19a 



PAXTON'S FLOWER GARDEN. 



and the crust, or shell, fell in with its own weight. Other lesser ones were already, and are still, in the collection ; and 

 the one, from which one small flowering portion is represented of the natural size, weighs seven hundred and thirteen 

 pounds, its height is four feet six inches, its longitudinal circumference ten feet nine inches, and its transverse ditto 

 eight feet seven inches ; its ribs amount to forty-four. All our plants were procured with great labour, and sent many 

 hundred miles, over the roughest country in the world, from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to the coast, for shipping, 

 and presented to the Royal Gardens by Fred. Staines, Esq. It flowers through a good part of the year, but, in 

 comparison with the bulky trunk, the blossoms are quite inconsiderable and void of beauty. " The summit of the trunk 

 is crowned with a dense mass of tawny wool, concerning which it is remarked, that " this wool covers the whole crown 

 of the plant, and is a few inches deej) ; and we are much mistaken if it is not a tuft of this substance, taken from an 

 Eckinocactus Visnaga, which constitutes that botanical curiosity from Mexico, long in the possession of the late 

 Mr. Lambert (now at the British Museum), known under the name of the Muff Cactus. A small quantity taken off 

 the plant may, by handling and admitting air within the staple, be distended to a considerable size. An entire mass 

 from a good-sized plant, thus treated, might be made to assume the cylindrical form of the specimen alluded to."— 

 Botanical Magazine, t. 4559. 



Bomarea conferta. Benih. This, which is a native of Bogata, is another of these 

 beautiful and very distinct flowering plants, which are fine additions to our greenhouse 

 or intermediate house climbers. They are strong growers, doing the best when planted 

 out like the Lapagerias, which latter the Bomareas so far resemble in habit that they 

 annually push up shoots from the crown of the plant below ground. The flowers are 

 produced in large drooping tufts at the points of the shoots. They are free-growing plants ; 

 any ordinary well-drained turfy soil will answer for them. 



Leaves scattered, shortly stalked, petioles flattened and twisted ; the blades four to five inches in length by three- 

 quarters to one inch in breadth, broadly lanceolate, tail-pointed, glabrous above, lightly pubescent beneath. Flowers 

 numerous, brilliant crimson, intermixed at the base with broadly ovate-acute leafy bracts, each one to two inches long. 

 The individual flowers are two to two and a half inches long, funnel-shaped, the three outer segments ovate-lanceolate, 

 about one-fourth shorter than the inner segments, which are obovate-acuminate, tapering into a long stalk, both of 

 a rich crimson colour. Filaments slender, glabrous, nearly equalling the inner segments in length. Anthers oblong, 

 about one-sixth of an inch long. Ovary about a quarter of an inch long, angular, turbinate, and downy. Style 

 slender, as long as the stamens, three-toothed at the summit. — Gardener's Chronicle, N.S., vol. xvi., p. 330. 



Homalonema Wallisii. This is an Aroid with handsomely marked leaves., dark green, 

 marbled with greenish- white. It is one of Mr. Bull's introductions from New Granada, 

 where it was discovered by Wallis. A plant of easy cultivation, requiring ordinary stove 

 treatment ; soil and general management such as found to answer for Dieifenbachias will 

 suit it. 



Rootstock subterranean, stout, aromatic. Leaves numerous, spreading, thickly coriaceous, four to six inches long, 

 oblong or oblong-ovate, glabrous, dark green above with pale blotches. Peduncle one to one and a half inches long. 

 Spathe three inches long. Spadix almost as long as the spathe, slender, cylindric, obtuse. Stamens three, very short, 

 cells globose. Ovary obovoid, compressed, two to three celled ; ovules numerous, inserted on placentas projecting from 

 the septum, anatropous or semi-anatropous. — Botanical Magazine, 6571. 



Aqtjilegia Formosa. Another of the handsome perennial Columbines, which form 

 such a conspicuous feature in gardens at the present day; they are easily cultivated, 

 ordinary soil and an open situation being all they require to grow them well. It comes from 

 the Rocky Mountains and California, and flowers in J uly and August. 



Stem slender, one to three feet high, more or less glandular, hairy above. Leaves'Jritemate, ultimate segments 

 cuneiform, obtusely lobulate and crenate. Flowers on slender peduncles, one and a half to two inches long, brick- 

 red and yellow or wholly yellow. Sepals lanceolate, acuminate, horizontally spreading in the red flowered forms 

 with, a golden band down the centre. Petals with the limb suborbicular in outline, tip rounded or subacute, margin 

 rather recurved ; spur long or short, sometimes one and a half inches long, tips scarcely incurved, slightly swollen. 

 Filaments far exserted, of different lengths, outer almost twice as long as the inner ; anthers scattered. Styles shorter 

 than the largest stamens.— Botanical Magazine, 6552. 



