NEW PLANTS. 
17 
come to the surface and say, ‘ we shall not wonder at your like again,’ hut the cry 
is ‘ still they come,’ and a sad day it will be for horticulturists when it is otherwise, 
“ But the ‘ after ourselves the deluge ’ people need have little misgiving about a 
supply of new plants during our day and generation, as may be seen here. What 
fine-looking batch of young plants are these with large leaves, the young ones of a 
pleasant reddish tint, the mid-rib in all the leaves of a bright reddish pink, looking 
very striking in the older and greener leaves, and almost every portion covered with 
short thick stiff hairs ? It is Saurauja sarapigiensis, a plant worthy of association 
with tho Sphmrogj'ne and Cyanophyllum. Leaves on one older plant were 20 inches 
long, and 8 to 9 across. With our good plant growers they will probably be more. 
Pachycontra Walkerii, from Ceylon, with sparsely ciliated leaves dusted over with 
minute crystal-like spots, and the habit of a scandent Ficus, is said to flower and 
‘ bract ’ in the way of Medinilla. Cupauia undulata, from South America, is a plant 
with pinnate leaves, their edges very wavy — a graceful subject altogether. A new 
Sphaerogyne ! and a very fine one too, with the stem densely covered with short 
woolly matter, the leaves large, and of a light green, unlike the other species, is 
named S. cinnamomea. 
“ Passing by a new Maranta, Van den Heekei, several fine new Figs, and numbers 
of their companions in novelty, I come to a class of plants said to be new to science 
— the genus Uz'ospatba, of which Mr. Bull has a large stock the species not yet 
named. They have creeping rhizomes like some Ferns. There are hundreds of 
rhizomes starting into gi-owth, and an odd plant in leaf hero and there, just sufficient 
to give one an idea of their distinct aspect. The leaves are of a firm leathery 
texture, mostly fretted and spotted over with pink ; in their present state not largo, 
but probably they are not nearly so quick-growing as the Caladiums, the more espe- 
eially as they are leaves that remain on all through tho winter. They arc mostly of 
a singular sagittate form -those of one kind looking exactly like a cordate leaf that 
had been cut from its centre to tho middle of each shoulder with a pair of scissoiu. 
In others tho basal lobes become enlarged after receding from the apex of the petiole, 
and taper again into an acuminato point. Tho lobes in this and another species 
being much larger than tho apical portion, seem to have tho effect of causing the 
leaves to hang with tho basal lobes downwards, so that if distillation takes place in 
this section of tho Arum family, it will probably bo by a double channel and a 
reversed outlet. 
“ Here again is a plant ! Its name is Bertolouia margaritacea, and it is furnished 
with leaves 4 to 5 inches long, and 3 to 4 broad, of a purplish-olive colour, with a 
narrow gleam of purple along the ribs, somewhat of a Cyanophyllum hue, and on the 
leaves arc regular rows of spots of snowy whiteness, just exactly like those on the 
host marked Sonerila, but a much magnilied Sonerila would hardly be so beautiful. 
If asked to indicate its merit, as is frequently done by laying down the number of 
miles worth travelling to see it, I would scarcely know where to stop. And this is 
an introduction of Mr. Weii-’s, whom I have heard acoredited with sending home 
‘ nothing but rubbish ! ’ It was sent out by the Horticultural Society at a stage 
when its beauty could not bo soon, and has, I believe, been lost by most people to 
whom it was sent— probably not being sufficiently established at tho time. Did 
Mv. Weir introduce noqght else, it is sufficient to make his journey remembered, 
