238 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
blossom at an early stage of its growth, without, as is too frequently the case with 
climbers, producing a large quantity of wood, and extending itself over an immense 
surface. A succession of flowers is also being developed. 
CoLi^MNEA ScHiEDiANA. This interesting new Columnea was introduced, w^e 
believe, by J. Rogers, Esq., of Seven-oaks, Kent, and flowered there many months 
back. It is at present in bloom with Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting, and is likely to 
prove an ornament to the stove, or probably to a warm greenhouse. The plant is 
a robust dwarf shrub, with strong succulent branches, rather discoloured leaves, and 
large cream-coloured flowers, richly spotted and blotched with reddish purple. Its 
treatment should be like that of C. scandens, a very valuable old autumnal- 
flowering species. 
CoMPARETTiA r6sea. Miuute as are all the parts of this pretty orchidaceous 
plant, it is yet a highly elegant and attractive species for growing on suspended 
blocks of wood, and has intense rose-coloured or crimson flowers, which are large, 
compared with the size of the whole plant, and are very much like those of 
Broiightonia sangidnea^ but about half the dimensions. They are borne on a 
drooping scape, and the species has blossomed during the past three months at 
Messrs. Loddiges'. 
Gesnera zebrIna. Many novel species of Gesnera have lately been added to 
the stock previously possessed ; but whether old or new, few can vie with the above 
plant, which is flowering very finely in a stove at Mr. Low's, Clapton. The stems 
are succulent, and the leaves spacious, folded under at the edges, of a vivid green, 
with numerous broad and dark-blood coloured or purplish veins, which give them a 
particularly pleasing aspect. The flower-spike rises from the summit of the stem, 
and supports a pyramid of lively scarlet flowers, which are yellow in the inside and 
towards the base, and beautifully spotted in the throat. They are of a great size, 
numerous, and drooping ; and the plant is altogether one of the finest stove exotics 
yet known to cultivators. 
Ipomgea ficifolia. This aflbrds the probability of ranking among the most 
desirable of its tribe, from the amazing liberality with which it unfolds its blooms 
in a stove, during autumn and winter, and its singular adaptation for training on a 
low, flat, or circular trellis. Plants are just reaching perfection in the stove of 
Messrs. Henderson, Pine- Apple Place, and the quantity of buds which is continually 
forming is quite extraordinary. It has neat fig-shaped leaves, and develops its 
flowers in clusters. The individual blossoms are about three inches in diameter, 
retaining their beauty throughout one entire day, and of an indefinable colour, of 
which some notion may be gained by mixing blue, red, and lilac. 
