THE GENISTA. 
403 
downy ; it has opposite elliptic pointed leaves, 
narrowed at the base, and when grown lux- 
uriantly, they are about two inches long, but 
are smaller out-doors in a dry, warm situation. 
The flowers are produced singly, on slender 
stalks, from the axils of the leaves ; they are 
about an inch long, and consist of a tube 
divided at the extremity into six small seg- 
ments, and a spur which is somewhat dilated 
and rounded ; the colour of the flower is a 
bright vermilion scarlet, and they are pro- 
duced profusely during the greater part of the 
year ; indeed, when planted out as above 
noticed, the plants become thickly studded and 
are then far superior, for that purpose, to a 
Fuchsia. 
Cupheu plait/centra. 
The plant is a native of Mexico, whence it 
appears to have been brought in a dried state 
by Mr. Hartweg, and described under the 
name here adopted by Mr. Bentham in the 
Plantat Hartivegiarue. In a living state, its 
first appearance in this country was in the 
stove of J. Anderson,Esq., The Holme, Regent's 
Park, whose gardener, Mr. Smith, produced a 
somewhat over-excited plant of it, at one of 
the exhibitions of the Royal Botanic Society 
in 1846. It was accidentally detected by 
Mr. .Smith growing on some of the Orchids 
imported by Mr. Skinner, from Guatemala, 
the seeds having vegetated when the Orchids 
were submitted to the atmospheric conditions 
congenial to their nature. 
The company in which the plant was de- 
tected led to the supposition of its requiring 
a low degree of stove temperature, but sub- 
sequent experience with the plant proves it is 
much better grown in a greenhouse, or even 
out of doors, during the summer months. 
Indeed, it is under the latter aspect that the 
chief merit of the plant is displayed. When 
grown in the confined atmosphere of a stove, 
47. 
it is apt to grow away too freely, and the con- 
sequence is that fewer flowers are produced, 
and those in some degree hidden by the 
foliage, which is then larger than usual. "When 
planted out, however, it forms a small, healthy- 
looking, compactmass, of from nine inches to 
a foot high, sufficiently furnished with neat 
dark green leaves, and studded all over with 
blossoms, which, in the open air, assume a 
degree of brilliancy whichis not found in the 
stove-grown plants. In fact, it is proved to be 
one of those half-hardy suffruticose plants 
which are adapted for bedding out in the 
flower-garden during the summer months, in 
warm dry situations ; and as far as present 
experience goes (but two plants having been 
so treated by Mr. Smith,) it is likely to become 
exceedingly useful for this purpose, being of 
close compact growth, and very prolific of its- 
gay, striking-coloured blossoms. 
It will require to be propagated and kept 
during winter in the same way as Petunias — 
that is, free from damp and frost. The shelves 
of a green-house or a dry pit will probably 
be most suitable. The circumstances under 
which this plant was raised, and the fact, which 
has been fully proved, of its succeeding far 
better out-doors than in a hot-house, seems 
naturally to suggest the question, Why should 
not the Mexican Orchids be grown out-doors,. 
or at least entirely in green-houses ? Time 
will, no doubt, furnish a reply. 
The genus Cuphea belongs to the natural 
order Lythraceoe, and in theLinncean arrange^ 
ment to Dodecandria Monogynia. 
THE GENISTA. 
The Genista is a genus of handsome pea- 
flowered shrubs, mostly of small growth, but 
all of them very ornamental. The flowers 
are principally yellow. The name Genista is 
derived from the Celtic gen, a little bush. The 
species are rather numerous, and, as in most 
other extensive genera, the external appear- 
ance of many of the species is very similar. 
The genus belongs to the natural order of 
Leguminacea? ; and to the Linnrean Mona- 
delphia Decandria. 
Genista cethnensis (the Mount Etna Gen- 
ista) is a hardy, sub-evergreen shrub, of erect, 
twiggy habit, with a few scattered, simple 
linear leaves, and yellow flowers, produced 
in July. It grows four feet high : inhabits the 
wooded region of Mount Etna, in Sicily. 
Genista tint/liea (the English Genista, or 
Petty Whin) is a small, prostrate, deciduous 
shrub, with slender, spiny branches, bearing 
small ovate-lanceolate leaves, and yellow flow- 
ers in terminal racemes, produced profusely in 
May and June. It seldom exceeds a foot in 
height. Suitable for rocky places, or for wil- 
derness scenery. 
u u 
