270 THUNBERGIA AURANTIACA. 
have heard it insinuated that it is a mere hybrid, between T. alata and some 
darker-flowered species but this suggestion has not the slightest foundation, as, 
supposing its history were dubious, we are unacquainted with any Thunhergias^ 
the colours of which, when commingled, could possibly produce the hue of 
T. aurantiaca. Besides which, if the development and thorough maturation of 
seeds may be relied on as a certain character of a natural and independent product, 
we have seen an abundance of these ripened in the Epsom nursery. 
For the culture of this plant when confined to a house, a highly humid 
atmosphere appears necessary, at least where the structure fronts the south, or 
the specimen is much beneath immediate solar influence. In the arid air of a 
common greenhouse, or that of a stove which is at all subject to occasional drought 
in the summer, an attack of the red spider is nearly inevitable, the leaves of this 
plant, as those of T. alata, seeming to furnish a most agreeable resort to that 
detested insect. The only way of eradicating it when found to have become fully 
established, is by the removal of the plants infested to a very hot and close house, 
where the atmosphere is laden with moisture, and in which also the plant must 
be frequently syringed. 
But the most certain mode of preventing this occurrence, and thereby saving 
the plant from incalculable injury, is to keep it partly secluded from the sun's 
beams, and constantly as moist as can be endured without damage. Notwith- 
standing this injunction for plants that are grown in houses, the species will succeed 
in the open air as freely as that above referred to, and in such an exposure needs 
none of the precautionary treatment which is essential in an artificial atmosphere. 
The soil for it should be composed of equal portions of sandy loam and heath-mould, 
to which, if a little of the ashes of burnt wood and some silver sand are added, and 
these incorporated a year before being used, the benefit to the plants will be very 
perceptible. 
We are informed, from a respectable source, that seeds of this species were 
received, among many others from the Cape of Good Hope, by Michael Clayton, 
Esq., of Charlwood Park, Crawley, Sussex. The first nursery in which it 
appeared, and where in consequence the greatest number of plants are possessed, 
was Messrs. Young's, of Epsom. From a plant which flowered with these 
gentlemen about the middle of last August, and which is still covered with 
blossoms, — although, on account of the season and other casualties, these are lighter 
and smaller than those which were primarily opened,— we obtained the accompanying 
drawing. 
