May 3, 1888. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
365 
others are incluled ; still, I went very carefully through my list, and 
had, I think, fairish reasons for omission. Thus, of those mentioned by 
your correspondent I consider Le Phare and Orph^e both too small for 
the requirements of these days. Dietateur is with me one of the very 
latest; indeed, it never bloomed properly with me this season, and so I 
determined not to grow it again. Amitie had utterly failed with me for 
two years, and so I gave it up, looking upon it as I do Madame 
Desportes, beyond my power, in this locality at least, of keeping it 
sound. Eugene Souchet I am agiin trying, but it has as yet failed to 
these things should be earefully taken into account before we conclude 
that there must be want of skill, intelligence, or care because failures 
take place.—D., Deal. 
PAVETTA NATALENSIS. 
Pavettas are not numerous in eultivation, but one, P. borboniea, is 
a favourite in some choice eollections of stove plants, the leaves being 
Fig. 47.—PAVETTA NATALENSIS, 
please me; the same I may say of Phidias. Teresta I might include, 
although I have never grown it but one year. Diamant is much too 
flimsy to suit my taste. Panorama rarely opens with me a sufficient 
number of blooms to make a good spike. Sylvie is also thin, and Pene¬ 
lope poor in colour. 
It is evident there are some varieties which succeed better in certain 
localities than in others. Some of those named by your correspondent 
with which he is unsuccessful do well here, and I remember a first-rate 
grower in Scotland telling me that he could do nothing with Meyerbeer, 
with me so easily grown that I have often thought of growing it in 
clumps like brenchleyensis, and leaving it in the ground to take its 
chance, and yet the grower could do nothing with it. It is well that all 
beautifully variegated with green and yellow, and having a red midrib. 
Another less familiar plant is Pavetta caffra, which has heads of white 
Ixora-like flowers, and near to this comes P. natalensis, which has been 
recently introduced from Natal by Mr. W. Bull, Chelsea, to whom we 
are indebted for the illustration (fig. 47). The flowers are pure white 
in dense simi-globular heads, and the long styles which protrude con¬ 
siderably beyond the mouth of the corollas give the heads a very distinct 
appearance. The plant will succeed in a cool part of the stove, in an 
intermediate house, or in a warm conservatory, and requires a good sandy 
peat as soil, or a small admhxture of light turfy loam. 
