22 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



on both sides, almost velvety, mucronate, cordate, with a deep but closed sinus. Flowers in many-flowered umbels with 

 hairy pedicels, white, with a deep green radiating ring at the base ; lobes spreading, ovate-rotundate-obtuse, longitudi- 

 nally plaited in the middle. A soft-wooded plant, of rapid and extensive growth, well adapted to cover trellis-work, 

 pillars, &c. Where it is required to cover a great space, it should be planted in a mixture of loam and peat, about 

 eighteen inches hi depth, and well drained. It may also be grown in. a pot, and trained up the rafters of the house, or 

 on a wire trellis fixed to the pot ; and by occasionally stopping the leading shoots it may be made to flower abundantly." 

 — Botanical Magazine, t. 4472. 



Monardella Macrantha. A half-hardy perennial from California. It is of a close 

 dwarf habit of growth, highly aromatic ; the flowers are bright orange-scarlet in colour. A 

 handsome plant. 



" Slender, cylindric, tufted stems, procumbent or ascending, more or less pubescent, or almost glabrate. Leaves 

 small, half to three-quarters of an inch long, petioled, ovate, obtuse, quite entire ; petiole shorter than the blade, spread- 

 ing or recurved; bracteal leaves, sessile, membranaceous, and pubescent. Flowers ten to twenty in a close sessile 

 terminal head ; calyx half an inch long, striate, terete, tomentose. Corolla slender, scarlet ; tube three times as 

 long as the calyx; lobes oblong lanceolate; stamens exserted. Anthers small. Style slender. Stigma bifid." — 

 Botanical Magazine, 6270. 



Crocus Chrysanthus, var. Fuscotincttjs. This is an interesting plant, brought 

 from Asia Minor by Mr. Elwes. 



" It has a corm like that of C. biflorus, four to five narrow, distinctly vittate leaves ; two lanceolate, much 

 imbricated spathe-valves ; a protruded tube, a couple of inches long, dull white, with brown stripes. Deep orange 

 limb an inch deep, the outer segments broadly suffused with sepia-brown all down the back ; the three inner ones smaller, 

 and tinged with brown at the throat. "—Gardener's Chronicle, N.S., vol. v., p. 622. 



Pritchardia Grandis. This plant has been introduced by Mr. Bull, of King's 

 Road, Chelsea, from the South Sea Islands. But the name must only be taken as 

 •provisional, as the plant is not yet in a condition to identify. 



It is undoubtedly the grandest of all the fan-leaved palms that do not exceed a small or medium growth. It has 

 attained a height of five or six feet. The stem is somewhat angular, and surrounded by a network of fibres, as in the 

 case of some others of the family. The leaves are nearly orbicular, very symmetrical ; the margin is regularly divided, 

 but not very deeply, into moderate-sized oblong lobes, notched. The petiole is proportionate in length to that of the 

 blade, which it supports almost erect whilst young ; as they get older, the entire leaf assumes a more drooping position ; 

 the upper surface of the leaf is a beautiful dark green, quite smooth, the under surface paler in colour. It is a plant that 

 at once strikes the beholder as totally distinct from everything we have hitherto seen ; and when sufficiently plentiful to 

 be obtainable, will no doubt be eagerly sought after by all growers of Palms, no collection of which can be said to be 

 complete without it. It will require a warm stove to grow it, with peaty soil, well drained, and abundance of water 

 during the growing season. 



Aralia Elegantissima. 



"A very elegant evergreen stove plant, with an erect slender stem, well furnished with digitate leaves, on long 

 dark-green foot-stalks, mottled with white. The surface of the leaves is deep green, the midrib of each leaflet being 

 wbite ; the filiform leaflets are pendulous, and add much to its beauty. It is a very effective decorative subject, from 

 the South Sea Islands, and consequently will require a strong heat in which to be grown." — BulVs Catalogue, 1876. 



Theresia Persica. C. Koch. A hardy Liliaceous plant from Mount Ararat, 

 where it is found at the elevation of 4,000 feet. It is said to have the flowers of the same 

 form as in Fritillaria, but the habit of a Lily. 



This is described as having a bell-shaped, hexapetaloid flower, with oblong coloured sepals, provided with a nectarife- 

 rous cavity in the inside ; six hypogynous stamens included within the flower ; oval anthers, deeply pierced below to 

 receive the filament ; a five-celled, many-seeded, five-angular, columnar ovary ; with a linear, entire style, and a scarcely 

 distinguishable stigma. The bulbs are said to be like those of the Crown Imperial. It does not appear from the Annates 



