HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 259 



by a further acquaintance with the various forms of Justicia, Eranthe- 

 ?niim, Geissomeria, Bartleria, JBeloperone, Schaueria, $c, all containing 

 well known old favorites. Every year seems to add some pleasing link to 

 our chain, almost all of them "holding their own" in popular estimation. 



Porphyrocoma lanceolata is a beautiful plant when grown in a strong, moist 

 heat, in well drained pots of coarse lumps of turfy loam, and made bushy 

 by pinching in when young. Asy stasia eoromandeliana^ is another beauti- 

 ful twining plant, with light blue flowers, and grows well in the same kind 

 of soil and temperature as the last, but likes to be*more shaded from the 

 sun than any of the tribe I have grown, Henfreya scande?is y perhaps, ex- 

 cepted. There is another beautiful little form in Ruellia elegans, a plant 

 growing but a foot high but very bushy, and covered with sky-blue flowers, 

 rivalling those of Nemoplxila ensignis. It likes to grow in the full sun in a 

 moist heat of about 60°. We might also include the Whitfieldia lateritia 

 but as it is easily grown, its brown-colored flowers are not generally 

 deemed gay enough for extensive culture. 



The whole tribe is one of easy management ; of the Thunbergia division, 

 plenty of heat and sunlight are the main essentials of success. The an- 

 nual kinds do well sown in May in the open border: and the perennial 

 planted out into a border of rich earth about the same time. Some of the 

 perennial kinds are now removed to another family, the red and the blue, 

 now constituting Hexacentris coccinia $> H. grandiflora. These two plants 

 are generally difficult to flower in pots ; though they grow freely. An 

 abundance of light and air, plenty of pot-room, and a temperature above 

 60°, is all they require to bloom freely. They are beautiful objects 

 when so grown. 



Of the Ruellia division : the Henfreya scandens $ Goldfussia aniso- 

 phylla are very valuable hot-house plants ; the first doing well in the deep- 

 est shade of a hot, moist house and abundantly producing the whole season 

 creamy-white flowers : and the last doing equally well in the full sunlight 

 of a dry stove. In the Barleria division, few things can exceed the beauty 

 of the G-eissomeria longiflora, or even of the newer variety G. elegans. 

 The greatest difficulty with the first is, its very erect habit of growth, ren- 

 dering it almost impossible to get a bushy, handsome specimen ; the latter is 

 more tractable. In the Justicia tribe, we have a number of handsome 

 plants, among which the genus Aphelandra stands pre-eminent. The old 

 A. cristata can scarcely be surpassed, when cultivated properly, in the 

 beauty of its flowers, the species now figured, claiming superiority mainly 

 through its lovely foliage. 



