96 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
under the name TuUpa suaveolens syhestris in 
one of the early volumes of the Acta Horti 
Petropolitani. In doing so he acted on the mis- 
taken assumption that this new and most dis- 
tinct Tulip presented the wild form of the 
common sweet-scented red yellow-margined 
Duke Van Tfioll Tulip, named T. suaveolens by 
Roth — a German botanist who lived at Vege- 
sack near Bremen in the early part of the 
nineteenth century. As the Duke Vaii Tholl 
Tulip had been grown in Holland from time 
immemorial under this name, and its origin 
had never been disclosed, the raising of so old 
a kind to specific rank under a new Latin 
name was an action entirely to be condemned, 
and one wonders that subsequent authors have 
all blindly followed suit. Roth's original dried 
specimens are still preserved in the Oldenburg 
State Museum, and these are unmistakably 
the old Duke Vafi Tholl Tulip and nothing 
else. On further studying this wild plant from 
Central Asia, Dr. Regel became convinced that 
this Tulip, provisionally named by him T. 
suaveolens sylvestris had nothing in common 
with the Duke Van Tholl, and that it deserved 
specific rank as entirely new. It was therefore j 
his intention to rename and describe it as such, 
but he unfortunately died without doing so. 
Having learned these facts through the kind- 
ness of Dr. Robert Regel of St Petersburg , 
(son of the late Dr. Ed. Regel) I decided to 
myself to rename this interesting plant, of 
which Mr. van Tubergen has now received a 
fine supply through his collector. It will 
therefore appear in future as T. praestans, in 
place of the first misleading and cumbersome 
name. It has indeed already figured at the 
spring meetings of the Royal Horticultural 
Society as Tulipa praestans, finding an ever \ 
increasing number of admirers. The character- | 
istics of this brilliant and early-flowering kind j 
are as follows : — the bulb is rounded, with a 
particularly thick, parchment-like skin. The 
flower-stem varies from a few inches to 
feet or more in height, and is covered, as is 
also the foliage, with minute, thickly set, white 
hairs. The flowers are either produced singly 
or in clusters of six to ten on a single scape, 
with the peculiarity that the buds are coloured 
in orange red on their first appearance in the 
centre of the foliage. The flowers, of medium 
size, are of an uncommon light vermilion- 
scarlet, with somewhat pointed flower-seg- 
ments of evenly uniform shape. This is cer- 
tainly one of the most remarkable Tulips ever 
introduced, and it also happily possesses so 
vigorous a constitution as to assure its per- 
manent place in our gardens. 
JOHN HOOG. 
Haarlem, Holland. 
BRACHYGLOTTIS REPANDA. 
This handsome large-leaved shrub from 
New Zealand has, since its introduction 
in 1896, been also known under the 
names Se7iecio Foster!^ S. Georgii^ and 
Cine7^aria 7'epanda. Its full botanical 
description appears on page 163 of Sir 
J. D. Hooker's "Flora of New Zealand." 
The plant shown has been growing at 
Kingswear , South Devon, for seven years 
and is 5 feet 6 inches in height and 
almost as much in its greatest diameter. 
Though vigorous and healthy it has so 
far shown no sign of flower, but I have 
the authority of Mr. W. E. Gumbleton 
