6 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



Nepenthes. It has been raised by Messrs. Veitch from seeds collected in Sarawak by 

 Mr. Curtis. Besides such large species as the Rajah it is of Lilliputian dimensions, but 

 nevertheless it is an interesting kind. The pitchers are from one and a half to two inches in 

 length, spotted with red on a green ground. In the matters of heat and moisture it will no 

 doubt succeed with similar treatment to that adopted for others from similarly hot climates. 



Growth slender. Leaves subcoriaceous, glabrous, four inches by three-quarters of an inch, sessile, amplexicaul, decur- 

 rent, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, witb the mid-rib prolonged into along tendril. Pitchers one and three-quarters to 

 two inches long, green, spotted with red, flask-shaped, distended at the base, gradually passing into an elongated 

 cylindrical neck, wings narrow, fringed ; mouth obliquely ovate, sulcate-striate, lid glabrous, cordate, suborbicular, 

 with a short entire or pinnatisect spur at the base. — Gardener's Chronicle, N.S., vol. xvi., p. 524. 



Synechanthus fibeosus. Elegant as are the Palms, yet the common fault, from a 

 cultural point of view, is that so many of them are too large for far the greater portion 

 of glass structures ; and even in the largest houses it often happens that the plants 

 so outgrow their limits after a few years, that there appears to be a continual struggle 

 with them to get through the glass. Such Palms as this, of dwarf habit, are conse- 

 quently much better adapted for general use, possessing the elegance in habit of the 

 larger kinds without their disadvantages : in the cultivation of these and most others of a 

 like character, the mistake is often made of giving them too much root-room; they will 

 thrive and keep in a healthy condition for many years in pots or tubs much smaller than 

 most plants that attain a like size. They are not particular as to soil — either peat or loam 

 will answer for them — but they must have the pots well drained, so as to allow the liberal 

 supplies of water which they need to pass freely away. This is a very handsome species, 

 growing to a height of eight or ten feet. The plant is in the Kew collection, and is a 

 native of Guatemala. 



Trunk four feet high, solitary, erect, slender, ringed, green. Leaves as long, erect, and spreading, pinnate, some- 

 times interruptedly ; leaflets numerous, one to one and a half feet long, spreading and rather pendulous, linear- 

 lanceolate from a broad adnate base, bright green, five to seven nerved, the costa prominent, quite glabrous, margins 

 recurved towards the base ; rachis subterete with a mesial ridge above ; petiole rounded ; sheathes short, open. 

 Spadices numerous from amongst the leaves, sub-erect, one-third as long as the leaves ; peduncles long, slender ; 

 branches many, strict, forked, very slender. Spathes several, tubular, membranous, persistent. Flowers in two-ranked 

 short linear clusters of eight to ten placed alternately on opposite sides of the branches, minute, green, sessile, the 

 lowest of each cluster female, the rest males ; bracts and bracteoles none. Calyx of three very short transversely 

 elongate sepals. Petals of the male ovate, valvate ; of the female orbicular, imbricate. Stamens six, attached to the 

 base of the petals. Ovary globose, three-celled, with an erect ovule in each cell ; stigmas three, sessile, minute. 

 Fruit an ellipsoid orange-red sessile drupe, one to one and a quarter inches long; pericarp fleshy and fibrous. Seed free, 

 erect, ellipsoid, smooth, raphe with faint branches ; albumen eqiiable ; embryo near the top of the seed. — Botanical 

 Magazine, 6572. 



Astrap2ea viscosa. Sweet (alias Dombeya Amelise, GuiMemin). A soft sticky-leaved 

 stove plant, with clusters of white and pink flowers. Belongs to Byttneriads. Native of 

 Madagascar. Introduced in 1823. (Fig. 113.) 



A noble plant or tree, thirty feet in height, as now seen in the great stove of the Eoyal Gardens at Kew, with a large 

 rounded head of copious branches, and dense foliage, studded, in the spring months, with numerous snowball-like heads of 

 flowers, each flower stained with a deep blood-coloured eye. The flowers have a honey-like smell. The young herbaceous 

 ^branches and nascent leaves, accompanied by large, cordate, afterwards deciduous stipules, are exceedingly viscid. Leaves 

 on long stalks, the largest a span and more long, heart-shaped, roundish, five-angled (the smaller ones three- angled), the 

 angles or lobes acuminate, the margins serrated. The young flower-head is clothed by large deciduous bracteas, and at the 

 base of the head three or four such bracteas form an imperfect involucre. These bracteas disappear on the full expansion 

 of the many flowers into a globose head, four inches and more in diameter. Sepals ovate, acuminate, hairy externally. 

 Petals five, twisted broad-wedge-shaped, pure white, the base deeply dyed with crimson. Staminal tube urceolate, bearing 



