60 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



Cardonal and Zimapan, on mountains thinly covered with Pinus Llaveana. Hartweg also met with it near the hot 

 springs of Atotonilco El Grande, but nowhere in any quantity. It is easily distinguished by its dry hard leaves and pale 

 yellow flowers. The wood is also said to be of a lighter colour than in any other species. It grows freely when potted 

 in a mixture of sandy loam and leaf -mould, to which is added a small portion of rough bone-dust. It may be increased 

 like other pinnated berberries, by grafting on the common B. Aquifolium, either in spring or autumn, when the young- 

 shoots are nearly hard. The chief beauty of the plant resides in its graceful manner of growth and its light airy foliage. 

 Its flowers are pallid and not dense enough to produce a handsome effect. When in fruit its large loose panicles of 

 deep purple glaucous berries are ornamental enough ; but their acid taste belies their tempting appearance. The species 

 is unable to bear the winters of London without the protection of a greenhouse. 



Pitcairnia eulgens. Decaisue. A stove herbaceous plant of the order of Bromeliads. 

 Native of Gruadaloupe. Flowers crimson. 



Leaves spiny at the base, mealy beneath, as is the flower stem ; raceme very close, with great pale green smooth 

 bracts longer than the calyx ; petals straight, two inches long, rich scarlet, linear-oblong, rounded, concave, with a 

 crenated scale at the base. One of the Linden Collection seems to be handsome. 



Dendrobium nobile, var. nobilius. No doubt this is by far the finest of the many 

 fine forms existent of this most beautiful old plant, which, for general decorative purposes has 

 few if any superiors in the whole family of Orchids. The flowers are large, petals and sepals 

 deep bright purple, with an intensely dark lip. 



Babiana Socotrana. A singular small growing bulbous plant, from the island of 

 Socotra, recently flowered at Kew, where it has been grown with the protection of a glass 

 erection. The flowers are solitary, and pale violet in colour. The bulb is about the size of an 

 ordinary crocus. To those who make bulbous subjects a speciality, this will be welcome, for 

 although not so floriferous as many things, it is an interesting plant. No doubt it will 

 succeed under pot culture in ordinary soil. 



Perfectly glabrous, stemless, three to four inches high. Bulbs one-half to three-quarters of an inch in diameter, 

 subglobose, suddenly narrowed into a neck half an inch long, clothed with firmly reticulated brown fibres. Leaves 

 bifarious, three to four inches long by three-quarters of an inch broad, narrowly lanceolate, gradually acuminate from 

 beyond the middle, rigid, plaited, and with many strong nerves ; petiole oblique, broad, compressed. Flowers solitary, 

 almost sessile, the ovary being sunk amongst the uppermost leaves. Spathes linear. Perianth-tube an inch and a 

 quarter long, very slender ; limb nearly one inch broad, pale violet blue, distinctly two-lipped ; segments elliptic, acute, 

 nearly equal. Stigmas not much protruded, deep violet-blue.— Botanical Magazine, 6585. 



Adiantum Victoria. Moore. This new Fern was shown at the meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society in February, 1882, and was awarded a First Class Certificate by the Floral 

 Committee. It is a seedling raised by Mr. Bause, manager of the Horticultural Company's 

 Anerley Nursery, and is supposed to be a cross between A. Ghiesbreghtii [scutum) and A. 

 decorum, having, however, much more similarity to the former species, the sportive tendency 

 in the offspring of which already evinced, leaves the matter of its being a cross somewhat 

 doubtful. Yet be this as it may, the new plant is a very pretty Fern with a remarkably dis- 

 tinct habit of growth, showing little disposition in the fronds to extend more than so as to 

 form a close compact tuft. It will doubtless become a favourite for pot culture, and can be 

 used for decorative purposes where larger growing kinds would be inadmissible. 



Habit dwarf and densely tufted, fronds ovate, bipinnate, with about one pair of compound pinnae, and four or five 

 simple pinnse above ; pinnules (or pinnae of the upper part of frond) bluntly conical from the straight or truncate base, 

 or sometimes subrhomboidal, large, deeply lobed, the sterile lobes serrate, sori at the apex of the lobes oblong or reniform. 

 — Gardener's Chronicle, N.S., vol. xvii., p. 428. 



