I 
U4 BOTANICAL FRAGMENTS. 
foot or so in length, with small foliage, and comparatively large hut ragged-looking " red rose" blossoms. 
R. Thompsoni, Maddeni, and glaucum, are the gems of this series. 
Sir W. J. Hooker refers the ConocliniumiantMnum,1igoxe& in our vol. i. (p. 185), to the genus Hebe- 
clinium, to which, Mr. Henfrey at the page referred to, had noticed its affinity. Sir W. Hooker says 
it assuredly agrees better with Hebeclinium than with Conoclinium ; and native specimens have long 
been in his herbarium, collected by Jurgensen and Linden, not from St. Catherine, Brazil, as stated by 
the Belgian cultivators, but from Mexico, near Vera Cruz and Xalapa. He proposes to call it 
Hebeclinium ianthinum. Generically the plant is very near true Eupatorium. It proves to be a dwarf 
free-blooming plant, more ornamental and manageable than had been supposed ; and probably may be 
grown successfully with less heat than has been recommended for it. 
The old Coelogyne maeulata has been re-christened Pleione maculata (Paxt. Fl. Gard. ii., t. 39). 
Dr. Lindley remarks : — " The spotted Pleione has long been known to botanists as a species belonging 
to that alpine group of so-called Coelogynes, of which C. Wallichiana is the best known example. They 
certainly greatly resemble the genus Coelogyne," to which many years since he had reduced them, "but 
differ in certain points to which we shall refer when we proceed to figure Pleione hnmilis, another 
charming species of which Messrs. Veitch have obtained possession." 
The Dilpasand, a kind of Vegetable Marrow, is the fruit of Citmllus fistulosus, a species recently 
described by Dr. Stocks (Hook. Journ. Bot. iii., 74). It is closely allied to the Colocynth, but, unlike 
that bitter drastic species, is a delicate article of food. It has stout diffuse fistulous stems, which are 
densely villous, with spreading hairs and viscid odorous glands when young ; the leaves are cordate 
ovate, five-lobed; the fruit at first apple-shaped and hispid, finally quite smooth, much depressed at the 
base and apex, and of a light apple-green ; the seeds are black. It is known in Scinde by the name of 
Meho ; in the Punjaub, by Hindwana (the name of the Water-melon in Scinde); and, in the Decean, 
by Dilpasand, or " Delicious " — a very appropriate name. In Scinde it is cultivated from April to 
September. The fruit is picked when about two-thirds grown, of the size and shape of a common 
turnip. It is pared, cut in quarters, the seeds extracted, well boiled in water and finally in a little 
milk, with salt, black pepper, and nutmeg. In England it might be cultivated like the Vegetable 
Marrow, which it much resembles in its qualities. 
Facts seem to be telling against the aboriginality of Anacharis Alsinastrum, an aquatic recently 
added to our list of native plants. One of the least suspicious localities in which it had been found 
was the Whiteadder, in Berwickshire, where it was found by Dr. Johnson, who now writes as follows : 
— " For thirty years I have herborized in that part of the Whiteadder where the plant is now 
common. When first I found the Anackaris I could discover only two or three tufts of it : I could see 
no more of the plant anywhere near. Now, however, the place is actually full of it ; last year they 
had to get iron rakes to clear it away, and cart-loads were drawn out. Now, I maintain that it was 
impossible the plant could have escaped notice had it been there. It is no pigmy — in fact it is a plant 
that attracts notice ; its minute flowers whiten the surface of the water. It is to me quite plain that it 
is of recent introduction. My explanation is this : the plant had been introduced into the lake at 
Dunse Castle, with alien aquatics, for in the lake there are several foreigners ; there it had multiplied 
itself until it took thick possession of some parts of the lake. Now, while they were paddling amongst 
this herbage, some small bits may have adhered to the plumage of the wild ducks and other aquatic 
birds, and by their means they have been carried to the Whiteadder, which is, as the crow flies, about 
two miles from Dunse Castle." Mr. Whittaker of Breadsall has also recently found the Anacharis in 
great abundance near Derby, in places where it has never previously been known to exist. Our own 
experience is quite in accordance with these facts and inferences, as we have already expressed (vol. 
ii., p. 40). 
We are glad to learn that Sir W. J. Hooker's Icones Plantarum is now to be published regularly and 
monthly. This useful work, which has already extended to eight hundred plates, is devoted to the 
illustration and description of new or little known plants from the author's herbarium. 
In addition to the Belgian Heliotropes, uamed Triomphe and Souvenir de Liege, which are justly 
esteemed, there has been raised another variety of equal merit, the //. Immortalite de Louise Marie. 
The ordinary species, as every one knows, has the odour of the Vanilla; but this new variety has a per- 
fume partaking of the fragrance of the Violet and the Wallflower. Its habit is densely globular, and 
it produces its flowers much more freely than any other variety. The leaves are small and roundish. 
The cymes circinal, always dichotomous. On the whole, the plant has a somewhat drooping aspect, 
oi similar to those the Romans placed on the graves of their dead. The flowers themselves are large ; k? 
green at the centre — emblematical of hope, surrounded by a crown of gold — emblem of holiness ; and 
the five rays of the border present the virginal whiteness of the celestial stars, with this peculiarity, 
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