Plate 171. 



CYPRIPEDIUM JAPONICUM. 



Our thanks are due to the New Plant and Bulb Company, Lion Walk, Colchester, for 

 sending us the first specimen of this hardy Orchid which bloomed in this country ; and our 

 coloured plate is an exact representation of the fragrant and beautiful plant kindly left with 

 us for portraiture. A figure in black and white was published from the same individual 

 plant, in the Gardeners Chronicle for May 15th last, where we read that " this very singular 

 species has, up till lately, only been known by the imperfect figure in Thunberg's Icones 

 Plant. Jap. Dec. i. ; tab. 1 ; by the figure in Blume's work ; and by a coloured figure in 

 the ' Plore des Serres,' copied from a Japanese drawing. It is no wonder," says the writer, 

 " that, on looking at the latter drawing, some may have considered it a somewhat 

 imaginative production on the part of the Japanese artist." The New Plant and Bulb 

 Company, writing of this beautiful and hardy terrestrial Orchid, say it is of very easy culture, 

 and that they have tried it in various soils, but that which is found most suitable, in 

 reference to pot culture, is a light sandy loam, giving the plant plenty of water when it 

 commences growth, and keeping it rather dry during the winter. The collector writes, that 

 lie found a Bamboo wood full of it, and that the Cypripedium grows best in moist Bamboo 

 groves. This led to the cultivation of the plant in pots, and the selection of a suitable cool 

 spot in the Colchester grounds, where a border was prepared for this and other American 

 Cypripediums. Here were placed several hundreds, and those in pots were put into the 

 New Zealand Tree Fernery — a lofty structure, with plenty of shade, where the thermometer 

 rarely exceeded 40° during the winter, and 00° during the spring and early summer 

 months. 



Plate 172. 



ABUTILGN DARWIN IJ. 



This highly ornamental plant is, say Messrs. Veitch and Sons — to whom we are 

 indebted for the opportunity of figuring it — of continental origin, and was introduced to 

 gardens by the famous house above mentioned in the spring of last year. Abutilon Darwinii 

 is well distinguished from A. striatum by its large and truly handsome tricuspidate leaves 

 and better shaped flowers. It is exceedingly fioriferous, producing a continuous succession 

 of flowers through the whole season, in winter as well as in summer, and frequently as many 

 as five flowers are borne in one axil ; it will therefore prove a valuable addition to our winter- 

 flowering plants. Few plants are more easy of culture than Abutilon Darwinii. It 

 should be grown in a mixture of two-thirds loam and one-third peat, and with the usual 

 attention as regards air and water. The culture of the plant is, however, so simple, and its 

 propagation so easy, that it seems really unnecessary to give any lengthened account of it ; 

 bat the excellence of the plant is such that it will doubtless soon be in everybody's hands. 

 It strikes very readily from cuttings, and begins to produce its axillary flowers in a very 

 young state, so that flowering plants of it may be regulated to almost any size. The in- 

 dividual bell-shaped, pendulous flowers, as may be seen from our figure, are of considerable 

 size, and possess great beauty, the petals being of a brilliant scarlet-orange colour, elegantly 

 veined with deep carmine ; and the foliage, highly ornamental as it is in outline, is quite in 

 character with the flowers. All the AbutUons are more or less handsome in character, and 

 they naturally inhabit the West Indies, Siberia, and Piedmont ; and the flower of one 

 species — viz., A. esculentum, is used as a vegetable in Brazil. 



