44 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
sunk in the floral leaves, and a large spreading limb of four segments, with a beautiful lilac colour. 
They appear singly at the end of the numerous and closely packed fastigiate twigs which terminate 
the branches. Altogether it is really a pretty shrub when well managed ; but amid the mass of 
more novel acquisitions it has fallen into unmerited neglect. It deserves more attention. Bot. 
Mag., 4143. 
Cymbi'dium ochroleu'cum. This plant was formerly figured in the Bot. Mag. as OrnitMdium 
album, under which name, the present, and that of Camaridium ochroleucum, it has been known in 
our stoves for several years. It is a product of Deraerara, " and has a very singular mode of 
growth, producing its distichous flowers in a leafy spike, quite distinct from the pseudo-bulbs, 
which themselves originate from the axils of leafy branches." The flowers of the leafy spike open 
in succession, and are of a creamy- white colour, with a spotted yellow lip, and highly fragrant ; 
but, as they are seldom developed in any considerable quantity at one time — only two expanding 
at once on the same spike, they do not create any remarkably showy effect : nevertheless, it is 
worth cultivation, and on account of its spreading and much branched habit, it should always be 
fixed to a block, or planted in a basket of rough turf, rotten wood, charcoal, and moss, or a mixture 
of similar materials, and suspended from the roof. It has a fine and copious foliage. Bot. Mag., 
4141. 
Dise'mma aura'ntia. With the same specific title here applied, this somewhat showy twining 
shrub, has also been referred by other botanists to Murucuja and Passiflora. Sir William Hooker 
says, " The genus Disemma (from dis, double, and semma, a crown,) was established by Labillar- 
diere in his Sertum Austro-C aledonicum, upon this very plant, a native of New Caledonia, and is 
readily distinguished, on the one hand from Passiflora by the presence of the membranous, 
truncated crown of Murucuja, and from the latter by the outer filamentous crown of Passiflora. 
The species are all of Australian origin, and include, besides the present, D. Herbertiana, D. 
coccinea, and D. adianlifolia ; the latter from Norfolk Island." A specimen supplied to the Royal 
Botanic Gardens at Kew, by T. Bidwell, Esq., and there cultivated in a greenhouse, flowered in 
July, 1844. " It is easily cultivated in a pot, with wire trellis, and is remarkable, like D. adianli- 
folia, for the flowers being nearly white in bud, and on first expanding gradually assuming a yellow 
or tawny tint, and finally becoming a brick red. The sepals have a singularly broad keel, or deep 
wing at the back." It is a perfectly smooth plant, with the habit of the common Passiflora ccertilea. 
The leaves are broad and deeply three-cleft, supported on petioles which have two rounded glands 
on their under surface at the junction with the lamina. Bot. Mag., 4140. 
Disoca'ctus bifo'rmis. In the miscellaneous matter of the Botanical Register of 1843, the 
singular plant to which Dr. Lindley now gives the preceding appellative was provisionally 
referred to the genus Cereus. From that family it is readily distinguished by the number of 
sepals being constantly four, and that of the petals the same, — a peculiarity which has been taken 
as the distinctive character of the genus, and in allusion to which the name has been formed from 
dis, twice ; isos, equal ; and cactos. It " connects the tribes of Phyllanthidse and Rhipsalidse, 
resembling the former in its general habit, large showy flowers, and many-seeded fruit ; and 
claiming kindred with the latter by virtue of its equal parted flowers, definite stamens, and 
permanent flowers, which shrivel up and cling to the end of the fruit when ripe." Mr. Booth, 
of Car clew, gives the following account of it : — " It formed part of a collection transmitted by 
George Ure Skinner, Esq., from Honduras, in 1839, to Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P. It 
forms a graceful bush, from two to three feet high, but will no doubt attain a much larger size if 
trained against a trellis, and sufficient room allowed for it to spread." The main stems are round, 
and about the thickness of a large quill ; the others are winged and crenate, those carrying the 
flowers being more lengthened, and having a drooping character. Only one flower is produced 
at the extremity of each branch, and these are of a deep pink colour, and of short duration, but 
open in succession for a considerable time. They are succeeded by beautiful little blood-coloured 
berries, shaped like an egg (but scarcely so large as the common sloe), which ripen in September, 
and contribute as much ornament as the blossoms do in spring. These have a rather pleasant, 
sweetish, sub-acid flavour, and are free from the small spines on the surface, with which the fruit 
of most cactaceous plants are beset. A turfy loam mixed with river sand and leaf mould to keep 
it open, forms an excellent compost ; and during the growing season the plant should be supplied 
rather copiously with water, and kept in a low-house or pit, with a moist atmosphere, and well 
