70 
FLORICULTURAL NOTICES. 
Mirbelia speciosa. We always experience delight in attempting to raise 
valuable old plants from comparative obscurity to that position which their 
qualities demand ; knowing that those persons who act upon our recommendations 
must invariably be gainers thereby, inasmuch as intrinsically interesting objects 
are ever more conducive to pleasure than such as enjoy a merely factitious fame. 
For example, the old plant above-named is worth some scores of the more modern 
productions by which its place in our greenhouses is usurped. We saw it 
flowering last month at Messrs. Loddiges', and a few scattered blossoms yet 
remain. The leaves are linear, closely pressed to the stem, recurved at the 
margins, and of a thick texture. The stems are hairy while in a young state. 
The colour of the flowers is a bluish-lilac, with a yellowish-white spot in the 
centre, which is surrounded by a belt of deep purple. It has altogether the 
appearance of a species of Hovea, and is equally as showy as any member of 
that genus. 
Oncidium pubes. In all new species of any genera, a difference of form from 
those previously existing is of course expected. Yet, in a large genus like 
Oncidium, thorough distinctions become increasingly difficult. 0. pubes is, how- 
ever, manifestly but indescribably novel in the peculiar shade of its flowers, 
which we can only express as a kind of greenish-yellow, mottled with a similarly 
undefinable light brown tint, and a little pink blotching on the lip ; and the 
manner in which the blossoms unfold themselves, — never throwing back their 
outer sepals, or fully exposing the whole of their interior, — is still more charac- 
teristic. Besides these points, the flowers are generally borne opposite to each 
other, and not disposed with such freedom or wildness as is commonly observable. 
The pseudo-bulbs are long, cylindrical, and of a small diameter, being occasionally 
covered with very minute warty excrescences. In Messrs.' Loddiges' collection plants 
have been blossoming for the last two months, and display a considerable fertility. 
Spironema fragrans. Mr. Low, of Clapton, received this plant as a supposed 
species of Tradescantia, but when the flowers were developed last month, Dr. 
Lindley applied the name here given. In its general contour, particularly in that 
of its foliage, it is exceedingly like the old D icJiorizandra thyrsiflora of our 
stoves, the main difference being in the more rigid and darker green leaves of the 
latter. But the blossoms are wholly dissimilar. They are densely collected on a 
terminal panicle or branching spike, and though pleasing in the aggregate, are 
individually inconspicuous. The lower portions are composed of small greenish - 
white petals and similarly uninteresting calyxes, while each filament is surmounted 
by a spreading white membrane, which, on account of the number of the blossoms, 
creates a pleasing appearance. Its fragrance is highly grateful, and may be 
compared to that of Asperula odorata. After the flower-spike was removed, it 
began to protrude shoots just below the point of severance, thus indicating a 
shrubby character. It is an evergreen stove-plant, requiring the same culture as 
Tradescantia mrginica. 
