FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
165 
flowers, and in the flowers being very closely, but loosely, arranged ; and in the small size of the 
middle lobe of the lip, which is almost blended with the large lateral lobes. There is a difference 
too in the crested veins of the lip, which are all three crisped in A. densa, while the middle one 
is straight and even in A. bambusifoliaJ' The plant has erect stems, something like Phaius or 
Pesomeria, but more slender. Its flowers are clustered at the top of the stems, and have much 
of the form, colour, and beauty of those of some smaller Cattleyas. They are very handsome, 
and " emit a most agreeable perfume." It should be grown in an orchidaceous house, in turfy 
heath-mould, and be particularly well watered. Bot. Beg. 38. 
Epide'ndrum rani'ferum. " Although a good deal like E. nutans, this species is really very 
distinct, and indeed far handsomer ; in consequence of the rich purplish brown spots with which 
the sepals and petals are profusely decorated." The reference to E. nutans will give a good idea 
of its habit, as well as of the form of the flowers. " Like so many of the order, this species 
varies a good deal in the amount of toothing observable in its lip. In the original specimens 
the divisions were perfectly entire ; in the accompanying drawing they are represented as if they 
were all toothed. In a cultivated plant, now before me," adds Dr. Lindley, " they are both the 
one and the other." G. Barker, Esq , of Birmingham, and other gentlemen, introduced the 
plant from Mexico ; but it is not confined to that country, as Mr. Schomburgk " found it in 
British Guiana, with a branched raceme." Bot. Reg, 42. 
Gesne^ra longifo^lia. " This is a remarkable species, with more the habit of G. allagophylla 
than of such species as G. faucialis, bullosa, and the others commonly cultivated. It grows 
about two feet high, and is closely covered by a dense grey down. The leaves grow in whorls of 
three, and are sometimes eight or nine inches long, of a lanceolate form, thick, petiolate, serrated 
towards the upper end, and by no means wrinkled. The flowers are produced in long close 
cylindrical terminal whorled racemes, three or four growing together from the axils of short 
floral leaves. The corollas are brick red, about an inch long, somewhat cylindrical, but inflated 
above the middle with a short fine-toothed spreading limb, whose divisions are all of the same 
size and form. There is no trace of the obliquity which occurs in G. bulbosa and its allies.' 
Mr. Hartweg introduced it from Guatemala to the Horticultural Society, in whose garden it is 
found to be easily cultivated with the ordinary treatment. Bot. Reg. 40. 
HYDROTiE'NiA Melea'^gris. The extraordinary blossoms of this plant are its chief recom- 
mendation. " Its appearance is by no means attractive ; but the interior of the flower, when 
carefully examined, will be found to exhibit beauties of no common kind. The curious watery 
band, which glitters as if covered with dew, or as if constructed out of bi'oken rock crystal, is one 
of the most curious objects known. The stigmata too are extremely remarkable ; each divides 
into two arms, which are rolled up as if foi-ming a gutter, with a dense mass of bright papillae at 
the end, and a single tooth on the inner edge : between the arms stands a short mucro, which is 
free from glands, and forms a minute horn." The colours of the flowers are, moreover, ex- 
ceedingly varied and pretty ; purple and lilac of different shades, yellow, white, bluish, and blush, 
being all beautifully associated and blended. It is a greenhouse bulb, cultivated like Tigridia, 
and blooming in the summer. Bot. Reg. 39. 
Philade'lphus mexica'nus, a very peculiar new specieSj which " forms a small bush, with 
weak branches, and has the merit of being an excellent plant for forcing." " It is cultivated in 
Jalapa, and grows wild in the hedges there ; also at Oaxaca and the city of Mexico, according to 
Schlechtendahl. Hartweg found it at the Hacienda del Carmen," and sent it to the Horticultural 
Society. In gardens it is " the smallest of all the species yet known, not growing more than 
two feet high. It is sub-evergreen, and rather tender, being sometimes killed to the ground by 
the severity of winter. It flowers freely about the end of June, if planted in the ordinary garden 
soil, and strikes freely from cuttings of the half-ripened shoots." The flowers are large, 
solitary, and not unlike a small single rose. Bot. Reg. 38. 
Plumie^ria acumina^ta. " Those who have a good stove and sufficient height should not fail 
to cultivate this beautiful tropical-looking plant. The foliage is large and handsome ; the flowers 
copious, each three inches in diameter, and so deliciously fragrant that a very large house is 
scented throughout by a very few of the expanded flowers, and this scent is retained by the 
corolla for some time after it has fallen from the tree. These blossoms continue expanding in 
succession upon the same cyme for a period of many weeks." " It flowers throughout the 
