38 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



forming bushes ten or twelve feet high. It is very handsome where there is room for it, its long narrow sabre-shaped 

 phyllodes (leaves) having a bright colour and firm texture, and bending downward gracefully from singularly flexuose 

 branches. The inflorescence is similarly zig-zag, much shorter than the leaves, and often forms an entangled mass of 

 branches each of which is terminated by a yellow head about as large as the seed of the Sweet Pea. 



Cephalotaxus Fortuni. Hooker. A fine coniferous shrub, with long, narrow, 

 deep-green distichous leaves' ; from the north of China. Introduced by Messrs. Standish 

 of Bagshot. (Fig. 29.) 



_ Oncidium Elegantissum. An elegant species that has flowered with Messrs. Veitch. 

 A native of Brazil. 



Pseudo-bulbs, glaucous, short, broad, ribbed, two-leaved. Produces panicles of flowers very similar to O. Curtum, 

 Lindl. , but much more shining in colour. Lip short, as in O. Gardnerii, Lindl. Sepals brown, banded yellow. Petals broad, 

 with a few yellow spots. Lip of the brightest yellow, as in O. Eogersii ; the calli of the base with black purplish 

 borders. The anterior limb of lip marbled and dotted with light brown. —Gardener's Chronicle, N.S., vol. vii., p. 13. 



GtALANthus plicatus. Bieherstein. A charming hardy bulb, from the Caucasus. Flowered 

 in the Garden of the Horticultural Society in March, 1850. 



This beautiful Snowdrop, although long cultivated in gardens, is hardly known to the public. There appears to be no 

 doubt as to its specific difference from the common species, its leaves being very much broader, and, as it were, plaited, 

 not flat, its flowers being larger, and the green on the petals far more conspicuous. In a horticultural point of view it is 

 a much finer thing than the old Snowdrop, just as hardy, and as easily managed. — Journ. Hort. Soc, Vol. v. p. 1 38. 



With a figure. 



Cereus Tweediei. Hooker. An erect, round-stemmed, furrowed Cactus, covered with 

 stiff spines, from among which arise handsome curved narrow orange tubular flowers, each almost 

 3 inches long. From Buenos Ayres by Messrs. Lee and Co. Flowered at Kew, in September, 

 1849. 



About 1 foot to 1^ foot high, and 1 inch in diameter, of a very glaucous green hue, simple, but increasing readily by 

 offsets at the base. The shape is cylindrical, very slightly tapering upwards, numbered with many, about sixteen, 

 moderately deep furrows perfectly straight, the ridges obtuse and even (not tubercled). Spine-tufts on the ridges close 

 together, oval, with brown wool. Spines many in each tuft, four or five stouter than the rest, white, blotched with 

 brown ; of the stout ones three or four (half to three-quarters of an inch long) are nearly erect ; a solitary stout one 

 together with the other lesser ones, which are white, generally, all point downwards. Flowers rich orange-crimson, 

 numerous, from the side of the stem, 3 inches long, curved upwards, the mouth oblique. Calyx-tube funnel-shaped, the 

 scales remote, subulate, oppressed, lower ones ciliated with white hairs. Petals small, scarcely longer than the teeth of 

 the calyx, acute. Stamens lying against the upper side of the tube, and there much longer than the flower ; lower ones 

 scarcely protruded. Anthers deep purple. — Botanical Magazine, t. 4498. Will probably be a good breeder. 



Jtjniperus sPHiEitiCA. An evergreen tree from the north of China. Introduced by Messrs. 

 Standish and Noble. (Fig. 30.) 



/. sphoerica ; arborea, foliis omnibus squamaeformibus quadrifariis obtusis dorso fovea circulari notatis, ramulis 

 gracilibus tetragonis obtusis, galbulis spheericis glaucis breviter pedunculatis. 



Found in the north of China by Mr. Fortune, who describes it as a tree 30 to 50 feet in height. The young branches 

 are four-cornered, blunt, and usually more slender than in the accompanying figure. All the leaves are minute, scaly, 

 with a circular pit at their back. The fruit is quite round, about as large as the ball of a pocket pistol. The species differs 

 from J. chinensis apparently, in not having any acicular leaves, and very decidedly in the size and form of its fruit, which 

 is twice as large as in that species, and not at all depressed at the end, but very regularly spherical. 



QuEitcus in vers a. A.n evergreen Oak, from the north of China. Imported by Messrs. 

 Standish and Noble. (Fig. 31.) 



Q. inversa ; sempervirens, ramis tomentosis, foliis coriaceis obovatis petiolatis cuspidatis obtusis nunc apice serratis 

 supra glaberrimis subtus glauco-tomentosis, glandibus spicatis obovatis cupula brevi tomentosa squamulosa multd 

 longioribus. 



