Plate 159. 



SONERILA HENDERSON! 



Our Plate represents a charmingly variegated hothouse plant, now being sent out by 

 Messrs. E. G. Henderson and Son, of the Wellington Nurseries, St. John's Wood. Sonerila 

 Hendersoni is of dwarf and neatly compact habit, measuring on an average some six to 

 eight inches in height, and about ten to twelve in diameter. It is in the style of the well 

 known 8. margariiacea, but in comparison with the lax thin growth of that species, the Messrs. 

 Hendersons' form is in favourable contrast. The subject of our present Plate grows with a 

 remarkably neat outline, is closely branched, and of uniformly healthy and vigorous growth. 

 Its finely expanded ovate leaA^es are most elegantly studded over with silvery- white or pearly 

 spots upon a rich dark olive-green ground, the under surface of the leaves being pale 

 green in colour, marbled and veined with crimson. The abundant rosy -lilac flowers, with 

 their three singular and elegant lemon-coloured and arrow-shaped anthers, are freely pro- 

 duced above the leaves on purplish-crimson pedicels, and produce a very lively and 

 graceful effect. This truly beautiful plant proves under cultivation to be far easier in its 

 management than any other known species of Sonerila, for it requires no artificial treatment 

 either in soil or situation beyond that accorded to plants of a similar character. For neat 

 habit, picturesque effect, and adaptation to the most limited collection of plants, either in 

 house culture or for use as decorative groups in temporary drawing-room baskets or artistic 

 flower-vases, it is unequalled by any other plant of miniature growth. Besides iS. Hen- 

 dersoni two other varieties of great beauty are now being distributed by Messrs. E. G. 

 Henderson and Son — viz., S. argentm and S. marmorata. The first has a fine silvery 

 surface — in fact, the foliage is almost one unbroken surface of silver. In conclusion, we 

 may say that both these plants and'the one we now illustrate were awarded a first-class cer- 

 tificate by the Eoyal Horticultural Society last summer. 



s Plate 160. 

 ANTHURIUM PATINII. 



This new species of Anthurium, named after M. C. Patin (Mr. Williams, collector), which 

 is now being sent out by Mr. B. S. Williams, of Upper Holloway, is a strikingly handsome plant, 

 bearing an abundance of snow-white blooms, with spathes three and a half inches long by 

 one and a half broad, which are produced on very slender stems ; the spadix is creamy-lemon 

 in colour, made up of six-partite flowers ; the leaves are lanceolate, and slightly tapering 

 towai-ds the point, the edges being beautifully undulated, and the sheathing leaf-stalks 

 being furnished with white scarious wings. A. Pafinii would seem to find its nearest ally in 

 A. jloribundum, from which, however, it abundantly differs in all its parts ; both plants, 

 however, were discovered by Patin, in New Grenada, and the latter is at present by no means so 

 abundant as one could wish, or its merits deserve. The plant from which our Plate was taken 

 measured two feet in height and the same in diameter, and bore a profusion of snow-white 

 spathes. It succeeds well in a compost of loam and leaf soil, and requires an abundant 

 supply of water with a stove temperature. As regards its neighbour, A. Jloribundum, which 

 may now be seen in great perfection in Mr. Williams's nurseries, at Upper Holloway, we 

 may say that it is a handsome, compact growing plant, with leaves very much broader than 

 those of A. Pafinii, and ornamented with a central stripe of white. On account of its 

 profuse blooming qualities it cannot fail to recommend itself to all lovers of flowers. In 

 justice to both plants, it ought to be said^that their spathes retain their snow-white purity 

 of colour for a long time in full beauty. 



