Domestic Notices : — England. 5'iS 



grandiflora was remarkable for being under 1 ft. high, yet bearing a fine flower. 

 Of cut flowers there were two fine stands. Of Erythrina /aurifolia there 

 were flowering specimens disposed into pots of moss. A box of detached 

 flowers of petunias of kinds, disposed upon a platform in a box by passin? 

 the tubes of the corollas into holes in that platform, was contributed by Mr. 

 Dennis. As a general character of the show, it was fine and satisfactory. 

 There was an abundance of visiters to inspect it. The members were ad- 

 mitted at 12 o'clock, one hour antecedent to the admission of the general 

 company, who were admitted from 1 o'clock until dusk. — D. N. R. 



Greater Adcmi's Needle [Yucca gloriosa^. — A fine specimen of this noble 

 plant is now in flov/er in the Oxford Garden ; it is about 12 years old, and has 

 not flowered before. Its height from the ground to the top of the leaves is 

 only 4 ft.; but it has produced a flower stem 8 ft. long, the whole of which, 

 except about 9 in. at the bottom, is covered with a profusion of flowers ; 

 these flowers are arranged on 37 branches, which form, altogether, a most 

 magnificent pyramid of bloom, above 7 ft. long, by 1 ft. 8 in. wide at the base. 

 The number of flowers on each branch varies from 13 to 40, and amounts, in 

 the aggregate, to 827. They are arranged on the branches in the following 

 order, beginning with the lowest branch, and proceeding upwards : — Branch I, 

 from the bottom, 20 flowers j 2, 25; 3, 28 ; 4, 26 ; 5, 25 ; 6, 27 ; 7, 23 ; 8, 24 ; 

 9, 25; 10, 27; 11, 23; 12, 23; 13, 21; 14, 24; 15,22; 16,24; 17,23; 

 18,25; 19,22; 20,21; 21, 21; 22, 24; 23, 22; 24,21; 25, 22; 26, 25; 

 27, 18; 28, 20; 29, 19; 30, 19; 31,20; 32, 16; 33, 17; 34, 15; 35, 17; 

 36, 13; 37, 40, this is the terminating branch. Total number of flowers, 

 827. Besides the above, we have four fine old plants of the same species (two 

 of them with trunks 5 ft. high from the ground to the lowest leaves) now 

 flowering. These were removed late in the spring, in consequence of which 

 their flowers are not so large and fine as they would have been had the plants 

 been left undisturbed. Two of these plants flowered very finely last year. — 

 W. Baxter. Botanic Garden, Oxford, July 28. 1835. 



The Dwarf Fan Palm (^ChamcB^rops hundlis). — This palm has flowered an- 

 nually in the hot-house of the Botanic Garden for many years ; but I never 

 remember to have seen it so fine as it is at the present time (July 28. 1835). 

 There are now upon it four distinct bunches of blossoms, produced from as 

 many separate spathas. Each bunch is composed of a great number of small 

 yellow flowers, and these flowers are of two kinds, some being starainiferous 

 (having stamens only), and others hermaphrodite (or having both stamens 

 and pistils), but the staminiferous ones are most numerous. On two of the 

 bunches, which are somewhat forv/arder than the other two, the fruit is set, 

 and is now about the size of a common pea. This same plant has produced 

 fruit every year, for these eight or ten years past ; and one of the berries 

 which fell off a year or two ago, and was covered with the soil, vegetated, 

 and is now growing in the same tub with the parent plant. Hov/ old the plant 

 is, I cannot exactly say, but, from its size, I should consider it to be little less 

 than a century. The stem, formed of the remains of the petioles of the leaves 

 of former years, is 1 ft. 6 in. from the crown of the root to the base of the 

 lowest leaves. The whole height of the plant is 5 ft. 6 in. from the top of the 

 tub in which it grows to the tips of the central leaves. The petioles of the 

 full-grown leaves are 4 ft. long ; and the lamina, or expanded part of the leaf, 

 is 1 ft. 4 in. long, and 2 ft. broad. The diameter of the space covered by the 

 plant is 9 ft. 6 in., or about 28 ft. in circumference. — Id. 



A new Variety of Dahlia has been raised by Mr. Wood of Deepdene, and has 

 been named by him Viscountess Beresford, in honour of that lady. The 

 flower of this variety, which is, we believe, considered one of first rate merit, 

 is much in the mode of that of Levick's Incomparable ; but the ground 

 colour of the petals is not, as in that flower, nearly of a brick-red, but of a 

 rich purplish crimson : this is rather abruptly lightened off to the white tips. 

 The Viscountess Beresfcrd, as to the colours of the flower, closely resembles 

 Vol. XI. — No. 67. rr 



