110 FloricuUural and Botanical Notices, 



flowers were of a white so pure, that snow itself is not more colourless. 

 Increasable by seeds, which hitherto have been but sparingly produced. 

 {Bot. Reg., Jan. 1833.) I saw this plant blooming in the Horticultural 

 Society's Garden, on Sept. 3. or 4. 1832, and was there told that the 

 flowers effuse a very fragrant odour in the evening. This is not stated in 

 the description, the rushlike leaves drawn through the fingers have a 

 roughness. 



•PH ATRIUM Herb. (Pharos, a veil ; ovarium concealed in a membranous cup.) 



6. 1. ylsphodelejE Sp. 1. — 

 fistulbsum Herb. hoUovr-lvd tf lA) or 1 s V.W Mexico 1831. O s.I.p. Bot. reg. 1546 



" This curious and exceedingly pretty little bulb flowered in the green- 

 house, at Spoffbrth, in September, having been imported from Mexico by 

 Mr. Tate, of the Sloane-street Nursery, Chelsea. Its leaves closely 

 resemble those of ilf elanthium^'unceum ; its slender scape is crowned by 

 an umbel^of six pendulous flowers on peduncles IJin. long, which have 

 spathaceous bracteae at their base. The segments of the perianth, six in 

 number, so spread as to form a cup-shaped flower : they are externally of 

 a rosy purple colour, each with a green line down its centime; within they 

 are white, edged with rosy purple, and have also a central line of this 

 colour. This, to botanists, is a very interesting plant." (Bof. Reg., Dec.) 



Phormium tenax is admirably figured on a double plate, and has eight 

 pages devoted to the description of its structure and uses, in the Bot. Mag. 

 for December, 1832, t. 3199. The .specimen figured blossomed in June, 

 1832, in the green-house of Joseph Boultbee,Esq., of Springfield, Knowle, 

 near Birmingham, who describes it as, " though not a brilliant, yet a very 

 handsome and magnificent plant." The flower-scape was " 12 ft. in height, 

 and bore thirteen branches, the lower ones of which sustained about twenty 

 flowers ; the remaining branches bore successively fewer as they arose on 

 the scape." The flowers, which all rise erect, so as to stand on the upper 

 side of the branches, are, although of six leaflets, of a tubular form ; they 

 are 1§ in. in length; the three outer of the leaflets are of dull brownish 

 orange colour ; the inner a full yellow ; capsules were freely produced. 

 After a technical description of the plant in all its parts, its economical 

 properties are expatiated on at much length, and those who would know 

 the details must have recourse to the article. The amount of it appears 

 to us to be, that the fibre of the leaves has been made into ropes, &c., 

 which have, by using them in shipping, been proved stronger and more 

 durable than those made of Baltic hemp ; that, in consequence, it is quite 

 desirable that marine cordage, &c., made of the leaves of Phormium tenax, 

 should receive increased adoption ; and that every circumstance tending to 

 expedite this end, and also to promote an improved preparation of the 

 fibre, and, as well, the manufacturing of it into the articles for which it is 

 fittest, should be promoted by individuals, and even by government. Mr. 

 Allan Cunningham judiciously suggests, that, under present circumstances, 

 this can best be done by inducing the New Zealanders themselves to a 

 more extensive preparation of the fibre than they now effect, by offering 

 to them in exchange those objects of European manufacture of which 

 they are most desirous : these are arms, apparently chiefly fire-arms and 

 ammunition. " Although most of the chiefs can now muster a large force 

 armed with muskets, their avidity to add to their armoury has undergone 

 no diminution ; and, with the exception of blankets, red woollen shirts, 

 and other warm clothing, tobacco, and sugar, scarcely any other article of 

 English manufacture or merchandise has, as yet, any attraction for them. 

 The quantity of fibre of this plant, exported in 1820 from New Zealand 

 into Sydney for the English market, was 60 tons ; in 1830 it was 841 tons, 

 and in 1831, 1062 tons. Its present price in London may be stated at 

 from 15/. to 25/. a ton; the price depending on its quality and the clean 

 manner in which it is brought into the market." (Bot. Mag., Dec.) 



