176 
STANDARD ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
Many changes have taken place in the 
nomenclature of this plant, since it first be- 
came known to botanists ; and besides Chae- 
togastra, it has been referred to Rhexia, 
Gsbeckia, and Melastoma. The younger 
Linnaeus called it Melastoma strigosa; while 
Desroux calls it 31. ciliata. Osbechia ornata 
was a name given to it by Swartz. Sieber 
called it Rhexia chamoecistus. Vahl adopted 
the name M. inconstans ; Richard that of jR. 
strigosa, and on another occasion li. ornata. 
Finally, the name above adopted was given to 
it by I)e Candolle. 
The existence of so many names may be 
thought in some measure a libel on the prac- 
tice of botanists ; but this opinion will for the 
most part be confined to those who have made 
little advance in botanical knowledge. A mere 
name is of little avail in the identification of 
a plant : a name must be associated with what 
is called a " character," that is, such a descrip- 
tion of its leading features as may lead to its 
recognition. Now, when a group becomes 
extensive, or when a revision with a view to 
precision in this respect is aimed at, in respect 
to accumulated knowledge, new groups often 
have to be formed, and these groups must 
have names by which in future to identify 
them. This is a justification of many new 
names, but not of all ; sometimes, indeed, they 
are not quite justifiable, and are not adopted 
into use. But there is another source of a di- 
versity of names. The same plant is sometimes 
described by different persons nearly at the 
same time, unknown to each other ; or the 
first description is imperfect, so that the plant 
is not recognised, and another name is given ; 
or it may have been published in a medium 
that has not been generally diffused. These 
circumstances give rise to synonyms, and as 
the first published name claims precedence, it 
is some time before all this gets put to rights, 
the progressive steps of which are so many 
changes, and appear to the uninitiated like 
the imposition of many new names. 
Our plant is a dwarf shrub, with slender 
tetragonal spreading branches, and not grow- 
ing more than six or eight inches high. The 
branches are covered with adpressed bristles. 
The leaves are small, opposite, ovate-acute, 
entire, with three nerves or ribs, and some- 
what ciliated. The flowers grow in axillary 
and terminal cymes, not many together, but 
the plant is so full of branches, that the 
flowers are really numerous ; they indivi- 
dually consist of four or five ovate petals, of 
a rich rosy-purple colour. The flowers are 
produced at the latter end of summer. 
This is a native of Guadaloupe, on the 
summit of the Sulphur Mountain, where it 
was originally discovered, growing in beds of 
sphagnum. It has alSo been met with on the 
mountains of Montserrat and Martinique. 
Messrs Veitch, of Exeter, have been the in- 
troducers of it to this country, through the 
agency of Mr. Thomas Lobb. 
In cultivation it requires the shelter of a 
warm greenhouse. Cuttings of the half- 
ripened shoots, planted in sand, and covered 
by a bell-glass, the pots being removed to a 
gentle bottom heat, will furnish young plants. 
These may be potted in a mixture of sandy 
peat and leaf-mould, to which a tenth part of 
loam may be added. The pots must be well 
drained, and should be replaced in the hot-bed 
until the 3'oung plants get fresh hold of the 
soil. They are then to be removed to the 
greenhouse, where they will grow freely : but 
at first they must not be much exposed to 
cold air. The form of the plants should be 
a consideration from the earliest period of its 
growth ; and to this end, the young shoots 
should be frequently topped, until the plants 
reach a flowering; size. 
STANDARD ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
Most of our handsome ornamental flower- 
ing trees have a great tendency to grow too 
much upwards to become elegant in form. 
The almond tribe will, when it once gets fast 
hold of the ground, make shoots several feet 
long, and the only way to prevent this is by 
early and continuous pruning. When they 
are procured for planting out, all the small 
wood should be cut clean out close to the bark, 
and the main branches should be shortened 
considerably, the upper eyes be rubbed off, 
and those under the branches left to grow, 
but as these trees bloom upon the young wood, 
the pruning the first year they are planted 
takes away the flower too much to please 
every body ; nevertheless, it should be done to 
make the tree more pendulous than its natural 
habit will allow if undisturbed. We would 
first take out all the branches that incline to 
cross each other, leaving some all round, but 
shorten them to eighteen inches, rubbing off, 
as we observed, all those buds that are on the 
upper side of the branch. The second year 
again cut out all the weakly shoots that come 
too close together, and bear in mind that the 
first object is to get a good skeleton formed 
before the head is allowed to be crowded. 
The first year after planting, when pruned 
as we have directed, the head becomes 
more expanded without running up so much 
as it would if left alone. In shortening the 
branches the second year, discretion must be 
used with regard to the increasing size of the 
head, and if any branches have shot too much 
upwards, let them be shortened still. The 
small lateral shoots, so that they be not too 
thick or close together, may be now left, for 
