44 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



by the Spaniards, Alerce ; but this is doubted by Dr. Hooker. The young branches are covered *vith small thick dark 

 green scales or leaves, so placed as to constitute a four-sided arrangement, and being much larger than is usual among 

 the scale-leaved Conifers, produce a massive appearance, which is quite peculiar to the species. The cones are small 

 bodies, consisting of two opposite pairs of scales, each having a long horn at its back, and the exterior pair not being 

 half the length of the inner. These scales appear to be whitish inside, and inclose four winged seeds, which stand in 

 pairs at the base of the larger scales; the smaller scales are seedless. These scales, of two different sizes, are placed 

 in what botanists call a valvate position; that is to say, they all touch at the edge without overlapping any interior scale; 

 and in this resides the distinctive character of the Libocedars. In the Arbor-vitses (Thuja), on the contrary, the outer 

 scales of the cones are all alike in size, and always inclose two or more smaller scales. In other words, the cones of 

 a Libocedar are much more simple in their structure than those of an Arbor-vitae, in which we have the first distinct 

 commencement of the spiral arrangement found in the higher branches of the Coniferous order. 



LiBOCEDitus chilensis. Endlicher* {alias Thuja chilensis, Don; alias Thuja andina, 

 Pdjjjjig.) From Chili. A noble evergreen, with the habit of an Arbor Vitse. Imported by 

 Messrs. Low and Co. Natural order Conifers. (Fig. 37.) 



A fine evergreen tree. Mr. Bridges says that it is from 65 to 80 feet high ; Sir W. Hooker, that it is a tree from 

 30 to 40 feet high, of great beauty, and well worthy of being introduced into our gardens. Po'ppig relates that it resembles 

 the American Arbor Vitse, but is less robust, sometimes branching from the base, and gaining the habit of a Cypress, but 

 in other cases forming a conical head. " The trunk," he adds, "of this last variety is simple as high as the middle, 

 straight, taper, clothed with a rough cracked bark of a brownish ash- colour, knotty, scarcely more than a foot thick, 

 with a yellowish, resinous, hard, strong-scented (olente) wood." The young branches of this tree, when they are visible, 

 are compressed, obovate between the nodes, and bright green, with glaucous furrows ; they are, however, for the most 

 part, hidden by the leaves. The latter, which are* compressed, blunt, and keeled, are glaucous at the sides, but bright 

 green at the bask and edges ; they stand in two pairs crosswise, the lower pair being much larger than the upper pair, 

 which resembles two tubercles. These leaves evidently represent the type of the cones, which are drooping, short- 

 stalked, about half an inch long, and consist of four woody scales, also standing crosswise, in two very uneqixal pairs. 

 These scales are applied face to face, and have a sharp tubercle on the outside below the point. The two larger scales 

 have each two seeds at their base ; the two smaller are seedless. The four seeds stand erect in the cones, with 

 unequal-sided wings. — Journ. Hort. Soc, vol. v., p. 35. It is stated in that work that the plant had been also intro- 

 duced by Messrs. Standish & Co. This, however, proves to have been an accidental error, Mr. Low having been the 

 sole importer. 



Denduobitjm palpebbje. Linclley. From the East Indies. A handsome stove epiphyte 

 belonging to the natural order of Orchids, flowering in November. Flowers white, with a lip stained 

 with yellow. Introduced by Messrs. Yeitch and Co. 



A charming species, in the way of D. densiflorum, with the perfume of distant hawthorn. Its stems are more 

 slender than those of the species just named ; the flowers in loose racemes and white, with a deep yellow stain at 

 the base of the lip, which is not only covered with soft down, but is fringed near the base with long hairs, like eyelashes. 

 These elevated lines pass along the middle, and terminate near the base in a 3-lobed tubercle, for the purpose of 

 receiving which the base of the column is hollowed out into an oblong cavity. It was received from Messrs. Veitch, in 

 November, 1849. — Journ. Hort. Soc, Vol. v. p. 33. 



Achimenes escheiliana. Lemaire. A hybrid between A. rosea 9 and longiflora Said 

 to be handsome. 



Raised by M. Regel, of Zurich. It has the habit of A. rosea, but is rather stronger. The flowers are intermediate 

 in size between the two parents ; the limb is a rich crimson, spotted with bluish violet when going off ; the orifice is 

 golden yellow, dotted with purple, as in the mother. — Van Houtte's Flore, 1848, p. 405 d. 



Deac^ena Bausei. A garden hybrid between D. Chelsoni and D. Regina. Among 

 the many fine showy varieties of these plants that have resulted from the manipulations 

 of hybridists within the last few years, there are few that surpass this. The plant 

 has a moderately compact habit. The leaves, about four inches in width, are oblong 

 elliptical, recurving in a manner that gives it a more graceful appearance than is 

 existent in the kinds of erect habit. Surface dark bronze, crimson on the edge, narrow in 

 the case of the lower leaves, and broader in those formed as the plant gets older. 



