(5 
COLUMNEA SPLENDENS. 
One, and sometimes two or three flowers accompany each leaf, and they depend on 
exceedingly long peduncles. The number, duration, and frequent succession of 
these flowers, are quite remarkable. Their colour is a superb deep scarlet, and 
they are spotted on the inside of the limb with dark, blood-coloured spots. 
The species began to show flower at Messrs. Rollisson's in the month of 
November last. It developed a few blossoms, and then the buds appeared to 
remain stationary till the present time. They are now expanding rapidly ; and 
the specimen promises to remain in bloom for many months. 
The following wood-cut will give an idea of how the plant ought to be grown ; 
but it is fully as suitable for hanging up to the roof as for standing thus. It 
should be potted in a mixture of very turfy loam, not too much reduced, and well- 
decayed open leaf-mould. Turfy heath-soil and moss, freely incorporated, would 
likewise probably be appropriate. It must be kept in a warm stove, and possibly, 
if retained in a somewhat shaded Orchidaceous house, would be as much an 
epiphyte as Mschynanthus, the larger species of which it slightly resembles. As 
the branches root, almost spontaneously, around every leaf, it can be propagated 
with the greatest ease by cuttings, and might also, doubtless, be increased by 
leaves. 
It is difficult to say what will be its usual flowering period. The probability 
is that it will blossom, occasionally, throughout the whole year. 
