LAPAGEKIA. 



Lapageria rosea. 



'LANTS of recent introduction, 

 more especially those from 

 the great Western continent 

 that we call the New World, 

 do not willingly lend them- 

 selves to literary treatment. 

 In respect of the book treat- 

 ment of natural history sub- 

 jects, we run in vicious 

 grooves ; and if the garrulous 

 " ancients " have nothing to 

 say, we seem to be struck 

 dumb, for the sources of 

 knowledge appear to the mere 

 bookmaker to be in what are 

 called the " classics." Alas, 

 for the case before us ! Theo- 

 phrastus and Ovid knew not 

 the lapageria ; and it has not 

 been known to our gardens 

 at the present date for so 

 many as sixty years. The 

 flowers had been described by Ruiz and Pavon as " Formo- 

 sissimj" but the lapageria was unseen at Kew until 1847, 



