Plate 155. 



NEW CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



The two Chrysanthemums, Purple King and Duchess of Edinburgh, here figured, were 

 selected 1'rom the rich collection exhibited by Messrs. Veitch and Sons at the Exhibition of 

 the Eoyal Horticultural Society last autumn. They both belong to the Japanese section, 

 and are remarkable in a high degree both for beauty of form and rich coloration. No. 1 , 

 Turtle King, is a model of compact and handsome habit, the petals being all elegantly and 

 evenly recurved, whilst the colour is new in Chrysanthemums, being a pure and luminous 

 purple of a shade between the richest magenta and mauve. This is confessedly a plant of 

 the highest character, and equals the Dahlia in evenness of outline and deep rich colour. 

 No. 2, Duchess of Edinburgh, is of a totally different aspect, and has a character quite new in 

 this section of garden Chrysanthemums, in the distinct and well-marked central disc of 

 tubular florets. The bloom of this plant is delicate rose-purple in colour, gradually passing 

 into a harmonious primrose tint. In habit it is the reverse of the last, but it has a beauty 

 peculiar to itself in its elegantly pendulous and irregular outer florets, combined with the 

 more symmetrical purple and primrose florets of the centre. Now that Messrs. Veitch and 

 Sons have taken up the cultivation of these plants with such energy and success great 

 future advances may well be expected; it is therefore with feelings of deep regret that Ave 

 see the announcement (as these lines are passing through the press), that the Chrysanthemum 

 Show of the Eoyal Horticultural Society, advertised to be held in the Conservatory and 

 Arcades on the 10th of November next, is abandoned. All horticulturists interested in the 

 culture and improvements of the Chrysanthemum must therefore make a point of visiting 

 the nurseries. 



Plate 156. 



ACALYPHA MARGINATA. 



This truly handsome plant has quite recently been introduced into England from Java 

 by Mr. B. S. Williams, of Upper Holloway. Acalypha belongs to the large natural order 

 Euphorbiacece, comes under the section Eucalyphea, and is a close neighbour with the common 

 Mercurialis of our hedges. To the Eupl/orbiacea belong many of our finely variegated and 

 ornamental-leaved plants, as the Crotons, Phyllanthus, &c. The introduction of this 

 novelty is a proof that the treasures of this natural order are at present by no means 

 exhausted. Mr. Williams, who holds the entire stock of the plant, and to whose courtesy 

 we are indebted for the opportunity of presenting a figure of it to our readers, informs us 

 that it succeeds well in a compost of peat and loam, with a little sand, and that it is pro- 

 pagated by cuttings in the spring. When started, and placed in a stove temperature, it 

 makes (as our plate well shows) a superbly ornamental object. Members of the genus 

 Acalypha are found in all tropical and subtropical countries, being most abundant in 

 tropical America. Dr. Seemann, in his " Flora Vitiensis," describes eleven species, and many 

 varieties, and informs us that the natives of the Fiji Islands often plant about their houses 

 the Acalypha Willcesiana of our gardens as an embellishment object, together with Dracaena 

 ferrea, Codimum variegation, North op an ax fructicosum, &c. ; and use the bark of another Acalypha 

 as a remedy for rheumatism. Acalypha marginata, both as regards habit and rich variety of 

 marginal colour, is a strongly individualized plant ; the form of the leaf is very handsome, 

 ancl an extra charm is given to its outline and colour by the elegant fringe of hairs with which 

 it is clad, the long narrow bracts at its base, and the angle at which the petiole is joined to 

 the stem. 



