November 22, 1883. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
445 
secured certificates for this variety, which was much admired at 
Kensington and Kingston. It is one of the fluted-floret section, the florets 
recurviDg slightly and of a peculiarly rich and distinct shade of rosy 
purple. Very telliDg and attractive.—L. Castle. 
VERSCHAFFELTIA SPLENDIDA. 
A gardener writes us that he “ is in a fix and hopes we may be able 
to help him out of it.” His case is that he is “likely to lose his situation, 
because he cannot help the old leaves of the above Palm decaying,” but 
is expected to keep it “feathered to the ground,” the plant being 9 feet 
high. 
The owner of the Palm in question expects a practical impossibility, 
and not until he can grow an Oak tree to a large size and keep it 
“ feathered to the ground ” ought he to expect his gardener to achieve 
this phenomenon with a Palm. It is the nature of these handsome 
completely envelopes the stem, the latter portion being abundantly 
armed with long black spines, whilst the footstalk is only about 6 inches 
long and perfectly smooth. The leaves are entire, broad, somewhat 
serrate at the edges, and deeply bifid at the apex ; they are of a rich 
bright green in colour, and in a plant of some 3 or 4 feet high the blade 
will measure from 3 to 4 feet in length and nearly as much across. One 
of the peculiar features of this plant is its broad entire leaves, which is 
one of the distinguishing characteristics of the genus. This will satisfy 
every reasonable person who has hitherto not been familiar with the 
habit of this plant, and we are convinced will help our correspondent in 
his difficulty. 
EUCHARIS AMAZONICA. 
I SEND for your notice a very extraordinary flower scape of Eucharis 
amazonica. It has nine flowers upon it. This is more than I ever re- 
Fig. 88.—VERSCHAFFELTIA SPLENDIDA. 
plants to cast their lower leaves as others unfold, and the charm of 
Palms consists in their tall straight stems and crown of handsome 
foliage. 
A developed specimen of this Palm is represented in the engraving. 
It is a native of the Seychelle Islands, belonging to the dependencies of 
the Mauritius, and when first introduced to our gardens, in 1864 was 
known by the provisional name of Kegelia inajestica. The stem is 
slender and of somewhat quick growth ; as it increases in size it sends 
down adventitious roots, which in the form of an inverted cone ultimately 
serve to support the tree after the manner of the genus Iriartea of the 
American continent, and give to the plant a most singular and picturesque 
appearance. The stem is profusely clothed with very long black needle¬ 
like spines, which spread around it in a fanlike manner. The petiole is 
short, with the exception of the large, broad, sheathing base, which 
member having seen upon one head ; but the most noticeable part is the 
extra development of one of the flowers. You will see that instead of 
the usual number of six petals in the flower it has ten. It has also ten 
stamens set along the edge of the corona. We have just had in flower 
a pot of Eucharis amazonica with sixty-seven spikes of flowers. These 
opened in a temperature of an intermediate house, and were remarkable 
for the size of the flowers.— Robert MacKellar. 
[The spike sent is very fine, and the flower referred to extremely hand¬ 
some. A similar one was exhibited last week at South Kensington by 
Mr. Wallis of Keele Hall. If a flower of this character were fertilised 
with its own pollen there would be a chance of a double variety being 
raised ; but whether this would be more beautiful than the normal form 
is a question of taste. The experiment is worth trying.] 
Crickets and Cockroaches.—I should be glad if any of your 
readers could tell me what will rid my houses of crickets and cock¬ 
roaches. They eat everything, and the loss I have sustained is very 
