Plate 145. 



TYD.EA— " MADAME HEINE/' 



It is but seldom that we are able to illustrate this truly handsome genus of Gesneraceous 

 plants, and perhaps never before has any new variety been in the market equal to this new 

 form, which has recently originated in France, and which is now in the possession of 

 Mr. William Bull of Chelsea. Tydcea Madame Heine is a splendid variety, which produces 

 fine large showy flowers with a clear carmine coloured tube; the lower lobes creamy white, 

 heavily striped and marked with spots of intense purple-brown, shading off to purple- 

 carmine, the upper lobes being bordered with amaranth. Like the Bollea figured on Plate 147? 

 the members of the genus Tydcea naturally inhabit New Granada, and the various species 

 are often referred to in our gardens under the old name of Achimenes ; but we consider 

 (at least from a floricultural point of view) that Tydsea is sufficiently distinct from Achimenes 

 proper to warrant its always maintaining its generic name. A reference to Plates 11 and 

 540 of our old series (where three other varieties of Tydsea are given) will show our plant 

 to be a decided novelty and improvement on former Tydaeas, both in its peculiar ground 

 colour and its intense purple-brown spottings. The original of our plant was flowering in 

 full beauty at Mr. Bull's nursery at Chelsea in the month of November last ; and this habit 

 of winter-flowering, when most stove and greenhouse plants have long passed their best, 

 forms one of the Tydcea' s chief recommendations. Like the Achimenes itself, the Tydsea 

 delights, when growing, in heat and moist warm air, and the plants should be grown in 

 a moist close stove pit in a light compost composed of leaf-mould, sand, and peat. The 

 Tydcea having a tuberous root-stock is well suited for table decoration. 



Plate 146. 



NEW JAPANESE CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



Since the abandonment of the old " Versailles Nurseries" at Hammersmith, and the 

 death of Mr. John Salter, we have seen no Chrysanthemums at the various flower shows 

 displaying such an advance in cultural excellence and newness as would warrant us in 

 figuring them in our Magazine. For several years past, however, it must be confessed (and 

 that without the slightest disparagement to other most meritorious exhibitors of Chrysan- 

 themums) that Messrs. Veitch and Sons, of Chelsea, to whom we are indebted for the 

 originals of the two Plates now given, have taken a very foremost position. The Exhibition 

 of these plants at South Kensington on November 11th last was one of the most perfect and 

 representative ever seen in London ; for at that display Messrs. Veitch and Sons, and several 

 other exhibitors (notably Mr. Cutbush of Highgate), sent a complete collection of all the 

 best known varieties in the highest state of culture, so that any one desiring to see an 

 exhibition of all the most approved varieties of this handsome winter plant could there esti- 

 mate their relative merits at a glance. There are few plants less symmetrical in outline than 

 Japanese Chrysanthemums, yet these plants are esteemed in consideration of this very 

 irregularity of form, which is often again combined with colour as peculiar as the outlines 

 are erratic. Messrs. Veitch and Sons inform us that, fine as their plants were last year, they 

 hope to get them still finer in future, as, owing to the weakness of their cuttings in the 

 spring of 1874, their plants did not come up to the high standard they aim at. Both the 

 fine plants now figured, viz. — 1, Gold Thread, and 2, Cossack, were awarded a first-class 

 certificate by the Eoyal Horticultural Society on November 11th last. Their habit and colour 

 will be understood by reference to the Plate. 



