FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
259 
Every house of moderate dimensions should have one or more cisterns placed 
against the inner walls, and supplied by a pipe, communicating with spouts that 
pass round the lower part of the roof. Rain-water, which is tlie softest and the 
best for the cultivator's purposes, will then be nearly always at hand. The cisterns 
may be of stone, slate, stuccoed brick, wood lined with lead, or zinc, and they 
can be situated under the side stages. In stoves, the hot- water pipes should go 
through them, that the water they contain may ever be kept at a temperature 
warm enough for application to tender plants. We do not now intend to discuss 
any methods of heating. 
To economize heat, an excellent plan is to make provision for some mode of 
covering the house with straw or other substances in frosty w^eather. It is 
astonishing what a quantity of fuel may be saved in this way ; and we are 
sanguine in the hope that the time is not far distant when such a practice will be 
universal. 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
NEW OR RARE PLANTS FIGURED IN THE LEADING BOTANICAL PERIODICALS FOR 
NOVEMBER. 
iE^NiUM CRUFNTUM. The genus JEoniian has been founded by Mr. Webb on 
the old Sempervimim arhoreum^ and is made to include several other species of 
Semper viviim. It is " characterized by having its seed-vessels partially sunk in 
the receptacle, and not regularly opening by the ventral suture, but only at the 
base and back by an irregular tearing." The present species is a succulent shrub, 
introduced by Mr. Webb from the Canaries to the nursery of Mr. Young, of 
Milford. It grows a.bout a foot high in this country, has streaks of crimson on its 
leaves, and bears terminal panicles of star-like yellow blossoms. It should be kept 
warm and dry in the summer, and cool, with scarcely any water, during winter. 
It blooms in the month of May. Bot. Beg. 61. 
Arctostaphylos NiTiDA. With more of the appearance of an Arhutus than an 
Arctostaphylos.^ this is a very beautiful shrub, with erect branches, which are 
clothed with smooth, pale brown, shining bark in the older portions. The leaves 
are long, lanceolate, minutely toothed along the margins, and whitely glaucescent 
beneath. The flowers are produced in a copious kind of paniculated raceme, 
usually from between two branches, and are white, with crimson calyxes. The 
gracefully expanding character of the raceme constitutes a particularly fine feature. 
It was raised by J. T. Mackay, Esq., of the Dublin College Botanic Garden, from 
seeds obtained from Mexico five years back, and flowered in May last. Coming 
from the colder regions of Mexico, it is expected that it will be found quite hardy 
here. The protection of a frame will certainly be the utmost that is requisite. 
Bot. Mag 3904. 
Cyrtochilum filipes. In consequence of the principal colour of the flowers 
