158 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GAEDEN. 



the under purple, especially towards the margin ; both sides spotted and streaked with black, the under side most 

 spotted ; the base of the leaf is cut nearly to the petiole into two straight or slightly diverging rather acute lobes, the 

 sinus long and narrow. Petiole terete, smooth. Scape terete, smooth, rising erect, almost a foot above the water, and 

 bearing a fragrant flower at the top, nearly the size of our common white water-lily (JSTymphcea alba). Calyx of four, 

 spreading, oblong, obtusely acuminated sepals of a pale green colour, yellowish at the base, marked with numerous 

 short streaks of deep brown. Petals twelve to fourteen, nearly of the same shape as the sepals, uniform or nearly so, 

 yellowish white, tinged with purplish 

 blue. Stamens numerous, deep yellow, 

 inner ones short and without any 

 appendage to the anther, outer ones 

 much larger ; the filaments broad and 

 subpetaloid ; the anther terminated 

 with a callous white point. The 

 stamens in the fully expanded flower 

 approximate in phalanges or bundles, 

 apparently corresponding in the num- 

 ber of the bundles with the rays of 

 the stigma. Ovary turbinate, bearing 

 the petals. Stigma deep yellow, 

 downy, about fifteen-rayed, under 

 each ray a blunt glabrous tooth pro- 

 jects.' — Botanical Magazine, t. 4604. 



Epidendrum patens. 

 Swartz. A hothouse Epiphyte 

 from the West Indies and 

 Guatemala, with pale ferru- 

 ginous or yellowish flowers. 

 Introduced by G. M. Skinner, 

 Esq. (Fig. 188: a, a reduced 

 sketch; b, a magnified flower.) 



It grows about a foot high, with a 

 slender stem clothed with oblong coria- 

 ceous distichous leaves. The raceme, 

 which is terminal, is about nine inches 

 long and is perfectly pendulous, bear- 

 ing thirteen or fourteen flowers, of a 

 pale rusty yellow colour, and about 1J 

 inches across. The sepals are thicker in 

 texture than the petals, and somewhat 

 darker. The lip is thin, roundish, 

 four-lobed, with a slight central ele- 

 vated line, and a pair of thin tubercles 

 at its base ; the lateral lobes are 

 rounded, somewhat hatchet-shaped, 

 and very much larger than the two in 

 front, which are divergent. The ac- 

 companying drawing was made in the 

 garden of the Horticultural Society. 

 A good coloured figure of a small speci- 

 men is to be found in the Botanical 

 Cabinet, t. 1537. 



Lastrea prolifica. T. Moore. In this we have a very desirable Japanese . Fern that 

 will live out of doors. It is represented to be quite hardy, and will on this account be so 

 much the more welcome to the cultivators of these charming plants. Its distinct appearance 

 from the general run of Ferns that succeed out of doors is another reason for its becoming 

 popular, which it will no doubt be when it is better known. 



