236 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
Habrotha'mnus purpu^reus. Dr. Lindley has cancelled the specific name, elegans, given 
in the August number of the Bot. Reg. t. 43, and substituted the present. 
JuANULLO^A parasi'tica. It wiU Surprise many of our readers, perhaps," says the editor of 
the Botanical Magazine, " to be told that this fine plant, known in our stoves, we believe, for 
four or five years, and pretty widely dispersed under the name of Brugmdnsia parvijlora and B. 
florihunda^ has nothing to do with that genus ; and is, in fact, one of the rarest of plants, 
(speaking botanically,) a genus spoken of by authors as * only known to Ruiz and Pavon.' 
A J reference to the figure in the Flora Peruviana of Juanulloa parasitica will convince any 
one that the so-called Brugmansia can be no other than that remarkable 'parasite (or 
rather, I apprehend, an epiphyte) upon the trunks of trees in woods, near Pozuzo and San 
Antonio de Playa Grande, in Peru.' It was there discovered by the authors of that fine work? 
and well figured by them. Notwithstanding its parasitic nature, it flourishes freely if planted in 
earth, if kept in a moist and warm stove, and recommends itself both by its handsome foliage and 
its large and richly-coloured calyces." Bot. Mag. 4118. 
Osbe'ckia stella^ta, var. " Of this fine plant, seldom seen now in our gardens, there are two 
very distinct varieties. Of these one has the curious fringed scales with which the calyx is coated, 
so closely arranged that the whole surface is covered over with a mat of entangled bristles. The 
other has'a narrower calyx, and the scales stand more widely apart, so as to show its sides 
between them." This latter flowered last September, in the garden of Henry Thomas Hope? 
Esq., of the Deep-dene, near Dorking, where it is treated as a greenhouse shrub. " The species 
is found in Nepal, where it seems to be common. Dr. Royle mentions it as one of those 
Melastomaceous plants which advance farthest to the north, in the valleys near Massooree, and 
on the banks of the Giree river." Bot. Reg. 55. 
Pterodi'scus specio*sa. " For a knowledge of this splendid new genus of plants the 
Botanical world is indebted to the Right Honourable the Earl of Derby. It was collected at 
Macalisberg, by Mr. Burke, (now employed on a similar mission in North-West America, and 
in California,) while engaged in procuring animals and plants for that distinguished nobleman, in 
the Ulterior of South Africa. It flowered in the stove, at Knowsley, in May, 1844, and rarely has 
a more desirable plant been introduced to our collections." Bot. Mag. 4117. 
NEW OR INTERESTING PLANTS RECENTLY FLOWERED IN THE PRINCIPAL SUBURBAN 
NURSERIES AND GARDENS. 
Allama'nda grandiflo'ra. We have recently observed plants under this name of a new 
and exceedingly showy species of Allamdnda^ in several of the nurseries and private collections 
in the neighbourhood of London. Although it bears considerable resemblance to A. cathartica 
it is nevertheless very different in several important features. In that plant, now so deservedly 
admired, since more attention has been paid to its culture, the stems are strong, and of a decided 
scandent habit, and the leaves are broad, and commonly arranged on the stem at short intervals 
in whorls of four. The present, however, is of a more bushy nature ; the stems are considerably 
less robust, and the leaves proportionately smaller, and disposed three in a whorl. There is also 
a trifling dissimilarity in the form of the leaves, which have a greater number of lateral veins, 
and, as well as the midrib, are densely pilose ; whilst, in the other species, the main nerve 
only is hairy. The flowers, also, instead of appearing either from the side or end, are always 
borne at the extremity of the shoots, and are there collected into clusters of from three to five. 
As the name indicates, they are very large — usually four inches, and not unfrequently as much 
as four inches and a half in diameter. A fine large bush, with numerous shoots, each bearing 
a cluster of blossoms which partially weigh them down, imparting a pleasing curvature, has 
been flowering for some time in the gardens of Col. Baker, under the superintendence of 
Mr. Dodds. It is a Brazihan species, and requires a stove or warm pit. 
Aphela'ndra crista'ta. Fine plants of this West Indian shrub are rarely seen, and yet it 
has been above a century in the country, and is a most splendid thing when well-managed, as is 
fully evidenced by a noble plant now flowering at Mrs. Lawrence's, of Ealing Park. This 
specimen is about six feet high, and has made shoots during the late summer from four to five 
feet in length, furnished with fine broad leaves, some of them fully ten inches long, and crowned 
with large compound spikes of the rich scarlet blossoms, disposed in cruciform pyramids. A warm 
