60 
THE LADIES’ FLOWER-GARDEN 
2.— MONSONIA SPECIOSA Lin. fil. THE SHOWY MONSONIA. 
Synonymes, — M. grandiflora Burm.', Geranium speciosum Tliunb. Engraving. — Bot. Mag., t. 73. 
Specific Character. — Leaves palmately five-parted, vvitli the segments finely bipinnatifid. The leaves, petioles, and calyxes are all hairy. 
Descbiption, &c. — This is by far the handsomest species of the genus, and, singularly enough, though it is a 
native of the same country as the last (both coming from the Cape of Good Hope), it is much more easy to 
flower, as it only requires the ordinary degree of light usually found in greenhouses. It is easily propagated by 
cuttings of the root, planted in a pot of mould, and plunged into a hotbed or tan-pit. The point of the cutting 
which contains a bud should be left just above the earth, and in a very short time, if the cutting succeeds, this 
bud will produce a shoot which will flower the same season, or the following spring. The flowers of this species 
are much larger than those of the other. There are two varieties, in one of which the flowers are rose-coloured, 
with a dark crimson eye, and greenish outside ; and in the other they ai’e straw-coloured, with a red centre, 
and a dai’k velvet-like eye. The species was introduced at the same time as the other, and the flowers are produced 
at the same season; that is, in Apiil or May, unless the plant has been raised from a cutting, in which case it^ 
frequently flowers in the autumn. 
t 
OTHER SPECIES OF MONSONIA. 
M. PILOSA WUld. 
This species is probably only a variety of the last, as the principal difference appears to consist in the whole p 
plant being more hairy, and the flowers of a somewhat darker colour. jj 
— - ' ■ -t 
t- 
GENUS II. 
SARCOCAULON Sweet. THE SARCOCAULON. 
Lin. Syst. MONADELPHIA DODECANDRIA. 
Generic Character. — Calyx of five equal mucronately-awned sepals. Petals five, equal, twice as large as the sepals. Stamens fifteen, 
joined together in one body at the base. (O. Don.) 
Description, &c. — The plants belonging to this genus are all natives of the Cape of Good Hope, and of 
course all require a greenhouse in this countiy. The species are shrabs, with fleshy and spiny stems, and generally 
very large and ornamental flowers. They take their name from two Greek words signifying a fleshy stem. 
1.— SARCOCAULON L’HERITIERI Swt. L’HERITIER’S SARCOCAULON. 
Synonymes. — Monsonia spinosa UHer . ; M. L’Heritieri Dec. 
Specific Character — Leaves ovate, mucronate, entire, some of them almost sessile, others on long stalks. {G, Don.) 
I 
Description, &c. — A very showy plant, with dark crimson flowers two inches in diameter. The petioles of 
the leaves do not fall off, but remain in the shape of spines. The peduncles are one-flowered. The plant was 
introduced in 1790, and it flowers in May and June. It succeeds best when planted in a conservatory, where it . 
forms a handsome bush two feet high. 
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