HABEOTHAMNUS. 21?' 



G. speciosa (The Peacli Palm of the Amazon). — Is a very 

 elegant plant. When young it is well adapted for table 

 decoration, and forms a beautiful ornament in the plant 

 stove. In this state the stem is slender, with leaves from 

 two to four feet in length, pinnate, the petioles broadly 

 sheathing at the base, and they are thickly armed with 

 slender long black sharp spines ; the pinnre are about 

 twelve inches long and one wide, and deep green ; the apex 

 is, however, broader and bifid ; the nerves on the upper 

 side are clothed with slender black bristles. When this, 

 plant obtains maturity, the stems reach some sixty or eighty 

 feet in height, producing pendulous leaves about seven feet 

 in length, and they usually grow in clusters, having a 

 beautiful appearance. The plant has been introduced to 

 our gardens from the Amazon. 



Habkothamnus. 



This genus belongs to the natural order Solanaooe, The- 

 variety here described is a sport from the well-known 

 H. elegcms. It will succeed well in a compost of loam, 

 sand, and leaf soil. 



S. elegans argentea, — ^In this we have one of the most 

 beautifiiUy variegated greenhoi^se climbers known. It may 

 be grown as an ornamental shrub or used for covering a 

 wall or pillar in the greenhouse or conservatory, in the 

 latter situation it is especially ornamental ; the leaves are 

 alternate, entire, oblong-lanceolate in shape and acuminate,, 

 about six inches in length by one inch in breadth ; nearly 

 the whole of the surface is soft creamy white, beautifully 

 tinged with rose and relieved by irregular blotches of light 

 green ; the flowers are produced in dense racemes, tubular, 

 about an inch in length, and deep reddish purple in colour. 



