54 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



endurance of their blossoms have few equals, and deserve a place wherever there is the means of keeping them 

 warm enough. Coming as they do from the hot regions of India, they need to be always comparatively hot. 



Isoloma brevielora [alias Gesnera brevifiora, Lindlei/ ; alias Gesnevia Seemsnam. } IIoo7ceA. 

 A fine hot-house Gesneraceous plant, with long whorled shaggy racemes of scarlet spotted flowers. 

 Native of Panama. Blossoms in October at Kew. 



A very handsome, copious-flowering, and bright coloured species, approaching nearest to G. longij 'alia, but dmenng 

 much in the form of the leaves and in the limb of the corolla. It was discovered by Mr. Seemau, at Panama. Stem 

 two feet or more high, simple, rather stout below, nearly terete, villous with spreading hairs, as is almost every part of 

 the plant. Leaves opposite and ternate, the lower ones large, broadly ovate, or sub-obovate, on rather long petioles, 

 coarsely serrate, acute, rather than acuminate ; upper ones gradually smaller and more tapering to a point, all obtuse 

 at the base. From the whorls of the upper floral leaves, the hairy peduncles appear fasciculato-verticillate, longer than 

 the petioles, and the uppermost ones longer even than the leaves, single-flowered. Calyx shallow, cup-shaped, with five 

 nearly regular, acute, spreading lobes. Corolla very villous, bright brick red, a little inclined to orange. Tube nearly 

 cylindrical, short, tapering, orange at the base ; the limb of five, nearly equal, rounded segments, spotted with deeper 

 red, and clothed with glandular hairs. Ovary roundish ovate, very villous, having at the base four conspicuous, bypo- 

 gynous, broad glands, of which one is bifid. The rhizome of Gesneraceous plants is either in the form of a thick, fleshy 

 round tuber, or consists of a number of fleshy scales, compactly seated on an elongated axis, and, therefore, analogous to 

 an underground surculose stem. The rhizome of this species belongs to the latter form, resembling that of Gloxinia and 

 Acliimenes, and requiring the same kind of treatment. It will thrive in a mixture of light loam and leaf mould ; and, in 

 order to start the roots, they should be placed in bottom-heat in a warm stove, taking care not to give much water till 

 they have made some progress in growth. If, during the summer, they happen to be placed in a position fully exposed 

 to the south, they will require to be shaded during the middle of the clay. — Botanical Magazine, t. 4504. The plant here 

 spoken of under the name of Gesneria Seemanni is only a well-grown specimen of the Gesnera brev'jlora, described in the 

 Journal of the Horticultural Society, vol. hi., p. 165 (April, 1848.) It is one of the Isolomes which M. Decaisne has, with 

 much reason, elevated to the rank of a genus, as had Regel, before him, under the name of Kohleria. Other Isolomes 

 are G. longifolia, Bot. Eeg.,t. 40, 1842 ; G. Honclensis, Bot. Mag., t. 4217 ; G.trifolia, ib.,t. 4342 ; G. mollis ; G. lasiantha, 

 Zuccarini ; G. tubiflora, Cav. ; and, perhaps, G. verticillata, Cav. ; as M. Decaisne has pointed out in the Revue Horticole } 

 3rd Ser., vol. ii., p. 465. 



Clerodendron Betiiuneanum. Lowe. A fine stove Verbenaceous shrub, with the appearance 

 of C.Kcem/pferi. Mowers crimson, in large panicles, produced in September, 1849, with Lucombe 

 and Co. A native of Borneo. 



Each flower of this plant is exceedingly beautiful in itself ; peduncles, pedicels, bracts, calyx, corolla, the very long 

 and graceful stamens, all are of the deepest crimson, while the two side lobes of the corolla have a purple spot near the 

 base, and the upper lobe has a much larger white spot. The species has been named after Capt. Bethune, R.N., who 

 brought it and several other fine plants from Borneo. When its flowering season is past, it does not lose all its charms, 

 for the crimson bracts and calyces remain, and the latter contain each a four-seeded berry of the richest blue colour-. 

 Although in its native country attaining a height of ten feet, it is one of those plants that flower readily when but of small 

 size, and confined in a pot. — Botanical Magazine, t. 4485. 



Taber^emontaaia longielora. Bentham. A stove shrub of the order of Dogbanes 

 (ApocynaceBe) with long white fragrant flowers and a green tube. Blossomed with Lucombe and Co. 

 A native of Sierra Leone. 



The shrub has close-placed, ample dark green foliage, and remarkably large white or pale cream-coloured flowers, 

 diffusing a delicious aromatic fragrance, resembling that of cloves. Dr. Vogel, who found the plant at Sierra Leone, 

 speaks of the shrub as very handsome, with the aspect of a Citrus, and yielding a milky juice. Leaves elliptical, large, 

 with a short point, and a short but dilated petiole, the veins diverging almost horizontally from the mid-rib. Peduncles 

 erect, stout, each bearing about three large white flowers. Calyx lobes broadly oval, obtuse : at their base is a circle of 

 minute glandular scales. Corolla with the tube twisted, 4 inches in length, swollen below the middle ; limb of five 

 waved or reflexed ligulate lobes. This shrub requires a warm stove. It will thrive in a mixture of loam and peat soil, 

 if placed so as to have the benefit of bottom-heat, and watered and syringed freely during the summer ; but care should 

 be taken that at no time (especially during its season of rest) the mould becomes saturated, for the soft and slightly 

 succulent roots are apt to suffer if kept in too wet a state, while the plant indicates a cessation of growth. — Botanical 

 Magazine, t. 4484. 



