









OF ORNAMENTAL EXOTIC PLANTS. 119 
E. Crista-gallt. 
distinguish between them, unless they are seen growing together ; and as H. laurifolia is much the hardier kind of 
The fact is, that H. laurifolia so closely resembles the present species, that it is difficult to 
the two, it is quite natural that it should be the most common. When the two plants are seen growing together in 
a stove, it will be found that they are very different, as H. Crista-galli will, under those circumstances, appear so 
much the larger and stronger of the two as to render it easy to conceive that it forms in its native country a large 
tree. When, however, the two plants are grown in a greenhouse, EH. laurifolia has generally the advantage, as it is 
much hardier than EH. Crista-galli. The present species is a native of Brazil, whence it was introduced in 1771. 
2.—ERYTHRINA LAURIFOLIA Jacg. 
Synonyme.—E. Crista-galli Sims et Ker. 
Encravincs.—Bot. Mag., t. 2161; Bot. Reg., t. 313 ; Paxt. Mag. 
of Bot., vol. iii, p. 175: all under the name of #. Crista-galli; and 
Sweet’s Brit. Flow. Gard., t. 142. 
THE LAUREL-LEAVED CORAL TREE, 
Sreciric Cuaracter.— Stems suffruticose, branched. 
glabrous, rather prickly. 
Branches 
Leaflets petiolate, oblong, acuminated ; 
petioles rather prickly, glandular. Calyx truncate, unidentate. Keel 
monopetalous, Stamens monadelphous. (G. Don.) 
Description, &c.—When this species was first introduced from South America in the year 1800, it was 
‘supposed to be the same as EH. Crista-galli, but there appeared some slight degrees of difference which evidently 
puzzled the botanists of those days. 
different from E. Crista-galli; and afterwards the Honourable and Rev. W. Herbert (late Dean of Manchester), 
Mr. Jonas Dryander appears to have been the first who suspected it to be 
when he sent a fine specimen of this plant to be figured in the ‘“ Botanical Magazine,” remarked, “that it must 
have been an error to imagine this shrub to be a timber tree in Brazil, where it has probably been confounded with 
some other species. ‘The flowering branches,” he continues, “ die back like those of the Tree-Pzony; and 
although it acquires a woody stem, it does not rise with a continued leader, but the eyes nearest the root break 
stronger than those higher up the stem.” The difference between the two species fully explains these observations, 
and at the same time proves their accuracy. The true H. Crista-galli is a timber-tree in Brazil, and it has elliptic, 
obtuse, pointed leaves, and strong crooked prickles. It is also tender; and though it will live in a green- 
house, it never flowers so well as when it is kept ina stove. LH. laurifolia, on the other hand, grows and flowers 
profusely not only in greenhouse heat, but in the open air. It is, however, never larger, even in its native 
country, than a suffruticose shrub, which when planted in the open air in Great Britain becomes herbaceous, and 
is killed down to the ground every winter, though it throws up fresh stems every spring, which are covered with 
flowers in September. The plant when first introduced was always kept in the stove, but it was afterwards tried 
in the greenhouse and found to succeed so much better in a moderate heat, that Mr. Milne, of the Fulham 
Nursery, had the curiosity, in 1823, to plant one in the open air; and since that period it has been frequently 
tried in similar situations, observing that each plant should be placed deep in the earth in a warm border, backed 
by a south wall. It is, however, safest to grow the plants in the free soil of a conservatory, where they will be 
extremely ornamental from their luxuriant growth, and their abundance of sharply-pointed leaves and large rich 
dark scarlet flowers. In ‘“ Paxton’s Magazine of Botany,” the following directions are given for growing this plant 
in pots :—‘ As soon as the plants have done growing, which will be by the latter end of August, cut them down, 
and set them in a cool greenhouse ; keep them quite dry till about the end of November, then pot them in fresh 
soil, suiting the size of the pot to the size of the plants; they never require one larger than a 16. When potted, 
water, and set them in a house where the heat is about 60°. In the spring, that is, about the beginning of 



