270 BEAUFORTIA DECUSSATA. 
They are borne in lengthened clusters along the branches, which they completely 
encircle, and their position is most frequently under the point whence a bunch of 
lateral shoots emanate. The petals are small, greenish, and inconspicuous, and it 
is the delicate crimson stamens, 
which stand out nearly an inch from 
the stem, and the filaments of which 
radiater in all directions near the sum- 
mit, that are the great objects of at- 
traction. These, when fully ex- 
panded, present the appearance of a 
bottle-brush, and remain without 
fading for a considerable time. The 
leaves are also pleasing from their 
elegant figure, their closeness, and 
their peculiarly deep verdure. 
We are indebted for the speci- 
men from which our drawing is 
taken, to Mr. Edmonds, gardener 
to His Grace the Duke of Devon- 
shire, at Chiswick, where the plant 
flowers splendidly in the greenhouse. 
It requires a soil of nearly equal parts 
loam and heath-mould, and the 
points of the branches should be fastened in a drooping position when the specimen 
begins to grow rambling or bare of shoots. Propagation is efi*ected by cuttings, 
which must be carefully divested of their lower leaves, and planted in the spring or 
summer season. 
The genus was named in compliment to Mary, Duchess of Beaufort, a patroness 
of botany . 
