ON THE CULTURE OF NEW AND RARE PLANTS. 
165 
daceous plants from China and Demerara; among those of the former importation are 
some new and very curious specimens, many of which have already commenced growing. 
Mr. Young's, Epsom. Nuttallia grandijlora. A very interesting and orna- 
mental new herbaceous plant, with digitate leaves, and brilliant rosy purple- 
coloured blossoms. It is far superior to N. cordata^ both in the size and colour of 
its flowers, and will no doubt be found sufficiently hardy for the flower-garden or 
border, if planted in a sheltered situation ; though it would have a very pretty 
appearance if kept in a pot. It is now flowering very abundantly at this nursery 
in the open ground. Ruella elegans. This is, we believe, a new stove species, of 
dwarf habits, and producing a great number of elegant little blossoms, which are 
of a most lively and intense blue colour. It is a highly interesting plant, and well 
worthy of the cultivator's esteem, particularly as it appears to flower in almost 
constant succession. Hippeastrum amhiguum longiflorum. This is a most splendid 
variety, with flowers of an immense size and length, which are of a cream-coloured 
ground, beautifully streaked with crimson. It is flowering in great perfection in 
the greenhouse of this gentleman. 
NOTICES ON THE CULTUIIE OF NEW AND RARE PLANTS 
IN THE PRINCIPAL NURSERIES IN THE VICINITY OF LONDON. 
On the treatment of Tropwolwm tricolor um. 
This extremely interesting and deservedly esteemed plant, which among green- 
house climbing plants has few equals, either for the striking beauty of its flowers 
or the great profusion in which they are produced, is remarkable for having such 
very weak and slender stems ; and though these characters impart to it a great 
degree of gracefulness and elegance, there can be little doubt that any system of 
treatment which would induce the stems to grow stronger and larger, would also 
render the flowers much superior, and, in short, would cause the whole plant to 
assume a diff*erent and more luxuriant character. Convinced of the propriety and 
force of this deduction, we shall now lay before our readers a very simple method 
which we have recently seen practised in the collection of Mr. Knight, Chelsea, 
and which we consider w^ill be found effectual in ameliorating this plant, and 
rendering it an object of still greater attraction and interest. 
It is an acknowledged principle among florists and others, that whatever tends 
to increase the size and strength of a bulb, must materially render the flowers 
produced in the succeeding season superior in every respect. To carry this prin- 
ciple into efl*ect with the present plant, instead of plunging the bulbs to the depth 
of an inch or more in the soil, they are placed so near the surface as to leave all 
the upper portion of them exposed, and the soil is only allowed to cover the roots 
and the base of the bulb. The eff'ects produced by such treatment are obvious and ^ 
extraordinary ; and though we are at a loss to account for such results, or to 
explain the agency by which they are eff'ected, we cannot but see and admire the 
eff'ects themselves. 
