68 
FLO RICULT URAL NOTICES. 
stated that the plant is now lost to English gardens, but we believe we are 
warranted in assuming this to be the fact. Bot. Reg. 15. 
Spir^a vaccinifolia. This is an interesting little Spircea, of dwarf habits, 
bearing agreeable foliage, and large panicles of small white flowers. The plant 
was introduced from Nepal by Professor Royle, " who presented its seeds to the 
Horticultural Society in the year 1835. It is a very pretty species, almost as 
hardy as the Gueldres Hose, its branches having been little injured even in the 
severe winter of 1837-8 ; it grows from one to three feet high, prefers an American 
border, and strikes freely from cuttings of the half-ripened wood." There are two 
varieties of it at the Chiswick gardens, one of them more slender and diminutive 
than the other. Bot. Reg. 17- 
NEW, RARE, OR INTERESTING PLANTS IN FLOWER IN THE PRINCIPAL 
SUBURBAN NURSERIES. 
Burlingtonia rIgida. If Orchidace£© are chiefly interesting for their singular 
appearance and delicate flowers, the subject of this notice will not fail to please. 
Its mode of growth is very remarkable. From the first bulb which is formed, 
a long rhizoma, not thicker than a very stout wire, proceeds perpendicularly for 
about five or six inches, when it develops another pseudo-bulb, the minute white 
roots of which hang waving in the air in all directions. The rhizoma continues 
ascending indefinitely in this way, perfecting a new pseudo-bulb each year ; and 
when (as is the case with Messrs. Loddiges' specimen) the original plant consists 
of several pseudo-bulbs, these give birth to as many stems, which, if neatly 
arranged, present a most prepossessing aspect. From the base of the youngest 
pseudo-bulbs, inside the sheathing foot-stalks of the leaves in which they are 
enveloped, the flower-stem arises, being of a still more slender nature than the 
rhizoma, and growing erectly to the height of four or five inches, then emitting 
three or four enchanting flowers from its summit, which are large, purplish- white, 
and extremely elegant. Messrs. Loddiges have a plant now blooming in their 
orchidaceous-house, and every feature of it is in the highest degree alluring. 
Dendr5bium macrochiltjm. We know not whether this superb plant should 
not be placed almost at the head of its congeners in a list where beauty is the 
criterion of precedence. Nine or ten flowers being at once expanded on a specimen 
at Messrs. Loddiges', we have thus an opportunity of examining its merits, and 
profess ourselves incapable of deciding its claims to superiority over the other 
species, so nicely balanced is their influence on our senses. The stems are not 
more than a quarter of an inch in diameter, and though they may be fastened to 
erect stakes, their natural habit would seem to be pendulous ; since, when released 
on the protrusion of the blossoms, they acquired a drooping disposition. We 
noted as rather curious that, while the lower part of the stem retains its verdure 
