FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
213 
amongst them rises a long three-cornered flower-stalk, at the end of which are a few large white 
flowers, conspicuous for their fine red calyxes, from which circumstance the name has been 
contrived. It is said to inhabit close shady places in the virgin woods of Brazil, preferring a 
granitic soil, especially near the Presidio of John the Baptist, in the province of Minaes." It 
flowered for the first time in a stove at Syon, the seat of his Grace the Duke of Northumberlandj 
in July last. " It is one of those fragrant trees of the tropics whose foliage is filled with a sweet 
volatile oil, like that of the orange, and whose aromatic tonic bark is valuable as a remedy for the 
fevers of such countries." Bot. Reg. 47. 
Eucal'yptus splachnic'arpon. Sir W. J. Hooker gives some very interesting particulars 
relative to the species of Eucalyptus, collected by Dr. Joseph Hooker and Mr. Backhouse, in 
Van Diemen's Land. The chief facts relate to their immense size. Specimens had been 
observed which were fifty-five feet round at five feet from the ground, seventy feet in circum- 
ference at the surface of the earth, and supposed to be two hundred and fifty feet high. Four 
persons could easily walk abreast up the trunk of one which had been prostrated. " The present 
species is a native of King George's Sound, and probably attains to a considerable size. Its 
discoverer, Mr. Allan Cunningham, who introduced it to the Royal Gardens of Kew, speaks of 
it, in his Herbarium, as attaining a girth of twelve or sixteen feet. It has also been found at 
the Swan River, by Mr. Frazer and Mr. James Drummond, who speak of it as an immense tree, 
the general timber of that colony. The flowers are among the largest of the genus," and of a 
greenish-yellow tint. It forms, in the greenhouse in this country, a tree fourteen or fifteen feet 
high, with copious branches, chiefly at the top, and very thick ovate-lanceolate leaves, which 
have a stout reddish midrib. The flowers are borne in the autumn. Bot. Mag. 4036. 
Gastrolo v bium acu^tum. " A handsome greenhouse shrub, flowering in the greenhouse in 
the month of March. It was raised from seeds sent from the Swan River, by Mr. James 
Drummond, to the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, in 1842. Its red and deep yellow flowers, 
and its glossy ternate leaves, make a very pretty appearance at that early season of the year." 
It grows from a foot and a half to two feet in height, with numerous erect and somewhat angled 
branches ; which, together with the leaves, are downy or hairy in a young state. The leaves 
are ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, and have a spiny point. The flowers are solitary, or in very 
short racemes. Bot. Mag. 4040. 
Isopo'gon sca'bra. " This is one of the many Swan River novelties for which our greenhouses 
are indebted to the researches of Mr. James Drummond. Seeds were sent by him to the Royal 
Botanic Gardens at Kew, and the plants bore their handsome flowers in April, 1843. The present 
is one of the handsomest of the genus ; for the heads, or cones of flowers, are large, purple or 
deep rose colour, exhibiting numerous yellow styles and anthers in a circle as they expand ; and 
these heads are nestled, as it were, among the green foliage," like some of the Banksia tribe. 
It is a shrub of about four feet high, with an upright and scarcely branching stem, and narrow 
foliage, which is variously divided into wavy segments. Bot. Mag. 4037. 
Otho'nna tubero'sa. "A plant little known in our gardens, we believe, yet not unworthy 
of cultivation. It appears to have been introduced from the Cape to the Royal Gardens of Kew, 
in 1774, by Mr. Masson, and then lost to this country. Tubers, however, were again sent to the 
same establishment by Mr. Anderer, in 1842. These produced their showy yellow flowers in 
August of the same year." It is a dwarf herbaceous plant, with a solitary tuber, like a Cycla- 
men, producing three, four, or more stems, six or eight inches in height, and one large obovate 
obtuse leaf at the base of each of these. The remainder of the leaves are very small, and mere 
bracts. The blossoms are large, solitary, and terminal. Bot. Mag. 4038. 
Rhipsa'lis brachia'ta. u This new species of Rhipsalis was received by Mr. Moore, at the 
Glasnevin Botanic Garden, from Mr. Tweedie at Buenos Ayres, and it produced its flowers with 
that able cultivator in the month of March, 1843. It is very different from any of the species 
described by Pfeiffer," and is about eight or ten inches high, growing erectly. « The main stem 
is cylindrical, but by no means jointed ; it bears a few scattered, articulated flowering branches 
below, and above, very many horizontal branches, which are again divided, always opposite, 
brachiate, and with more numerous and shorter joints as they come nearer the ultimate divisions : 
these joints are from half an inch to an inch long, two lines broad, punctated, and at their points 
are deciduous hairs in tufts, the ultimate articulation being always terminated with a tuft of hairs : 
