Plate 151. 



BERTOLONIA SUPERBISSIMA. 



Bertolonia siqierbissima is one of the most charmingly beautiful of all variegated plants, 

 its broad, lustrous, strongly-ribbed Melastomaceous leaves being superbly marked with 

 bright rose colour in a series of bold spots and fine sprinklings arranged longitudinally 

 down the leaves. It received a first-class certificate from the Royal Horticultural Society 

 on June 4th, 1873, and a similar award from the Royal Botanic Society on June 19th, 1872. 

 The Melastomacea, to which natural order our plant belongs, grow in tropical America ; a few 

 advance into North America, none have been found in Chili, whilst a few inhabit Asia and 

 Africa. As the members of the genus Bertolonia are found wild in dense Brazilian forests, it 

 is therefore almost needless to say that the plant here illustrated requires a stove temperature 

 for its proper cultivation, though it is said to be somewhat impatient of damp. The genus 

 Bertolonia contains many fine foliage plants, some of which have been illustrated in former 

 numbers of this Magazine ; the leaves are velvety, deeply ribbed, variously marked, and purple 

 underneath. Mr. Bull informs us that ladies often refer to B. superbissima as the "Jewel 

 Plant," and we must confess that we consider it thoroughly well deserves this popular name, 

 for it far exceeds in beauty any other member of the genus known to us. The green of the 

 leaves is suffused with a light but rich olive tint, and the innumerable carmine spots with 

 which the foliage is thickly studded give it the appearance of being set with rubies, whilst 

 the general habit of the plant is a model of compactness. We have only to say in 

 conclusion that the entire stock of this, one of the most superbly beautiful of variegated 

 plants, is in the hands of Mr. William Bull, of Chelsea, from one of whose plants our figure 

 was taken. 



Plate 152. 

 ANTHERICUM VARIEGATUM. 



This truly beautiful variegated plant, which we have now the pleasure to figure for the 

 first time, was introduced from the Cape of Good Hope in 1873, and when exhibited at the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, under the provisional name A. Williamsii, on November 11th 

 last, was most deservedly awarded a first-class certificate. The stock is in the possession of 

 Mr. B. S. Williams, of Upper Holloway, to whom we are indebted for the opportunity of 

 figuring it ; and we are informed by that gentleman that the subject of our Plate is quite 

 hardy, and therefore invaluable as a decorative plant for the garden and dinner-table. It is 

 of dwarf habit, never growing more than a foot or eighteen inches in height, and has 

 handsomely variegated broad grass-like green foliage distinctly margined and striped with 

 creamy white. It has been compared by many to Pandanus Veitchii, the well-known and 

 splendidly variegated Screw Pine, from the South Sea Islands, which it resembles in a great 

 measure, the variegation and habit being precisely the same. The genus Anthericum, bearing 

 racemes or panicles of white flowers, belongs to the natural order Liliacea, and the plants 

 are peculiar to Central and Southern Europe, South Africa, and New Holland. The plant 

 named St. Bruno's Lily is well-known, and this species when in bloom is one of the most 

 charming of spring-flowering plants, either for pot culture or for a warm sheltered border ; 

 it has narrow glaucous foliage, and erect spikes of delicately scented pearly-white blossoms, 

 which should be sheltered from the wind in planting out. One of the most curious species 

 (not hardy) is the viviparous Anthericum (or Clilorophyturri) comosum ; this plant, well known 

 in nurseries, is well suited for cultivation in living rooms, but does best in a stove or green- 

 house, being unsuited for planting out. 



