THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES.] MARCH, 1S75. 



FLOWER SHOWS. 



At the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, held 

 on January 20th last, Messrs. Veitch and Sons were 

 awarded a first-class certificate for a new hybrid Pitcher 

 Plant, with the pitchers oblong- in shape, and spotted 

 and barred with red, the parents being Nepenthes 

 Rafflesiana, and an unnamed species with spotted 

 pitchers; an unrivalled collection of Cyclamens came 

 from the same firm. At the same meeting Mr. 

 William Bull, of Chelsea, sent a magnificent group of 

 Cycadaceous Plants, including Zamia, Dion, Encepha- 

 lastos, and Macrozamia, and an extremely elegant plant, 

 named Zamia Roezlii, with two to four dark glossy leaf- 

 lets on long, slender, cylindrical, slightly spinous stipes. 

 The young foliage of the latter is of a rich olive- 

 green colour, and the plant is so elegant and ornamental 

 that it is likely to ultimately become a great favourite 

 for dinner-table decoration. Mr. Wells contributed a 

 good collection of Orchids and Foliage Plants. And 

 Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son sent a group of 

 seedling Hippeastrums. We are able to give a portrait 

 of one of this firm's tine seedlings with the present 

 number. 



At a meeting of the same Societ}-, held on Feb. 17, 

 Messrs. Veitch and Sons again sent a fine collection of 

 Cyclamens, and were awarded a first-class certificate for 

 Ahitilon Darwinii, a plant with orange-scarlet flowers, 

 and said to be an improvement on A. pictum. The 

 same firm received a second-class certificate for Odonlo- 

 glossum Warseewiczii, a pale-flowered species, and after 

 the style of the white variety of 0. Roezlii. 



NEW FERNS. 

 The forthcoming season will probably see the advent of 

 several new Ferns of great beauty. Messrs. Veitch and 

 Sons have no less than four new and rare species of Adian- 

 tum, and a new species of Platycerium, three feet in width, 

 and some four or five feet long; whilst Mr. Williams, of 

 Upper Holloway, is sending out his new Adiantum gracil- 

 linum, together with Polystiehum lepidocaulon, Platy- 

 cerium Wallichii, and a new and interesting viviparous 

 variety of Scolopendrium vulgare, of great interest. 



NEW DRACzENA. 



A fixe new and undescribed species of Draeama, says 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle, is now flowering in the Palm- 



[No. 39, 



| house at Kew, and will doubtless shortly be published. 



I This specimen is about twelve feet high, a single stem, 

 supporting a fine crown of leaves, from among which 

 spring several axillary panicles. The leaves are more 

 than a yard long, linear-lanceolate, and spread with a 

 gentle curve, showing on the under side an ornamental 



I pale yellow quill-like midrib. The panicles are erect, 

 with spicate branches, either single or in twos or threes, 

 from the same point, bearing small flowers in dense 

 fascicles. They are pale yellow, and have a peculiar, 

 but not agreeable smell. It is most likely an African 



i species. A plant sent by Mr. G. Mann, in 186:2, is 



! apparently the same. The nearest relative is D. fragrans, 

 native of Guinea and Sierra Leone, of which a fine 



! specimen near at hand is coming into flower. Of this 

 the panicles are all terminal, with few branches and 

 reddish heads of flower-buds. The leaves are about two 

 feet in length, and are without a coloured midrib. It 

 may be worth remark, that D. latifolia is frequently 

 cultivated for D. fragrans. 



CATTLEYA GIGAS. 

 j A long letter, from which we make some extracts, has 

 recently been published in the Gardeners' Chronicle, from 

 I Mr. Gustavus Wallis, the original discoverer of Cattlej'a 

 j gigas, a plant we illustrated on the last plate of our 

 Volume for 1874'. " Having not only been the disco- 

 verer," says Mr. Wallis, "of this most wonderful Orchid, 

 but also having sent it three times to Mr. Linden, and to 

 Messrs. Veitch, of Chelsea, I am enabled to say some- 

 thing about it ; and I think it only fair that my services 

 as to its discovery should be known : — 



" When travelling, in the year 186S, from Medellin 

 I to Frontino (in Columbia, South America) I had the 

 ! great pleasure to meet with Cattleya gigas just when 

 most desirous of discovering a novelty. I confess I had 

 | become tired of observing that a long series of forms, 

 hitherto met with, proved to be mere varieties of one 

 I type, as C. quadricolor, C. trianse, and C. choecensis, 

 I when I discovered this brilliant Cattleya, just after 

 j having most fortunately met with Odontoglossum 

 vexillarium. I found also a fine yellow-blooming Cattleya, 

 ■ probably a variety of C. Dowiana, not to mention 

 hundreds of other valuable plants, gathered on that and 

 other trips to the same place. Frontino since that 

 time has become famous as a rich Orchid producing field. 

 Mr. Chesterton went there subsequently, especially 

 charged with the mission of acquiring a great lot of 



