifying object. The scape reached the 

 height of 2 ft. from the top of the pot, and bore thirteen bracteas, from 

 4 in. to 5 in. long, and of the exquisite colour of the innermost segments 

 of the blossoms of Cereus speciosissimus, which contrasted most strikingly 

 with the dull green leaves and yellow green flowers. The flowers were 

 forty in number, and, from their base to the tip of their long projecting 

 stamens, 2 in. long. The sepals, of a yellow-green colour, at first cover 

 these stamens; but when once they separate at the tip of the flower, where 

 they had met, they roll themselves back into a scroll, and lie snugly beside 

 the tip of the germen, like an unexpanded curl. 



On quitting the stove, you pass through glass doors into the tea-room ; 

 and, on the opposite side of this tea-room see corresponding glass doors, 

 which admit you to the green-house; and also enable the inspector in the 

 tea-room, whether sitting or standing, to see therefrom part of the contents 

 of the stove on one side, and of those of the green-house on the other. 

 This room is a rectangular oblong with its corners cut off, making in effect 

 an octagon with three unequal kinds of sides, the longest of which are 

 formed by the stove and green-house ends; of the remaining sides, three 



