THE VIOLET AND ITS VARIETIES BEJARIA COARCTATA. 
221 
particularly well adapted for growing bulbs in 
moss, or, which is still better, moss and sand ; 
for the sand forms a sort of ballast to keep the 
vessels steady, and the moss hides the san^, 
Avhich is not so sightly alone ; and beside this, 
the sand holds water enough to keep them 
nourished without so much attention as is re- 
quired by the moss alone. The practice is 
becoming very general. The stand was in- 
vented by Hamilton, of Cheapside, and has 
been often advertised. 
THE VIOLET AND ITS VARIETIES. 
The Russian violet is certainly one of the 
most delightful little flowers, and often comes 
at the most unpromising time of the year, but 
those who want to be always plucking violets 
should have all the leading varieties. The 
Neapolitan, the double purple, the tree violet, 
(so called, but we could never see why, unless 
a strawberry can be called a tree,) and the 
Russian, are leading sorts ; and although any 
one of them may be sufficient for some peojDle, 
the whole and even more should be grown, 
because some one or other of the sorts may be 
brought to flower at all times. The violet 
loves the shade, but it wants air and its share 
of water. It can be forced without difficulty 
in a one-light box, either planted or in pots ; 
and we prefer pots, because they can be regu- 
lated in quantity and as to season by bringing 
in a few at a time, or at all events by a supply 
from out of doors. As soon as one lot goes 
out of bloom, they can be removed to make 
way for others. One box full may have slight 
bottom heat, another may have none, but the 
sort which is best worth keeping in succession 
is tlie Neapolitan, because its blooms are pale 
blue and very handsome, and there should be 
always a few of these to bunch up with the 
darker varieties and with the white. There 
is no flower more manageable. It is not 
difficult to keep up a bloom from November 
to the spring under protection, and the natural 
ground will supply a succession until the 
assemblage of more gaudy flow^ers eclipses it 
in the general garden, but if watered and 
shaded, their bloom hardly ceases among some 
variety or other the whole year round. A 
garden ought in some shady place to have a 
carpet of violets, and always near the house 
or some favourite seat or arbour, for its per- 
fume is unequalled for delicacy, whether in or 
out of doors, and it can hardly be grown too 
plentifully. 
BEJARIA COARCTATA. 
Bejaria coarctata (Humboldt and Bon- 
pland). — Ericaceae § Rhododendrpw. — Hum- 
boldt and Bonpland describe this plant as a 
charming evergreen shrub, which, in reality, 
it proves to be. The Bejarias have long been 
known to botanists, and have been looked on 
as desiderata in European botany. The pre- 
sent is apparently the first which has been in- 
duced to bloom in this country, though some 
others are known to be in cultivation. It 
appears that all the known species of Bejaria, 
excepting S. racemosa, which is North Ame- 
rican, are native of South America, in the 
Andes, of which Bejaria holds the rank which 
its ally the Rhododendron does in the great 
mountain chain of India, where several re- 
markably fine and very distinct species have 
recently been found by Dr, Hooker. 
The subject of these remarks, represented 
in the accompanying wood-cut, from the figure 
published in the Botanical Magazine, forms 
a low shrubj attaining from four to five feet 
in height, but flowering copiously when less 
than a foot high. It is considerably branched, 
the branches being pubescent, and rather 
densely leafy. The leaves, which are ever- 
green, are of an elliptic-oblong form, some- 
what acute, entire on the margin, nearly 
sessile, glaucous beneath when mature, smooth 
and shining above, and of a compact and 
brittle text'ure. The flowers grow in dense 
racemes from the ends of the branches, and 
consist of a seven-lobed woolly calyx, and a 
corolla of seven oblong-lanceolate spreading 
petals, of a pale rose colour with dai-k streaks ; 
they are produced in the early months of the 
year, and so profusely, that a plant a foot high 
IS said to have been covered with blossoms. 
