164 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
paludosa, for its leaves are not acerose, nor are the lobes of the corolla large and rounded. Nor 
is it C. obtusifolia, for it is not slender enough, nor are the leaves abruptly blunt, nor is the calyx 
ciliated. Since, then, it is neither of these species, and since no others have been described with 
which it is comparable, we are forced to regard it as new. But is it a wild species ? or is it one 
of those endless garden hybrids which are becoming now so common, as to threaten that garden 
botany shall have to be studied upon principles unnecessary and unknown in wild plants ? That 
is a point which we are unable to answer. In this embarrassment we give it a s local habitation 
and a name,' and nothing more," — Bot. Reg., 38. 
Gesne^ria bulbosa, var. lateri'tia. " I much fear," writes Sir William Hooker, " that the 
Gesneria faucialis, Lind., (Bot. Mag., t. 3659), and the G. Suttoni, Lindk, (G. bullosa, nob. in Bot. 
Mag., t. 3041), should be united with G. bulbosa, which is evidently a highly variable plant, and 
one that has apparently an extensive geographical range, extending from Brazil to New Grenada. 
In the latter country, about Santa Martha, the present singular variety of this species, for such I 
take it to be, was detected and sent to Kew by our collector, Mr. Purdie. It first produced its 
blossoms at Sion House, under the skilful management of Mr. Carton. At first sight it is dis- 
tinguished from the true G. bulbosa by its pale brick-coloured flowers, and by the drooping 
racemes. The arrangement of these flowers, in the raceme on simple pedicels, would rather induce 
me to refer this to G. faucialis than to bulbosa, could I persuade myself they are really distinct x 
but, as far as I can find, the leaves and flowers are alike in both, and the only difference dis- 
cernible is in the large and more divided raceme or panicle of the true G. bulbosa." — Bot. Mag., 4240. 
Gesne'ra elli'ptica, var. lu'tea. " We have here," Sir W. Hooker states, " the pleasure of 
figuring another Gesnera, one of the results of Mr. Purdie's mission to the mountains of St. 
Martha, New Grenada. The flowers of this species, however, exhibit much variation in hue, and 
we have chosen the most unusual of these colours in the genus, namely, yellow. Others are brick- 
coloured, and some bright red. All are graceful in their growth, and handsome in their blossoms. 
As a species, it will rank near G. rutila, Lindl., Bot. Reg., t. 1158, and especially that variety of 
it afterwards given at t. 1279 of the same work, and called, var. atrosanguinea ; but the shape of 
the upper part of the corolla, and the relative size of the lips, afford distinguishing characters. It 
flowers in a warm moist stove in May, and through most of the summer months." — Bot. 
Mag., 4242. 
Leia'nthus umbella v tus. " A rare and little known species, handsome in its habit and 
its ample foliage, and singular large involucrated umbels of flowers, but these last are wanting in 
colour to render the plant a very striking one. It is a native of Jamaica, and seems to have been 
unnoticed by any one till my excellent friend, Dr. Macfacdgen, transmitted dried specimens some 
years ago, and more recently, (in 1843,) our collector, Mr. Purdie, has sent both specimens and 
seeds to the Royal Gardens in Kew. The latter were reared, and produced fine flowering plants. 
It is a mountain plant, which Swartz gathered in the Parish of St. James ; and Mr. Purdie, on 
the summit of the Dolphin, Hanover, where this noble species attains a height of twenty feet. It 
flowers in May, and succeeds best in a hot moist stove heat." Lisianthus umbellatus is a 
synonyme. — Bot. Mag., 4243. 
Pitcai'rnia undulatifo^lia. " A native, probably, of Brazil, but of the history of which we 
know nothing, save that it was sent to the Royal Gardens of Kew from Liverpool, by our obliging 
friend, Mr. Shepherd, under the name here adopted. It is a very showy plant, and no stove 
collection should be without it. The leaves are handsome, and of a light green ; the lower 
bracteas are furfuraceous below, red, tipped with green ; and the long protruded corollas are quite 
white. It flowers in May, and easily bears parting at the root." — Bot. Mag., 4241. 
Roy'ena lu'cida. " It is not a little remarkable that this fine old greenhouse shrub should 
not have found a place in any English collection of coloured plates, yet it is said to have been 
introduced in 1690, and has probably never been lost to cultivation up to the present day. It is a 
native of the Cape of Good Hope, whence it was imported by the Dutch, among the earliest 
productions of their South African colony. The berry is said to be red and fleshy, like an apple, 
and about as large as a damson. For this reason, the species has had the reputation of being a 
fruit tree, to which it has no better title than our own Hawthorn. It, however, represents a 
natural order, in which the seed-vessel of a few species becomes eatable when bletted, as occurs in 
the Chinese Fig, or Diospyros Kaki, and the Bote trees of Europe and North America." Synonyme, 
Staphylodendrum Africanum. — Bot. Reg., 40. 
