50 



PAXTON'S FLOWEK GABDEN. 



Acineta chrysantha. Lindley {alias Neippergia chrysantha, Morren). A stove 

 epiphyte, supposed to be from Mexico, exhibited at Ghent, by M. Auguste Mechelynck, in 

 September, 1849. Flowers the size o£ A. Barkeri, in erect racemes, of a bright golden-yellow 

 colour. Very handsome. Natural order of Orchids. 



This noble-looking plant has exactly the habit of the other Acinetes, except that the raceme grows erect, to the 

 height of a foot or so, instead of being pendulous. It is loaded closely with golden-yellow blossoms, each more than 17J 

 inches wide, very like those of A. Barkeri, except in colour. The lip appears to be white and the column crimson. At 

 night the flowers have a sweet aromatic odour ; by day they are scentless. From the other Acinetes it is distinguished 

 especially by the presence of a long, blunt, papillose horn arising from thehypochil. {Annalesde Gand, t. 282.) We do not 

 perceive any ground for separating this plant from Acinete, the horn upon which Professor Morren relies being equally 

 present upon both Barker's and Humboldt's Acinete, although of a different form. Nor do we feel certain that the erect 

 position of the flowering raceme is habitual with this plant, for, according to the drawing, while one raceme rises upright, 

 another is bent downwards in the same manner as in the Acinetes. Annexed to the article which describes this plant, 

 M. Morren makes the following startling announcement: "I shall prove in another place that Anguloa, Lycaste, or 

 MaxUlaria are simply isophorous forms of the same organisation ; that is to say, that one may be transformed into 

 another, so that the same plant will produce one year the flower of Anguloa, and another that of Lycaste. This strange 

 fact I have witnessed, and, connecting it with other analogous facts, well ascertained to exist in the Vegetable Kingdom, 

 I think of soon bringing forward a general theory of isophorism in plants, a doctrine exactly analogous to that of 

 isomerism, now perfectly established in chemistry and mineralogy. I suspect that this Neippergia is also an isophorous 

 form, that is to say, transformable into another genus. " 



Cuphea purpurea. Lemaire. A very pretty hybrid perennial, obtained by M. 

 Delache of St. Omer, between C. miniata ? and C. viscosissima <5. Flowers large, bright rose- 

 colour, handsome. 



To the habit and foliage of C. miniata, and its two large upper petals, it adds the four small petals of C. viscosissima, 

 but has little of its viscidity. The colour of the flowers is a fine bright rose, slightly shaded with violet, a charming tint, 

 which cannot be given by art. It requires the same treatment as other Cupheas. — Van Houtte's Flore, t. 412. Seems to 

 be a good bedcling-out plant. 



Heliconia angustifolia. Hooker. A noble hothouse herbaceous plant from Brazil, 

 with large crimson spathes, and snow-white flowers. Blossomed at Kew in January, 1846. 

 Belongs to the order of Musads. 



A very handsome and rather dwarf species, introduced to Liverpool from Brazil. Its beautiful bright red spathes, 

 deep orange-coloured ovaries, and white sepals tipped with green, have a very handsome effect. The flower-stem is sheathed 

 by the bases of the long petioles, and the principal leaf is one foot and a half long, and about three inches wide, with a stout 

 rib and parallel oblique veins, narrowed to a point at both ends, and glabrous, except that the rib beneath the very long 

 taper petioles and cylindrical sheaths (at least in their upper part) is clothed with a scattered pulverulent or scurfy 

 down. The rachis is a span and more long, deep red, bearing at distances of an inch or more six or seven bright red 

 spathes, the lowest one six inches long, the rest gradually shorter and less acuminated. This belongs to a genus of 

 tropical plants inhabiting moist places, conspicuous by their fine broad leaves and showy flowers ; forming, with allied 

 genera, dense thickets in their native localities. The present may be considered a dwarf species of the genus, as it does 

 not attain more than between three and four feet in height. It requires to be grown in a large pot, in light loam 

 supplying it freely with water during summer. — Botanical Magazine, t. 4475. 



Garrya elliptica. Douglas. The Female. A hardy evergreen shrub, from North 

 Western America. Introduced by the Horticultural Society. Belongs to the order of 

 Garryads. 



The male only of this fine evergreen bush had been known in our gardens, in which its good foliage and long 

 massive tails of yellowish catkins, appearing in the earliest days of spring, have deservedly rendered it a universal 

 favourite. The female, which in foliage is like the male, proves to be as destitute of beauty as the male is conspicuous 

 for it. The catkins are short, green, and, at a little distance from the bush, are not to be observed. To botanical 

 gardens the plant is an acquisition, as it is to horticulture, inasmuch as it will probably now ripen fruit, and thus afford 

 a ready means of propagation.— Joum. Hort. Soe., vol. v., p. -137. 



