868 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



seed, this must be done on many flowers, because so many of the capsules 

 thus treated do not produce seed ; the seed obtained, however, produces 

 strong plants. The formation of flowers with split or fringed petals may 

 occur suddenly amongst seedlings either from protected or unprotected 

 flowers ; the progeny may either have petals with entire edges, or with 

 fringed. Attempts to fix the fringed petal type of flower were not 

 successful : occasionally one generation came fringed, yet reversion to 

 the entire petal occurred in later generations. Crossing experiments 

 produced progeny in the first and later generations, according to Mendel's 

 ratio, and several pages are devoted to illustrating this principle. 



W. G. S. 



Plant Portraits : Mexican and Central American Plants. By 



J. N. Eose (U.S.A. Gontrib. from Nat. Herb. vol. viii. pt. 1).— The 

 following are illustrated and described : — Malvaviscus lanceolatus Rose ; 

 Neotreleasea brevifolia Rose (syn. Treleasea brevifolia Rose) ; Potentilla 

 madrensis Rose ; P. Bydbergiana Rose ; Cologania capitata Rose ; 

 Crotalaria viminalis Rose ; Indigofera platycarpa Rose ; Lupinus sub- 

 montanus Rose ; Phaseohis oaxacanus Rose ; P. pedatus Rose ; 

 Saurauja Pringlei Rose. A large number of species of various genera 

 are described, and revisions of some important genera like Polianthes, 

 Manfreda, and Cologania are included. — F. J. C. 



Platyclinis filiformis. By W. H. W. {Orch. Bev. vol. xii. p. 239).— 

 Cultural remarks on this and other species of the genus should be 

 exceedingly useful to growers of this most interesting class of Orchids. 



H. J. C. 



Plumeria, a summer-flowering- Shrub. By Angiolo Pucci {Bull. 

 B. Soc. Tosc. Ort. 8, p. 244, July 1904). — It is a long-cultivated plant, 

 but much neglected. It requires the dry heat of a stove. It is a lati- 

 ciferous plant belonging to the Apocynacece, with fleshy branches ; the 

 alternate leaves are formed at the beginning of summer. When placed 

 outside at the end of July in the full sunshine, the flowers begin to appear 

 and keep on opening out for a long time : they are corymbosely grouped, 

 large, with a powerful and very pleasing odour. The corolla has an 

 elongated tube, with a five-lobed limb, of a rose-colour, and white, with a 

 broad discoloured spot around the throat of the tube, which is usually a 

 more or less dark-toned yellow. It inhabits tropical America, where it is 

 wild, although cultivated in the Old World. Only the following are culti- 

 vated in gardens : — 



P. acutifolia Poiret ; cultivated in Southern Asia, where it is probably 

 wild. 



P. alba L. ; Antilles ; the latex is used by the natives for curing warts, 

 malignant ulcers, and certain skin diseases. 



P. bicolor Ruiz. k Pav. ; cultivated in Peruvian gardens. 

 P. carinata Ruiz, k Pav. ; ditto. 



P. Lambertiana Lindl. ; appears to be a native of Mexico. 

 P. lutca Ruiz, k Pav. ; cultivated in Peru ; has also been cultivated in 

 Europe. 



P. purpurea Ruiz k Pav. 



