110 



PAXTON'S FLO WEB GARDEN. 



wondered at, considering the unsurpassed beauty of C. lahiata, which, although it has now 

 been in the country over sixty years, is still very scarce, and so eagerly sought after that 

 it fetches exorbitant prices. The new species, we understand, has been flowered by W. E. 

 Brymer, Esq., of Dorchester. From the description it must indeed be a splendid flower; the 

 following is Professor R-eichenbaclr's description : — 



Flowers several in a raceme. Sepals and petals broad, of the finest cleanest light purple. Arueiior blade of the lip 

 wavy, with numerous dark purple blotches on a brighter ground, giving it a velvety appearance. Two fine eye- 

 blotches are placed on the mouth of the tube, clear gamboge colour inside, whitish outside. The middle line of the 

 disk is narrow, brown, with white lines or nerves. Column very strong and firm. — Gardener s Chronicle, N.S., 

 voL xviii., p. 8. 



Hedychitjm gracile. Although this plant is not new, having been brought to 

 England in the early part of the century, still it is so little known and so distinct in its 

 general appearance that it is worth notice. The specimen from which the accompanying 

 description is given, we understand flowered at Kew in September, 1881. It comes from 

 the Khasia and Himalaya Mountains. Most likely it will require ordinary greenhouse 

 treatment, in common with other plants that inhabit districts in that elevated part of the 

 world. 



Stem slender, two to three feet high. Leaves five to nine inches long by two to three inches broad, acuminate, 

 base acute, narrowed into a petiole one-half to three-quarters of an inch long. Sheath long, compressed, Spike five to 

 seven inches long, one and a half to two and a half inches in diameter, exclusive of the stamens ; flowers suberect, 

 white with the filament red. Bracts one-half to three-quarters of an inch long, slender, cylindrie, obtuse, glabrous ; 

 inner bract shorter, tubular, very membranous. Calyx tubular, membranous, shorter than the bracts, mouth 

 obliquely truncate. Corolla tube two-thirds to three-quarters of an inch long ; lobes three, filiform, longer than the 

 tube. Staminodes (or inner petals) linear, acute, shorter than the petals. Lip linear oblong, cleft into two semi- 

 lanceolar acute diverging lobes. Stamen projecting one to one and a half inches beyond the perianth tube ; filament 

 convolute, red ; anther linear. Stigma turbinate, truncate. Ovary hairy, subglobose.— Botanical Magazine, 6638. 



Ehamnus htrsutus. Wight and Aniott. A hardy deciduous shrub from the mountains 

 of India. Flowers green; appearing in June. (Fig. 170.) 



This shrub is thus described by Dr. Wight. " Young branches pubescent, spinescent, older ones glabrous, with a 

 white cuticle ; leaves opposite or alternate, ovate, or oblong lanceolate, with a short sudden acunrination, serrulated, 

 membranaceous, nearly glabrous above ; beneath hairy, particularly on the nerves and veins ; pedicels from the base of 

 the young shoots, 3-6 together, pubescent, as long as the petiole : calyx 4-cleft ; petals obovate, obtuse, entire flat ; 

 ovary 2-3 celled ; styles 2-3, connected to the middle, then diverging ; the upper part jointed with and deciduous from 

 the persistent lower half ; fruit 2-celled ; seeds plano-convex, with a deep furrow at the base on the outer convex side, 

 A considerable shrub, rather extensively distributed on the Neilgherry hills, but not so common on the higher ranges 

 as lower down ; it usually presents a rather scraggy appearance. It is to be met with in flower at almost all seasons.' 

 To this we can only add that the species is extremely like Rhimnus catharticus, from which, however, its hairiness readily 

 distinguishes it. 



Com aria Nepalensis. WalUch. A trailing, hardy, Himalayan, deciduous bush, with 

 clusters of brownish-red flowers. Belongs to the neighbourhood of Ochnads. (Fig. 171.) 



According to Wallich this is either a shrub eight to ten feet high, or a small tree, twelve to sixteen feet high, in itn 

 native mountain valleys of Nepal and Deyra Doon. In this country it is too much injured by frost to acquire any such 

 stature; but it is nevertheless hardy enough, sending up stout four-cornered shoots from its roots if the old stems perish. 

 Its leaves are smooth, 3-5 nerved, oblong, acute, in opposite pairs, but placed in a distichous ordei\ The flowers appear 

 in May, upon leafless branches, in short imbricated drooping spikes. They consist of five ovate, imbricated, acute sepals, 

 as many small scale- like petals, ten hypogynous stamens, and five lenticular carpels placed obliquely on a conical torus or 

 gynobase, with five free linear spreading stigmas. According to Royle (Illustrations, p 165) this plant has given its name 

 Mussooree to the Nepal province now so called, where it is most abundant at an elevation of from 5000 to 7000 feet. 



Its succulent fruits are, he says, frequently eaten in the hills, though those of the common Spanish species (C. myrti- 

 folia) are considered poisonous, when taken in any quantity. Griffith, who found it on the Bootan Mountains, merely says 

 that it is a small bush (frnticulm) with long weak branches, crimson anthers, and stigmas looking something like a 

 Xanthoxylwm which he calls " Geeree middee." It occurred at the height of from 3400 to 6000 feet. His remark about 

 its resemblance to Xanthoxijlum is curious, and assists in establishing the claim of C'oriaria to a place in the Eutal alliance, 

 where we have formerly stationed it. 



