190 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



Leaves linear, four or five feet long, an inch and a half broad, tapering, pointed. Scape four or five feet long, as thick 

 as a man's thumb. Racemes dense, subspicate, oblong-cylindrical, a foot or more long ; flowers all deflexed ; pedicils 

 very short ; bracts lanceolate, a quarter to half an inch long. Perianth yellow, tinged with red ; segments lanceolate- 

 deltoid. Stamens and style both considerably exserted. — Botanical Magazine, 6553. 



Posoqueria Formosa. Planchon (alias Stanina formosa, Karsten) . A very fine stove 

 plant, from the Caraccas, with long white flowers. Belongs to Cinchonads. Introduced 

 by M. Karsten. Flowered by M. Van Houtte. (Fig. 110.) 



A fine tree, from the virgin forests of the mountains of Tovar, at the elevation of 5,000 to 6,000 feet above the sea. 

 It grows from 12 to 20 feet high. Its leaves are broad, oblong-lanceolate, wavy, leathery like a laurel. The flowers are 

 3 to 4 inches long, pure white, slender-tubed, and highly fragrant. When in fruit it is said to resemble an apple-tree. 

 Nearly related to the Gardenias, as which it requires the same cultivation. — Flore des Serves, t. 587. 



Oncidium luridum atratum. Linclley. 

 A handsome orchidaceous Epiphyte, from 

 Mexico, with rich crimson flowers. Intro- 

 duced by the Horticultural Society. 



Whether or not O. luridum is really a mere variety 

 of the Carthagena Oncid becomes more and more doubt- 

 ful as our knowledge of such plants extends. In the 

 present instance it is unnecessary to open that qiiestion, 

 the -plant now mentioned being undoubtedly a very fine 

 form of the lurid Oncid, whatever the relation of the 

 latter to the Carthagena Oncid may finally prove to be. 

 With the habit of the common form of the species this 

 combines flowers smaller than usual, very flat, with olive 

 and rose-coloured sepals and petals, and a rich crimson 

 Up furnished at the base with five put pie-black tubercles, 

 four of which surround the fifth ; of these tubercles, the 

 central and two anterior are oblong and simple, the two 

 posterior are concave, or almost kidney-shaped, with the 

 concavity backwards. The wings of the column are 

 oblong truncated fleshy bodies attached by the narrowest 

 end. It is a fine variety, in some respects like the purple- 

 lipped Oncid (O. hcematochilum), and requiring the same 

 treatment as O. luridum itself. — Journal of Hort. Soc., 

 vol. vi. 



OdONIOGLCSSUM VEXILLAR1UM SUPERBUM. 



II, G. Reichenbach,/. Oclontoglosmm vexil- 

 larium is most variable in the colour of its 

 large massive flowers. The variety here 

 mentioned is evidently one of the finest, if 

 not the very finest, that has yet been seen- 

 It appears to be one of the many fine things 

 imported by Mr. F. Sander, and has been 

 flowered by _R. P. Percival, Esq., of Clcve- • 

 lands, Birkdale, Southport. Professor Rei- 

 chenbach thus describes it : — 



Lip very dark purple, with a radiating blackish zone 

 b ef ore its base, bordered in front with fine white. Petals 

 purple, the sepals lighter, each lateral one with a line at 

 its base.— Gardener's Chronicle, N.S., vol. xvi., p. 364. 



