62 
SINNINGIA YOUNGEANA. 
memory, as an excellent resource in similar cases, where the blooms of any other- 
w^ise ornamental plant are insignificant. 
Mr. R. Marnock, while curator of the Sheffield Botanic Garden, raised this 
very showy plant about three years back. Passing from thence to the Botanic 
Garden at Birmingham, it has since reached Messrs. Loddiges, Hackney, in whose 
stove we have frequently admired its beauties, and through the kindness of these 
gentlemen we had the accompanying coloured delineation, as well as the succeeding 
woodcut, prepared in July 1839. It is a rigid, erect, sugpulent plant, not exceed- 
ing eighteen inches in height, and extremely liberal in its production of blossoms, 
which, as will be seen from the drawing, are of a large size, and a rich bluish 
purple hue. 
In a communication obligingly sent us by 
Mr. D. Cameron, curator of the Birmingham 
Botanic Garden, it is described as a very desir- 
able plant, being a free bloomer, and requiring 
less heat than the genuine species of Sinningia." 
This latter is an important consideration, and 
the plant would perhaps thrive in a house of a 
temperature lower than that generally main- 
tained in the stove. It must be potted in a 
sandy loam, enriched with leaf-soil, or rotten 
manure, and be kept in a humid atmosphere, 
besides being freely syringed, in the growing 
season. During the winter, drought is essential 
to subsequent health ; but if spare specimens be 
retained in a constantly high temperature, they will flower through the early 
winter months, and by this means a novelty may be obtained at the simple cost 
of a trifling ultimate degeneracy. Such specimens can easily be destroyed when 
they have served their destined end, and replaced by younger ones. 
An increase must be invariably efl*ected by cuttings, which, though exceedingly 
juicy, may be struck with tolerable facility, if cautiously preserved from damp. 
They should be taken off in the spring, and planted in a very sandy soil, with the 
usual appurtenances of hand-glasses and bottom heat. 
The genus was named by Nees, to commemorate W. Sinning, gardener to the 
University of Bonn, on the Rhine. Mr. Marnock applied the specific designation 
in compliment to Dr. Younge, superintendant of the Sheffield Botanic Garden. 
