116 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



the Swan River Settlement, and has sent seeds, from flowering plants of which our figure was taken at the Royal 

 Gardens, in April, 1850. 



An erect shrub, 4 to 5 feet high, the branches pale brown, shaggy. Leaves leathery, cordate, sessile, concave, 

 waved and rather minutely toothed at the edge, glaucous green, distinctly reticulated both above and below. From the 

 axils of the upper leaves the flowers appear in copious clusters : at first surrounded by imbricated deciduous bracts. 

 Sepals red, unequal linear, smooth. Style twice as long as the longest sepals. — Pot. Mag., t. 4523. 

 Upon the cultivation of this and other Proteads, Mr. Smith has the following useful observations :— 

 " Before the introduction and high state of cultivation of the splendid flowering plants now annually exhibited in the 



vicinity of London, it was customary to estimate the value of public and private collections by the number and rarity of 

 the species, without regard to the circumstance of their producing fine flowers. Perhaps no plants were in higher repute 

 than those of the family to which this belongs, as is amply shown by the early volumes of the Botanical Magazine. 

 Within the last twenty or thirty years, however, the cultivation of Proteacece has declined ; the species have gradually 

 disappeared from most of the private collections around London ; and but few nurserymen now take interest in them. 

 This change may be partly owing to the supposed difficulty of preserving them, for under certain circumstances the 

 plants suddenly die, even when in vigorous health. In the Royal Gardens Proteacece have maintained their place, more 

 especially those that are natives of Australia ; and as there are some at this time between forty and fifty years of age, 

 and others of a large size half that age, it may be inferred that Proteacece are not so short-lived in a state of cultivation 

 as they are generally supposed to be. Within our recollection it was the common practice to grow them in some kind of 

 fight soil, usually peat. The hygrometric condition of such soil is easily affected by changes of the surrounding 

 atmosphere ; becoming quickly dry during hot weather, and apt to become sodden with moisture in winter, and the 

 spongioles or rootlets of Proteacece are very sensitive to either extreme ; the use of light soil, therefore, in our opinion, 

 accounts for the frequent sudden death of plants of this kind. We use good yellow loam, to which, for small plants, we 

 add a little sharp sand. In shifting or repotting a plant we make it a rule to keep the ball of roots a little elevated above 

 the surface of the new mould, to prevent any superabundance of water from lodging round the base of the stem. In the 



