238 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
founded on the Greek, diplos double, and denia a gland, in allusion to the glandular appendages 
at the nodes. 
Fernande'zia lunife'ra. a native of Brazil, from whence it was imported in 1836. A 
specimen has recently blossomed in Messrs. Loddiges' collection at Hackney. It is a more 
robust growing species and has considerably larger blossoms than F. elegans, which it greatly 
resembles. The most distinct and prominent trait in which it differs from that species is in the 
falcate or crescent-shaped upright divisions of the lip, from which also it derives its specific 
name : in the other species these are very short and blunt. The colour is very similar, being a 
bright yellow with spots of crimson. It should be planted in fibrous, peaty earth, and kept warm 
and moist during the growing season ; observing that w^ater must on no account be permitted to 
stagnate round the root. 
Griffi'nia hyaci'nthina. Few of the Amaryllis tribe are more lovely than this now old 
species. It is indeed one of the finest of autumn-flowering stove-bulbs. The leaves are broad, 
about eight or ten inches in length, ,and curiously latticed with small veins connecting the main 
nerves. The flowers are elevated on a short stout scape to a trifle higher than the leaves, and 
are disposed in a capitate cluster of ten or twelve. Their colour is a brilliant ultra-marine blue, 
centred with white. Flowers have been developed by plants in the possession of Mr. Jackson of 
Kingston. We have also seen a variety with much longer petals at Mrs. Maryatt's, of Wimbledon, 
and in the Nursery of Messrs. Rollisson's, Tooting. 
Lgese'lia cocci'nea. Many different names have been assigned to this remarkably neat and 
handsome greenhouse shrub. It is generally known as Hoitzia coccinea or H. Mexicana^ and 
has also been described by botanists as Cantua Hoitzia^ and C. coccinea. So well is its merit 
appreciated even in its native country, that it is there admitted to ornament the gardens. It 
grows plentifully about Guanaxuato and in other parts of Mexico, and has been cultivated in a 
few establishments in this country since 1824, It is an upright shrub, sometimes growing two or 
three feet, but flowering abundantly on plants not more than a foot high. The branches are 
numerous, and closely set with small, veiny, hairy leaves, of an ovate form, with very sharp- 
pointed marginal serratures. The flowers are tubular and scai'let, about an inch long, with an 
expanding limb, and are produced from the axils of the leaves all along the growing shoots. 
Handsome bushes are soon produced from cuttings struck in sand, and when kept growing freely 
will flower during the whole of the latter part of summer and autumn. A frame or a pit is the 
most favourable place to forward the specimens in spring. Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting, have 
several small plants still in flower. 
Lisia'nthus glaucifo^lius. Several specimens of this species are flowering at the nursery of 
Messrs. Glendinning, of Turnham-Green. It grows bushy, and although the flowers are not 
quite so large and handsome as those of L. Russellianus, it is, nevertheless, very showy when 
covered with its lilac blue blossoms, which are freely produced, and prominently situated, on the 
surface of the bush. It is altogether more diminutive than the other, and is a very desirable 
species for a small greenhouse. It is, we believe, a perennial species. 
Melasto^ma sangui'nea. When well grown, this is a fine stove shrub, frequently rising three 
or four feet, naturally growing tolerably bushy, and if not sufficiently so, easily improved by a 
little pruning. The stems are robust, and clothed with handsome shining dark-green leaves, 
with a fringe of long red bristles on each side of the footstalk ; the stem, also, is beset with 
similar appendages. The flowers are terminal, and among the largest of the whole tribe of 
Melastomacece, being commonly about three inches and a half across ; the segments fit compactly 
together, and are of a rosy purple tint. With the exception of the sanguineous hue which is 
spread over the stem, nerves, and bristles, and from which the specific name is applied, it bears 
a considerable resemblance to M. macrocarpum, A well-managed specimen was flowering a few 
weeks since in a stove at Mr. Loraine's, Wallington Lodge, and, more recently, smaller plants, 
barely a foot high, have bloomed at the exotic nursery of Mr. Knight, King's-Road, Chelsea, 
Plero^ma Benthamia^na. This is decidedly one of the finest, if not the very finest, of all the 
Pleromas yet introduced. A plant about five feet high, entirely the growth of the present seasonj 
has been flowering for the last three weeks in a stove at Wallington Lodge, The blossoms are 
produced in panicles at the eiid of the main shoots, and are of a very rich and intense violet 
purple, with a whitish speck at the base of each petal/ Plants maybe had at most of the 
metropolitan nurseries. 
