90 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
cool spot. In a stove, it is rather diiFerent. Still, they do not want a high 
temperature there. 
Of the soil most proper for Ferns, that caused by decayed vegetable matter is 
unquestionably the best. Leaf-mould excels all in pot-culture ; and where a greater 
degree of compactness is necessary, the best kind of heath-soil, which is full of 
vegetable fibre, may be chosen. 
Small pots and perfect drainage complete the requirements for Ferns. Their 
roots are so few that they will not do well in large pots ; and they also succeed 
more thoroughly when the space in which they are planted out is somewhat con- 
fined, as the openings in rock or root-work, &c. Where placed in a border, the 
soil must be very open ; and, in all cases, effective drainage is of the utmost 
moment. 
The tribe is so full of interesting plants, which can be readily grown by all 
classes of cultivators, that we do not feel that too much of our space has been 
given to it. And the occupants of small gardens, in the suburbs of towns, will 
find a considerable quantity of the species available for their purposes. 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
NEW OR BEAUTIFUL PLANTS FIGURED IN THE LEADING BOTANICAL PERIODICALS. 
Bromhea'dia palu'stris. Mr. Finlayson found this plant in the Malay Archipelago ; and, 
from the specimens of it in Dr. Wallich's herbai'ium, almost destroyed by insects, it was referred 
by Dr. Lindley, with great doubt, to the genus Grammatophyllum, under the name of G. Finlay- 
sonianum. It has flowered at Penllergare, in South Wales, with J. D. Llewellyn, Esq., who 
received it from Cuming, with the memorandum that it had been " dug out of a bog in Sumatra." 
"Having now," writes Dr. Lindley, "had the advantage of examining a perfect specimen in 
flower, I find that, although nearly allied to Grammalophyllum, it is, in fact, distinct. I therefore 
avail myself of the opportunity of adding to the list of genera the name of Sir Edward 
Bromhead, Bart., F.R.S., whose investigations of the natural affinities of plants are well known 
to systematical botanists. In appearance, the plant has the aspect of Epidendrum elongatum ; 
and, like it, has the whole of the upper part of the stem provided with closely-pressed distant 
sheaths, instead of leaves, on which the spike of flowers is arranged. The latter is very rigid, 
between two and three inches long, regularly zigzag, with a short, hard, tooth-like bract at each 
bend ; so that the spike without the flowers resembles a coarsely-toothed, narrow, double-edged 
saw. The flowers are about an inch long, white, and rather drooping, spreading quite open. 
The labellum, in which alone any colour resides, is straw-coloured on the middle lobe, and violet 
at the tips of the lateral lobes ; along the middle, as far as the separation of the lobes, it is 
convex, and covered with purple down ; while the disc of the middle lobe is broken up into 
yellow granulations." Bot. Reg. 18. 
Cattle^ya supe'rba. " A very splendid species of Cattleya, and a fragrant one. It was 
detected in British Guiana, by Mr. Schomburgk, and by him living plants were sent to Messrs. 
Loddiges, where they blossomed in 1838." Its discoverer remembers that, " in beauty, odour, 
and duration, it is not to be surpassed by any Orchidaceous plant ; the odour in the morning and 
evening becoming too powerful for a confined place : and its splendid flowers last for two or 
three weeks." It is a plant with pseudo-bulbous stems, rising about six or eight inches, and 
terminated by two broadly-oblong, dark-green, leathery leaves, from between which a flower-stem 
