Plate 95 . 
ERYTHRINA PARCELSII. 
The genus Erythrina has been well known for a long time as containing some very 
valuable plants, with bold leaves and very handsome flowers, and many of the species, such 
as E. crista^alli ; and garden varieties, such as Marie Bell anger, have been used largely for 
summer gardening. We have seen in Paris large beds of them, giving, with their brilliant 
coral-like flowers, a very grand aspect to the subtropical garden. 
In the south of England and Ireland, many of the species will thrive admirably in the 
open air, if the crowns of the plants are covered over with cocoa-nut fibre, ashes, or some 
other protecting material. In the culture of it in the greenhouse, it should be kept dry 
during winter, and when it shows signs of growing, should be shaken out of the pot and 
repotted. The soil most suitable to them is a mixture of peat and loam, to whicli a little 
sand has been added. When the flowers are near opening, they should be removed to a cool 
greenhouse. 
The species which we now figure is remarkable for its fine variegation, and the leaves 
are large and strikingly handsome, while the flowers, which are of a bright crimson red 
colour, are very showy. It has been introduced from the South Sea Islands, and is included 
in the many valuable plants sent out by Mr. Bull. 
Plate 96 . 
DWARF NARCISSI. 
Since the renewed attention that has been given to the old favourites of the garden, 
many of our hitherto neglected garden bulbs have been brought anew into cultivation, 
although it is to be feared that many of them have been irrevocably lost ; amongst these the 
Narcissi have claimed and justly obtained a place. The prizes oflered by Mrs. Wynne have 
not, it is true, brought forward a large number of competitors, but they have at least shown 
the zeal and intelligence with which some of our cultivators, especially j\Ir. Peter Barr, 
have pursued the subject, and we have therefore, in order to encourage this revival of a 
laudable taste, illustrated one little-known section of the very dwarf Narcissi. 
The task of properly naming this genus seems to be wellnigh hopeless. Mr. Baker, of Kew, 
has recently made a valuable effort in this direction, but we are naturally more concerned 
Avith the popular than with the scientific view of the question ; and we desire especially to 
commend to those who are interested in herbaceous borders, these beautiful miniature flowers. 
Planted near the edge of a rockery, they expand their flowers when just peeping out of the 
ground, and in very early spring ; and as other varieties succeed one another, a succession is 
obtained until the double Narcissus Poeticus flowers in June ; there is hardly any genus of 
spring-flowering bulbs which gives so long a succession of blooms as this, and this makes 
them the more valuable. We may hope then, that with the encouragement given to them^ 
we may see a widesj)read interest in their cultivation, and we are sure that any one who had 
seen the large number of varieties exhibited by Mr. Barr during the past season would be 
impelled to attempt their cultivation. 
