STEPHANOTIS FLORIBUNDA. 
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STEPHANOTIS FLORIBUNDA. 
(Adolphe Brongniart.) 
MANY-FLOWERED STEPHANOTIS. 
Beautiful in the extreme, and possessing 
a most delicious fragrance, this fine climbing 
plant is admired by all who know it. Its 
beauty is derived from the contrast presented 
between the pearly whiteness of its large, 
profuse, and handsomely formed blossoms, and 
the deep green hue of its ample and enduring 
leaves ; and this beauty, supported as it is by 
a most exquisite fragrance, gives it an indis- 
putable claim to the high estimation in which 
it is held. One drawback alone is attached 
to its high recommendations — it is a tropical 
plant, and must be cultivated in a hothouse. 
But there are hundreds of hothouses in this 
" land of flowers," and in every one of these 
the Stephanotis should find a place ; and not 
only may it claim admission there,— it should 
also claim a participation of those privileges 
which are inseparable from perfection in the 
art of cultivation, and which in this country 
are certainly not " hid under a bushel," but 
are made manifest to all who will " read, mark, 
and learn" them. In no country has the art 
of cultivation been so far perfected as in this ; 
in n other country do there exist such faci- 
lities for acquiring a knowledge of its princi- 
ples and their application. 
To come more closely to our subject. The 
general appearance of Stephanotis Jloribunda 
will be perceived from the accompanying 
sketch. It is a vigorous growing and per- 
manent climbing plant, with evergreen foliage ; 
adapted in its habit, when grown in a pot, to 
cover — say a flat trellis of two yards diameter, 
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or a cylindrical one of the same height, and 
two feet or upwards in diameter ; or if planted 
out in a larger bulk of soil, and its branches 
trained, as is sometimes the case, under the 
roof of a hothouse, a healthy plant would ere 
long cover a space of at least five or six square 
yards ; it is also suitable for training on 
pillars. A plant well furnished, of the size 
specified in pots, might be grown in the course 
of two or three seasons ; and in the other case, 
the size of the plant would go on increasing, 
as long as health and vigour were maintained. 
The leaves, it will be seen, are bluntly ellip- 
tical, opposite each other on the branches ; they 
are rather large, thick or leathery, smooth, 
and shining, especially on the upper surface. 
The flowers grow in bunches, or umbels — that 
is, in bunches of six or eight, all issuing from 
the same point at the extremity of the peduncle 
or general stalk, which is attached to the 
branch at the sides, between the bases of the 
leaf-stalks ; they are what are called hypo- 
crateriform, or salver-shaped, that is, with a 
longish almost cylindrical tube, spread out at 
the extremity into five flat segments, which 
in this case are oval and somewhat oblique ; 
the tube is upwards of an inch long, and the 
expanded segments form a spreading " limb" 
as it is termed, more than an inch in diameter ; 
they are pure white. 
It is a native of Madagascar, where some 
other species are also met with. It was raised 
in the Botanic Garden in the Isle of Bourbon, 
from Madagascar seeds, and thence brought 
to the Jardin du Roi, at Paris, where it first 
flowered in 1834. Probably it thence found 
its way to the garden establishments of this 
country about 1835. 
There is nothing very peculiar in the culti- 
vation it requires, for although to secure 
healthy specimens good management is essen- 
tial, the particulars of treatment accord gene- 
rally with those required by other plants. 
Being a permanent plant, and also one which 
attains a considerable size, it requires when 
kept in a pot, to be well potted, and will re- 
quire to be transferred, as its size increases, to 
a larger pot, ultimately requiring a pot of 
considerable size. The permanent nature of 
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