NEW AND RARE PLANTS. 
65 
and green cups, and are succeeded by a fruit, (the most interesting feature of the 
plant,) bearing a close resemblance to a mellow gooseberry ; this peculiarity has 
given rise to the colonial name of West Indian Gooseberry. Dr. Lindley observes, 
" In the whole genus PeresMa, and this species in particular, the leaves are as 
large, and fully organised, as in any plants whatever ; and the woody matter of the 
stem is one of the best illustrations that physiologists are acquainted with, of the 
plan on which exogenous trunks are formed. This is easily seen by taking an old 
stem of PeresMa aculeata, and macerating it for a few weeks, when the whole of 
the horizontal cellular system decays, leaving behind it the longitudinal system in 
the form of a woody skeleton. The stock is usually employed for grafting species 
of cactus, &c. on, and may be easily cultivated along with, and in the same kind of 
soil in, the succulents' house ; the shoots made into cuttings, propagate without 
difficulty. Bot Reg., 1928. 
THE FIG-WORT TRIBE (SCROPHUL ARI ACEiE). 
Veronica perfoliata. Perfoliate Veronica. This is a pretty little perennial 
plant, with light blue flowers, and a native of the country near Port Jackson. It 
requires a little protection in winter, but in the summer it grows and flowers well in 
the open ground. Bot. Peg., 1930. 
THE ROSE TRIBE (ROSACEA). 
Crataegus flava ; var. lobata. Rough-barked Thorn, single-fruited 
variety. This is a small and interesting variety of the species Jtava, from which 
it differs in the fruit being solitary, instead of in clusters, and in its more sharply 
cut leaves : in general appearance they are almost undistinguishable ; the bark of 
the stem is split into many deep rugged fissures like that of an elm ; the head is 
compact, and now and then a few spines are found scattered over the branches. 
Bot. Reg., 1932. 
Cratozgus oxyacantha; var. oliveriana. Hairy-leaved Black Hawthorn. 
This variety of the common Hawthorn has black oval fruit ; the leaves, which are 
more or less blotched with brown in the autumn, are downy, and the cyme of the 
haws are more compact than those produced by the common hawthorn ; from the 
black-fruited species found wild in Britain, it does not differ much, and might be 
confounded with C. nigra, a genuine and distinct species. It is a native of Asia 
Minor. Bot. Reg., 1933. 
LOBELIACEiE. 
Lobelia polyphylla. Many-leaved Lobelia. A very handsome perennial 
species of Lobelia collected at Valparaiso during Captain Beechey's voyage, and 
afterwards in the same country by Mr. Bridges and Mr. Cuming. The Glasgow 
Botanic Garden received the specimen from Mr. Knight, of the King's Road, 
Chelsea. It grows a foot or more high, and has round branches, thickly clothed 
with leaves two or four inches long, of an oblong lanceolate shape, and a bluish 
green colour ; the sides often turn up, and the margins are furnished with irregular 
teeth. The flowers are of a deep blackish, or blood purple colour. Bot Mag. 3550. 
VOL. IV. NO. XXXIX. K 
