THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES.] FEBRUARY, 1876. [No. 50. 



EXHIBITIONS. 



The first meeting of the year held by the Royal 

 Horticultural Society at South Kensington brought 

 together a good number of plants of great interest. 

 A first-class certificate was awarded to Mr. Wm, 

 Denning, gardener to Lord Londesborough, for a 

 grandly-flowered plant of Dendrobium teretifolium. 

 Other Orchids were forwarded by Messrs. Veitch and 

 Sons, Mr. B. S. Williams, Sir William Marriott, W. 

 Burnley Hume, Esq., and Mr. Charles Green, of 

 Reigate. 



THE NEW VARIETY OF POINSETTIA 

 PULCHERRIMA. 



Speaking of Messrs. Veitch and Sons' new P. pul- 

 cherrima plenissima, figured by us in the present 

 number, the Gardener's Chronicle remarks that the 

 epithet "double," as applied to this handsome plant, 

 is a complete misnomer. The term " double " is 

 strictly applied only to those cases where petals are 

 substituted for stamens and pistils, or where there is 

 an unusual number of petals. Nothing of this kind 

 occurs in the Poinsettia. What happens in the so- 

 called double Poinsettia is this — instead of one row 

 comprising a relatively small number of coloured 

 bracts, as in the ordinary form, we have here a crown 

 of leaves as bright in colour as usual, but much more 

 numerous, owing to the repeated branching of the 

 flower-stem. The original Poinsettia was discovered 

 in Mexico by M. Poinsette, and came into the hands 

 of Mr. Buist, of Philadelphia. Mr. McNab, the 

 present Curator of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edin- 

 burgh, then in America, brought it thence to Edin- 

 burgh in 1834. The late Dr. Graham, Professor of 

 Botany in the University, figured and described the 

 plant in the Botanical Magazine, tab. 3493, from 

 specimens which flowered in the garden. Shortly 

 after it flowered with Dr. Neill, of Canonmills, near 

 Edinburgh, and it rapidly assumed the popularity it 

 now enjoys as a brilliant flowering winter shrub. 



Whether the present variety will be as popular as 

 the typical plant remains to be seen. Botanically 

 speaking, Poinsettia is not distinguishable from a 

 Spurge or Euphorbia ; but the garden name will pro- 

 bably never be disturbed, and it is not to be desired 

 that it should be. One inquirer asks if the bracts are 

 to, be considered part of the flower or not. This is a 



question not so simple as it seems at first sight. 

 Structurally they are not parts of the flower, but 

 physiologically they are important accessories to it, as 

 it seems most probable that their purpose is to attract 

 insects, and direct them to the nectar which exudes 

 from the flower, and so ensure the setting of the seed. 

 It would be interesting if some Mexican traveller 

 could tell us what are the insects which visit the flower 

 in that country. 



PELARGONIUM SPORTS. 

 Dr. John Denny, of Stoke Newington, writing to a 

 contemporary, says that he has a seedling Pelargonium 

 which produces flowers with sufficient difference in 

 their shades of colour to be each sent out as distinct 

 varieties. Dr. Denny states that the plant mentioned 

 grew up a single stem to the height of nine inches ; 

 then, instead of going on straight, as is mostly the 

 case with seedlings until they flower, it forked into 

 two branches, and when it flowered, the colour of the 

 flowers produced was of a lilac-pink on the one side 

 and rose-pink on the other. The cuttings that have 

 been taken off these branches have been kept under 

 different numbers, none of which have as yet flowered ; 

 so it remains to be seen if they will retain their 

 distinctive colours. There is a slight difference in the 

 habit of growth, the rose-pink side being the most 

 robust grower, and in this the cuttings exhibit the 

 character of the parent branch. I see no reason why 

 seedling plants should not produce flowers of different 

 colour from the opposite sides of the stem, as well as is 

 commonly the case as regards the foliage. Not only 

 does it frequently occur that, in seedlings bred for 

 tricoloured foliage, one side of the stem sends forth 

 green and the other variegated foliaged branches ; but 

 I once saw a seedling plant which produced golden 

 tricoloured foliage on the one side and silver tri- 

 coloured foliage on the other. It would be well to 

 watch and note whether this tendency of the Pelar- 

 gonium to sport as regards the colour of its flowers at 

 the present time is occurring generally. It seems 

 also to be sporting in England and on the Continent 

 into doubleness also. At the time Mr. Grieve raised 

 his first tricoloured foliage varieties, the Pelar- 

 gonium showed symptoms of sporting (quite inde- 

 pendent of those bred from the variegated parents) 

 into variegation both in England and on the Continent 

 at the same time. These facts, as regards the changes 



