214 
FLORIC U LTU R A L NOTICES. 
instances it is ten feet high and upwards, with abundant foliage thickly studded on its stems. The 
leaves are very irregular, both in size and shape ; the majority averages six to eight inches in 
length, nearly oblong, tapering much though to the base ; some are regularly and equally lobed ; 
others have odd, or a pair of lobes on one or both margins ; all are shining green above, paler 
beneath. The flowers are borne in panicles, sometimes leafy ones, in great abundance, shooting 
from the axils of the leaves, or where they have been, over the whole plant. The main stem of 
each panicle averages four to six inches in length, and throws out lateral and terminal branchings, 
a little less long, from the end of which radiate the flowers. There are a dozen on each, an inch 
in length, borne by a pedicle a fourth of that length ; all strike from a common centre ; are, 
before opening, quite horizontal, of a greenish-brown colour, apparently jointed in the middle, and 
have a nearly globular head. As the flowers expand, it is found they consist of a style, and what 
supports the anthers ; presently the latter portion begins to split in the middle, and downwards, 
into linear segments ; the style then commences to get at liberty, and in so doing forms an obtuse 
angle at the apparent joint, which turns out a joint-like bulge, situated half-way down the style, 
and covered with short, white down. The expansion of each flower continues by the segments 
becoming rent down to their base, and up to the globular head ; the latter remaining whole, is hollow, 
and encloses the anthers, and also the stigma, which, the style being at liberty its whole length, 
is detained, enclosed in the head, till the anthers burst and impregnate it with pollen, which done, 
the flower completes its expansion, the style strikes into and remains in an oblique direction ; the 
remaining part of the flower, already divided into four linear segments, springs asunder at the 
round head, each taking a part of the latter ; to the inside of this part is attached a burst anther. 
One of the segments springs upwards, above the style, and remains almost erect ; the others fall 
down, and spreading, remain in a descending direction. Each panicle has nearly all its blossoms 
opening together ; quite all become expanded before any fall. Their prevailing colour is, when 
open, the most vivid orange-scarlet ; the segments are pale yellow at their apex, and are of a 
shining black or brown colour at the base. We have thus gone into detail in noticing this plant, 
because it is really worthy of all the attention that can be directed to it. The singular structure 
of the flowers, the peculiar manner and profusion in which they are borne — all over the whole 
plant (at least they have been in the subject of our notice), and mingling with the foliage ; the 
contrast of their colour with the beautiful green of the latter renders it beyond all comparison one 
of the most splendid things that has for years discovered itself in our collections ; and the more 
interesting because a greenhouse plant. The plant we are noticing flowered in the nursery of Mr. 
Weeks, King's Road, Chelsea, and, what is a singular circumstance, is the fact of our having a fine 
plant at Chatsworth, just coming into flower. The circumstances under which both are producing 
flowers, we shall have occasion hereafter to refer to. 
Abe v lia rupe'stus. A delightful, close-growing, deciduous shrub, with rather small, vivid 
green, ovate, opposite leaves, bearing leafy racemes of small flowers, Avhich have a spreading, 
flesh-coloured calyx, and a white funnel-shaped corolla. The flowers are very sweet-scented, and 
are produced an immense length of time. It at present is kept as a greenhouse plant, but is 
expected to prove hardy. Flowering in the garden of the Horticultural Society. 
.zEschyna'nthus ra'dicans. A species long known to botanists, originally discovered in the 
forest of Sumatra, and recently introduced from that quarter by the Messrs. Veitch, who sent it 
to the las.t meeting of the Horticultural Society in Regent Street. The whole plant is covered 
with a dense white pubescence, has pretty strong trailing branches, and opposite, ovate, small, 
many larger and oblong, pale green leaves. The flowers grow in terminal and axillary clusters ; 
have a slender, rather small, tubular, greenish, purple-tinged calyx, and a very long, slender, 
tubular, dull -red corolla, whose limb-segments are small, erect, whitish, and streaked with purple 
at their base inside. It is a very abundant bloomer, and showy, the number and size of its 
flowers opposed to the pale foliage rendering it so. 
