NEW 



EXHIBITIONS. 



At the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society 

 held at South Kensington on November 13th last, 

 Mr. John Wills was awarded a gold medal for a 

 magnificent collection — three dozen in number — of 

 new hybrid Dracaenas. For a species of Cattleya, 

 under the name of C. Minas, Mr. Denning, gardener 

 to Lord Londesborough, was awarded a first-class 

 certificate ; this is a strikingly handsome and very 

 distinct plant, with good habit and a bloom of 

 pale magenta, furnished with a sulphur-tinted throat. 

 Mr. Croucher, gardener to J. T. Peacock, Esq., 

 received a similar award for Echeveria packyphy- 

 toides, a very distinct upright-growing plant with 

 oblong leaves. A first-class certificate was also given 

 to Mr. R Dean for Echeveria rotundifolia, a seedling 

 from E. glauco-metallica crossed with E. secunda- 

 major, a flat-growing form with a metallic green hue. 

 From Messrs. Veitch and Sons came a collection of 

 the hybrid plants for which their house is now famous, 

 including hybrid Rhododendra, Nepenthes, and 

 Orchids, for which a gold medal was most deservedly 

 awarded. Messrs. Wm. Paul and Son sent a large 

 collection of branches from berry-bearing and 

 coloured-leaved trees and shrubs. On this and the 

 following day the great Chrysanthemum Show 

 was held in the Conservatory, an exhibition to 

 which we shall refer more in detail when we figure 

 some of the best blooms exhibited. 



AGAVE VICTORIA REGIN2E. 



Under the above name Mr. Thomas Moore has 

 recently described for the first time a remarkably 

 handsome new species of Agave. The description 

 and illustration appear in the Gardeners? Chronicle 

 for October 16th last, and the name was given by 

 the express permission of her Majesty the Queen. 

 Mr. Moore thus describes this new plant : — " Agave 

 Yictorioe Reginae, sp.n. Stemless ; leaves thick, very 

 rigid, deep green, above fifty in a rosulate tuft, 

 straight, short (six inches long), triquetrous, gibbose 

 at the base, tapered to an acutely carinate point, 

 which, as well as the spineless margin, is white and 

 pulverulent, so that when pressed together in the 



[No. 48. 



undeveloped condition the edges leave white lines 

 or ridges on the surface of the adjoining leaves ; 

 surface canaliculate ; from the apex of the leaf is 

 produced a curved, terminal, dark-coloured spine, 

 three-fourths of an inch long, and a few small 

 subsidiary ones on either side. Inflorescence 

 unknown." Mr. Moore further says : — " This remark- 

 ably distinct species of Agave was first seen in public 

 at the International Exhibition held in Cologne in 

 September last, and was alluded to by us in our 

 report of that meeting as ' a most charming new 

 Agave,' shown by M. L. de Smet, of Ghent, and 

 having more the aspect of a Leuchtenbergia than 

 of an Agave. The entire stock of Lhe plant, which 

 was very limited, has been secured for his unique 

 collection by J. T. Peacock, Esq., of Sudbury House, 

 Hammersmith, by whom the largest plant, which 

 measures about sixteen inches across, was exhibited 

 at the October meeting of the Floral Committee. On 

 this occasion it received the unanimous award of a 

 first-class certificate, and was recommended to be 

 especially marked by the decoration of a gold medal. 

 Probably the specimen exhibited was not fully 

 grown, but still the plant does not appear to be one 

 of large size. Its deep green, sombre leaves are 

 somewhat dorsally compressed, the surface being 

 canaliculate, about six to eight inches long and one 

 and a half inch wide near the gibbose base, from 

 which they narrow upwards towards the acutely 

 carinate point, and terminate in a stiff, stout, 

 blackish-brown spine. The leaves are margined by 

 a narrow band of four lines wide of white, consisting 

 of a pulverulent matter, which marks the surface 

 of the adjoining leaves when they lie in contact in 

 the undeveloped state. It is certainly one of the 

 most distinct Agaves in cultivation, and as regards 

 the peculiar type of beauty exhibited by this tribe 

 of plants it must be regarded as a gem of the first 

 water. The plant belongs to the group with spicate 

 inflorescence, its affinity being with A. filifera." 



After this publication M. Carriere, in the Revue 

 Horticole, claimed precedence for a so-called prior 

 name — viz., A. Consideranti — for this novelty. Mr. 

 Peacock, the purchaser of the plants, however, has 

 written about the matter in the following terms : — 

 "The plant was shown as a new unnamed species 

 at Cologne, and I subsequently bought of the 

 exhibitor on that occasion, M. L. de Smet, what 

 purported to be the whole of the existing stock of 

 this plant. It was purchased without any reservation 



THE FLORAL MAGAZINE. 



SERIES.] DECEMBER, 1875. 



