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FLOBJCULTURAL NOTICES. 
NEW OR BEAUTIFUL PLANTS FIGURED IN THE LEADING BOTANICAL PERIODICALS 
FOR AUGUST. 
Achime v nes argyrosti'gma. Sent from the Sierra Nivada de Sta. Marta in New Grenada, 
amongst other novelties, by one of the collectors for Kew Gardens. Like A. picta it is remark- 
able for its peculiar and highly-interesting leaves, which are large, of an obtuse elliptic form, 
with saw edges, the upper surface of a rich deep velvety -green colour, marked with scattered 
white spots, like Begonia argyroslzgma, and the under surface tinged with purple. Great 
expectations were entertained regarding the beauty of the blossoms, partly through the con- 
sciousness that it belonged to a genus comprising so many magnificent flowers. Hence, it 
occasioned considerable disappointment when they appeared small, scattered, and nearly white ; 
" but as the racemes increased in length and more blossoms expanded, the plant became a 
general favourite, and is likely to continue so, for the flowers bid fair to continue the whole 
summer months." The racemes are somewhat slender and elegant, rising in considerable 
numbers from the axils of the upper leaves, which they far exceed in length, being frequently as 
much as a foot long, and covered with flowers down almost to the very base. The corolla has a 
rather short hairy tube, and an oblique two-lipped limb : the upper lip with two lobes beautifully 
mottled with red, and the lower one divided into three parts, rounded, fimbriated, and white, with 
a spot of yellow in the throat. At Kew, it has received similar treatment to the rest of the 
family ; encouraged at first in a moist and hot stove, and afterwards removed to a cooler place, in 
order to prolong the beauty of its foliage and blossoms. Doubtless it will be easily multiplied, like 
other species, by its scaly caterpillar-like tubers. Bot. Mag. 4175. 
Bolbophy'llum umbella'tum. Mentioned with doubt in our notices of last month (p. 165), 
to which the reader is referred. Dr. Lindley says it was first found in Nepal in 1821, by 
Dr. Wallich's collectors. " The column has two long horns, which have had a single tooth on the 
upper side in all the specimens examined. The pollen-masses are, as is customary in the genus, 
of very unequal size, the front pair almost concealing that behind ; and in this case are held 
together by some soft mucus, which resembles the gland of the Vandeous Orchids, but is destitute 
of its firmness and permanency." It will thrive potted in turfy heath-mould, and suspended to 
the rafters. Bot. Reg. 44. 
Callipsy^che eucrosioi v des. A curious bulb, described by the Dean of Manchester as a 
plant producing but few leaves, of a green colour, with a blade a foot long and about four inches 
wide, and a good deal tessellated and pitted. The flower-scape is of a glaucous hue, about twenty- 
eight inches long, tapering upwards, and carrying about ten radiating flowers, with a green tube 
curved downwards, and a somewhat scarlet limb with obtuse petals ; the whole, including the 
ovary, about one inch and a half long. The most remarkable feature of the flower is the curved 
filaments, which are nearly four and a half inches in length. Dr. Lindley observes that the same 
authority also states that " it is a plant with a roundish bulb, which was brought from St. Bias 
or S. Felipe, on the west coast of Mexico, and that a similar plant from Guatemala is in his 
collection. It seems to like shade and heat, and flowered without leaves in the month of March." 
" The genus is regarded as an ally of Eucrosia, because of the tubercles in its orifice." The 
English title given to it by Dr. Lindley is the " two-coloured Fairy-bloom." It belongs to the 
Amaryllids. Bot. Reg. 45. 
Echinoca'ctus myriosti'gma. " One of the most singular of the singular family of Cactacese, 
and still considered a rarity in collections ; first described by Lemaire in 1839, but from very 
imperfect specimens, of which even the native country was not known, but which presented 
such remarkable characters, independent of flower and fruit, that he ventured to constitute of it 
a genus, under the appropriate name of Astrophytum. The flowers, however," continues Sir 
William Hooker, " (for we are still ignorant of the fruit) seem to present no characteristic 
marks to distinguish it from Echinocdctus, and I venture to follow the Prince de Salm-Dyck, in 
considering it to form a section of that extensive genus, which he has called Asteroidei. The 
transverse section not inaptly resembles a star-fish. We owe the possession of our specimens in 
