O'xalis Deppei as a Border Plant. . 691 



when ripened, its merits will sustain for it a place in desserts. 

 Information, too, on the native habits of this species, and any 

 use to which its fruit or other parts may be applied in its 

 native country, he is likewise anxious for. In example of the 

 extraordinary vigour of this particular plant, Mr. Wilson 

 remarks, " perhaps you will scarcely credit me when I inform 

 you that its roots have penetrated into the solid brick wall 

 which forms the end of the stove, and has actually forced out 

 door-posts so much, that it has several times become neces- 

 sary to ease the door that it might be opened and shut. The 

 whole back of the house has now a most beautiful appear- 

 ance from the fine dark shining leaves of the plant, and the 

 strong healthy shoots hanging in wild profusion all over this 

 space. In the size of the leaves on these shoots, and near the 

 root, there is so great a difference, that you would scarcely 

 believe that both were produced by one plant. The leaves 

 which grow at about 3 ft. or 4 ft. from the root are about 

 l T 8 oin. in length, and an inch in breadth at their broadest 

 part ; while those which are borne on the shoots mentioned 

 are 4 in. in length, and 2j 3 o in* in breadth ; their outline in 

 both cases being, as is well known, ovate but pointed." — ; 

 W. Wilson. 



On the back wall of the stove in the Cambridge Botanic 

 Garden is a plant of .Ficus stipulata, which has been growing 

 there" these twenty, and very probably thirty, years. It covers 

 several square yards of space, and is often cut back to repress 

 its trespasses. During the fifteen years I have known the 

 plant there, I am not aware that it has ever shown fruit. This 

 species, it is said, thrives in a green-house, and it abounds in 

 the clasping root-like tendrils analogous to those of the com- 

 mon or of the broad- leaved ivy. — J. D. 



Q'xalis Deppei increases very rapidly as a border plant, 

 particularly when grown in large masses ; and its beautiful 

 green and brown trefoil leaves are as pleasing as the flower. 

 It should be taken up before the frost, and kept in pots, 

 nearly dry, all the winter ; it should be potted in the end of 

 February, and kept till May in the green-house or frame, and 

 then planted out when the frosts are over. You should strongly 

 recommend it. — H. B. Chancery Lane, August 7. 1832. 



A Sketch of the History of the Chinese Chrysanthemum, 

 [The following communication is abridged from a paper by 

 E. Rudge, Esq., President of the Vale of Evesham Horticul- 

 tural Society, which was read at a meeting of that Society, on 

 June 25. 1828.] — Linnaeus, in 1753, first published this plant 

 as a species, with two of its varieties, under the name of Chrys- 

 anthemum indicum, in the first edition of his Species Plantarumf 



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