92 FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
fig. 6 comprises a greater number of shells, and has them arranged with their inner 
surface exposed to view. The same sort of wire affixes them to each other, and 
one shell, laid flatly, constitutes the bottom of the basket. This latter is not only 
necessary to hold out the side shells in their proper places, but accomplishes the 
purpose of enlarging the basket. Of course, the shells could be as easily placed 
with their convex side outwards, and so form another pleasing variation ; or, in this 
case, an additional row of shells could be put above the lower one, and thus a very 
capacious receptacle be prepared. ^ 
In the baskets made of shells, as in those composed of cocoa-nut husks, great 
facihties are affi)rded for drainage by the impossibility of disposing them so near to 
one another as to leave no apertures ; and if they are put together lightly, such 
apertures will answer every desired end. We are convinced that all the receptacles 
here portrayed accord thoroughly with the principles laid down at the beginning 
of our paper, and that the cultivator will do well to copy them, either as they are, 
or in a modified form. 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
NEW AND BEAUTIFUL PLANTS FIGURED IN THE LEADING BOTANICAL PERIODICALS 
FOR MARCH AND APRIL. 
Aca'cia Di'pTERA ; var. erio'pteea. Distinguished from ^. diptera in having its leaves clothed 
with a soft velvety pubescence, and from J. platyptera by the hairs of the latter being less regular 
and occasionally harsher, by the stipules of the same being somewhat spinous, and by the heads 
of flowers in A. diptera being larger and of a paler yellow. Mr. James Drummond collected seeds 
of it in the Swan River Settlement, and sent them to the Glasgow Botanic Garden, from whence 
plants were forwarded to that of Edinburgh, in 1840. It is a curious as well as pretty species, 
and deserves cultivation. Bot. Mag. 3939. 
Achime'nes longiflo^ra. Properly regarded as the handsomest plant that has been introduced 
by the Horticultural Society for the last twenty years, notwithstanding the many beautiful things 
for which our collections are indebted to that body. " More beautiful than the gayest of our stove 
herbaceous plants, as easy to cultivate as the commonest of perennials, more prodigal of flowers 
than the finest of the Gloxinias, ever blooming, except dui'ing the few months when it sinks into 
its winter's rest, this Achimcnes longiflora is an invaluable gift by the Society to every one who 
has a warm greenhouse." The stems are described as being of two kinds ; " some creeping along 
the ground and amongst the soil, and forming fibrous roots and numerous imbricated buds 
resembling scaly bulbs ; others growing in an upright position from a foot to two feet in height, 
branching, and covered with short spreading hairs." " The^tube of the corolla is about two inches 
long, and the border nearly two inches and a half in diameter, five-lobed and nearly round, having 
much the outline of a good Heartsease." The roots should be kept quite dry and free from frost 
in winter, be potted in spring in a rather rich open soil, and afterwards well watered. It blooms 
constantly from August to November, in a warm greenhouse or cool stove. 
Catase'tum Wa'ilesii. The genus Catasetum is quite remarkable for the odd forms of its 
flowers. " In the present instance, the most striking pecuHarity is to be found in the anther-case, 
which, instead of being carried out into a very long point or beak, is singularly short and flattened? 
