January io, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



15 



where it used to be grown against a south wall outside. 

 Here it grew as fast as a Kidney Bean in summer, and 

 died down to the ground every winter. It was lost in an 

 attempt to establish it against a tree-trunk. At that time 

 we called it Dolichos Japonicus. About five years ago we 

 obtained seeds of it from Japan under its correct name, and 

 there is now a strong plant of it in the large temperate 

 house or winter garden, where it sends up annually stems 

 which grow thirty feet or so in a season, and bear very 

 large rich green trifoliate leaves. Here, however, the 

 stems are annual, although frost never reaches the plant. 

 It has never flowered at Kevv. A specimen of it in flower 

 was sent to Kew for determination in October, last year, 

 gathered from a plant grown in a stove in Scotland. 



soon fall if cut and placed in water. There are eight or 

 nine petals in each flower, which consequently have a 

 semi-double appearance. 



Costus igxeus. — I ought to have included this with the 

 plants mentioned in my last letter, as specially interesting 

 among those shown and certificated at the last meeting of 

 the Royal Horticultural Society. Although introduced at 

 least ten years ago by Mr. Linden, and figured in the 

 Botanical Magazine eight years ago. from plants flowered 

 at Kew, it was generally looked upon as a new plant 

 by those who saw the group of beautifully grown specimens 

 of it shown a few days ago by Sir Trevor Lawrence. 

 It is a native of Brazil, where it appears to be common. 

 Under cultivation it forms a compact tuft of herbaceous 



Fig. 



-The Cocoanul-tree on Key West, Florida. — See page 



Jasminum gracillimum. — This is an excellent winter- 

 flowering shrub for the warm house. At Kew it is trained 

 on the south side of a glass partition in the Begonia-house, 

 where it has been for several weeks, and is still, crowned 

 with large branches of while star-like sweet-scented 

 flowers. It was discovered in Borneo by Mr. Burbidge, 

 when collecting for Messrs. Veitch & Sons, who first 

 flowered it in 1881, when it was described by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker as the most distinct of all the many Asiatic 

 species of Jasminum, and more floriferous and attractive 

 than any yet known. When it was first shown by Messrs. 

 Veitch, it was in the form of a shrub, 3 feet high, crowned 

 with elegant branches, all weighed down by large clusters 

 of bloom. On the plant the flowers last well, but they 



stems about a foot high, clothed with rich green lanceolate 

 leaves and terminated by a head like cluster of green 

 sheaths, from which flowers are developed in succession 

 and profusely all the summer and autumn. The flowers 

 are three inches across, flat, elegantly waved and crisped 

 along the margin, and colored rich glistening orange 

 i yellow. 



Lachenalia aurea, var. gigantea. — This is a plant which, 

 for garden purposes at any rate, deserves a distinctive 

 name, as it is far superior to the type as generally culti- 

 vated, which rarely has a dozen flowers on a spike, whereas 

 the variety gigantea has from twenty to thirty flowers, 

 which, moreover, are half as large again as the common 

 form of L. aurea. There is a group of plants of the variety 



