PAXTON'S FLO WEE GAEDEST. 



151 



Arbutus varians. JBentham [alias A. xalapensis, Lindley ; alias A. mollis, Hooker) . 



An evergreen greenhouse shrub, with panicles of white and pink flowers, and dull green 



leaves hoary beneath. Native of Mexico. (Fig. 187.) 



Tliis plant has been well figured in the Botanical Magazine, t. 4595, as the Arbutus mollis of Humboldt. It 

 had previously found a place in the Journal of the Horticultural Society, v. 193, under the name of A. xalapensis 



of Humboldt. Both Sir W. 

 Hooker and ourselves overlooked 

 the undoubted fact that it is the 

 A. varians of Mr. Bentham in 

 the Plantar Hartwcgianai, No. 

 542. A. xalapensis seems to 

 have a differently formed corolla, 

 and in A. mollis the leaves are 

 downy on the upper side. Sir 

 W. Hooker thus describes the 

 flowers : — 



" Corolla large, ampullaceous 

 or lageniform, glabrous or downy, 

 white or greenish rose-colour ; 

 the lower portion forms an in- 

 flated ring, the rest of the tube 

 is hemispherical, tapering into a 

 short contracted mouth ; limb of 

 five small rounded lobes." 



In the Journal of the Horti- 

 cultural Society it is mentioned in 

 the following terms : — 



" Eaised from Mexican seed, 

 received from Hartweg in Febru- 

 ary, 1846, from the mountain of 

 Anganguco. A low, dull brownish 

 green evergreen bush. Branches, 

 petioles, and underside of leaves 

 covered with a short soft down, 

 ace of setae. Leaves oblong, flat, long- 

 stalked, rounded at the base, perfectly entire, or very 

 slightly serrate, with a hard, firm, reddish edge ; 

 somewhat downy on the upper side. Flowers dirty 

 reddish-white, in close downy terminal short pyra- 

 midal panicles. Peduncles glandular and woolly. Calyx 

 nearly smooth. Corolla ovate, at the base almost flat 

 and unequally gibbous, with a contraction below the 

 middle, and a very small limb. ■ Ovary with a granular 

 surface. This little bush is by no means ornamental. It grows slowly, requires protection in winter, has dull spotted 

 leaves, and remains in flower only for a week or two in April. Although a true Arbutus, it seems to have none of the 

 beauty of its race, and must be consigned to the collectors of mere botanical curiosities." 



We are still of opinion that the species has no horticultural value ; at least when cultivated in a cold pit it has 

 invariably a dingy rusty aspect, the reverse of beautiful. 



Ficus stipulata. Most growers are well acquainted with the pretty creeping plant 

 so generally used for clothing walls in our plant-houses, and for which purpose, in 

 places where little else could be made to thrive, it is invaluable, attaching itself as it 

 does like a miniature form of ivy, so as to completely hide the surface to which it 

 clings. Although mostly subjected to stove treatment, it is nearly hardy, thriving well 

 in a greenhouse, which makes it all the more valuable. But though the plant is so 

 much known, comparatively few cultivators have any idea of the character of its fruit, 



