FLORICULTURAL NOTICES, 
163 
well-tarred slabs, the interior with a plaster and lath facing, and the outside 
packed up with reeds, heath, or rough stones ; after which soil or gravel should 
be thrown up against it, so as effectually to keep out frost. Rough boards nailed 
to corner-posts in like manner would make a convenient box ; and by fastening a 
few slabs horizontally to posts set up along the outside, so as to leave a space of 
two or three inches between them and the board, to be filled up with reeds, heath, 
or wheat-straw, in winter, they will be as warm and as dry as a brick pit. In 
summer, the outside covering may be dispensed with, and the ventilation improved 
by having some of the boards on each side swung on hinges, or furnished with 
sliding ventilators. 
It is advisable in the erection of brick-pits to leave small spaces in the back 
and front for slate ventilators, to run in grooves of the same material. These will 
enable the culturist to keep his pits drier in winter, and they will also be useful 
in summer, when unpropitious weather renders it imprudent to remove the 
top-lights. 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
NEW OR BEAUTIFUL PLANTS FIGURED IN THE LEADING BOTANICAL PERIODICALS 
FOR JULY. 
Abu'tilon PvEOni^flo v rum. This plant is one of the discoveries of Mr. Lofob, in the Organ 
mountains of Brazil. It flowered in a stove at the nursery of Messrs. Veitch and Sons, Exeter, 
last January. It is a tall shrub or small tree, with downy branches, and ovate pointed leaves 
from four to six inches long. The flowers are large, and of a rosy red colour. It will rank 
with A. striatum and A. Bedfordianum. Bot. Mag. 4170. 
Bego'nia albo-cocci'nea. " One of the most lovely of this beautiful genus, which we cannot 
too much recommend for cultivation to all admirers of hot-house plants, blooming throughout the 
spring and summer months ; the flowers numerous, white and coral-red. Our plants were raised 
in the Royal Gardens of Kew, from seeds sent from India by — Strachan, Esq., of Twickenham, 
Surrey." It has no perceptible stem ; the stout red coloured leaf-stalks spring from a short, 
thick column, and are from two to six inches long. The leaves vary as much in length ; they 
are peltate and obliquely ovate, with a very obtuse extremity ; their texture is between fleshy 
and coriaceous. The flower-scape is of the same bright red colour as the petiole, and rises about 
a foot or eighteen inches, branching above into a loose panicle of numerous beautiful blossoms, 
internally pale-blush coloured, almost white, and externally a rich scarlet. Bot. Mag. 4172. 
Cro'ci autumna^les. We have here a group of eight Autumnal Crocuses. Crocus Damascenus 
is a greyish flower, with blue feathery stripes, found on arid calcareous mountains near Damascus 
— the most southern habitation of Croci yet ascertained. " O. Byzantinus flowers without leaves 
in September and October, in the woods of Bannat, and the neighbourhood of Crajova in 
Wallachia. It was cultivated in England 200 years ago by Parkinson." The most remarkable 
feature it possesses is the smallness of the petals compared with the sepals. C. Tournefortianus 
is a pale flower, rendered remarkable by its milk-white anthers. It is allied to C. Ionicus, and 
has similar bulb-coats. C. Cambessedianus is a singular little autumnal Crocus, with white 
flowers, peculiar to Majorca. « C. Medius grows in the mountain meadows near Varese in 
Liguria, and some parts of the Riviera of Genoa. It forms a link between C. Byzantinus and 
C. Pyre nee us. C. Cartwrightianus, and C. Cartwrightianus var. Crceticus, are both pretty 
small flowered plants — the former with purple and the latter with straw-coloured flowers. C. 
Clusianus is a pl%nt similar in size, with a pale yellow tube, and a violet limb." BoL Reg., 37. 
