56 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN, 



in appearance have been brought into existence; amongst these the plant under notice is 

 one of the best. The pitchers are of medium size, the pale green ground-colour contrasting 

 nicely with the red spotting, which extends over the whole surface. The wings are wider and 

 more deeply laciniate than is the case in most of the species and varieties similar in size. 



Of robust habit and free growth. Stems purplish and hairy. Leaves ten to twelve inches long, dark green in 

 colour, glabrous above, paler beneath, lanceolate, acute at the apex, tapering toward the base, which expands to clasp 

 the stem ; the midrib and margins, as well as the tendril-like prolongation of the leaves, are pilose. On either side of 

 the midrib are three to five parallel nerves, the tertiary transverse ones are inconspicuous in the fresh plant. The 

 pitchers measure about five inches by two and a half, are very firm in texture, of a dull greyish-green, spotted with 

 red, distended at the base, cylindrical above the middle, with deep, sharply laciniate wings ; mouth ovate, finely and 

 evenly ribbed, prolonged into a short column at the back. Lid somewhat convex ovate, smaller than the mouth, 

 with a simple spur at the back. Throat shining and red-spotted.— Gardener's Chronicle, N.S., vol. xvi., p. 844. 



bush with long spikes of pale yellow flowers. Native of Yan Diemen's Land. Elowers from 

 February to May. (Fig. 146.) 



The discovery of this most beautiful species was made by Mr. Ronald Gunn, who sent home dried specimens in 1837. In 

 his unpublished notes he describes it as a very common species at Hobart Town, and on the banks of the Derwent ; but 

 it was not seen by him on the north side of the colony. He adds, that it grows from six to ten feet high ; if planted out 

 in the border of a greenhouse it grows much larger; in the garden of the Horticultural Society it forms a bush of 

 extreme elegance, rising twenty-five feet high, in the great iron conservatory, and then curving downwards its weeping 

 branches, which are loaded with heaps of pale yellow flowers till the middle of April. When treated thus, A. Riceana is 

 probably the handsomest species of its genus. The phyllodes, which grow in clusters, are linear, deep green, and 

 sharpened into a fine point which itself is a continuation of a solitary rib which passes along the middle ; marginal gland 

 there is none. The flowers grow singly in long loose spikes, and, before expansion, constitute small oval bodies with three 

 short scale-like sepals and three petals. 



The species was named by Professor Henslow after Lord Monteagle, then the Right Hon. T. Spring Rice, one of the 

 members for Cambridge. It is readily distinguished from A. juniperina by the latter having its flowers in solitary 

 spherical heads, not in long loose spikes. 



