June 13, 1839. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
483 
moisture, as in swampy soils, where the fronds are usually small and 
ill-formed, and the fruit scarce ; secondly, from lack of moisture, where 
the soil is hard and dry, the sap-bearing vessels shrink and the plant 
perishes. Amongst the insects and animals destructive to the Palm 
may be mentioned the Cocoa Nut weevil, which eats its way into the 
heart of the tree, and forms its cocoon there ; the Cocoa Nut beetle, the 
flying squirrel, the common striped Palm squirrel, the flying fox, and 
the tree dog. The rat family is very destructive, particularly in the 
Laccadives. It is exceedingly difficult to get at these rats, they make 
to themselves so many hiding places amongst the trees. Eat hunts are, 
however, occasionally got up, and to these all the inhabitants turn out 
with sticks and poles. While some of the hunters climb the trees and 
■drive out the rats, the rest surround the trunks and kill the animals as 
they rush down. On some of these occasions thousands of rats are killed. 
The people, being Mahommedaus, cannot be induced to keep dogs. 
MARVEL OF PERU. 
Though we have grown this plant for many years and found it 
diffusing its night fragrance in several gardens, it is by no means 
generally cultivated. It is a very old, interesting, and attractive plant, 
but only displays its charms towards evening in hot weather, its flowers 
“ sportive,” or producing different coloured flowers, not from the same 
root only, but often on the same stem. Some of the flowers are yellow, 
others purple, others again nearly white ; some are striped or flaked like 
a Carnation, others half of one colour and half of another; indeed, 
there is no accounting for their vagaries in coloration, but the plants 
are not the less admired when seen in full beauty in the evening of a 
summer’s day, and when the flowers are closed the plants have an agree¬ 
able appearance from their bright green glossy leaves. 
By sowing in heat in March or early April, potting the plants sepa¬ 
rately, and growing them close to the glass of a warm frame or green¬ 
house, removing them to cool frames early in May preparatory to 
planting them out towards the end of the month or early in June, they 
flower freely the same season. That is the way in which the majority 
of plants are raised in gardens where suitable structures are provided. 
In the absence of either a frame or greenhouse, amateurs may raise 
plants by simply sowing seed in the open ground from the middle of May 
to the end of June, allowing the plants to grow undisturbed and form 
tubers, taking up these on the approach of frost in the autumn, preserv¬ 
ing them in dry sand in a cool yet frost-proof place, and planting them 
the following April as if they were Potatoes, and free-flowering plants 
will follow. They grow well in ordinary fertile garden soil ; if in pots, 
turfy loam, with a sixth part of decayed manure added, and less than 
half that quantity of wood ashes, will be suitable. When growing wild 
Fig. 79.—MARVEL OF PERU. 
remaining closed in the daytime, except when the weather is very dull. 
Its botanical name is Mirabilis Jalapa, from mirabilis, wonderful ; and 
its roots were once supposed to produce the jalap of the chemists’ shops, 
hence the specific name. It is, however, a misnomer, as the medicine 
referred to is not derived from the plant under notice. The name has, 
however, been attached to the plant for nearly three centuries, and so it 
must remain. 
The Marvel of Peru is not an annual, but it is a common practice to 
raise plants from seed yearly, and that is the quickest, cheapest, and 
easiest way of obtaining a stock of them. They, however, form tubers, 
and these may be preserved from year to year like Potatoes, and like 
them planted in the spring. Neither will endure frost. In its native 
•country, Peru, where the tubers are not killed by frost, they remain in 
the ground and attain to a very great size. So they do in this country 
when the plants are well grown and the roots preserved for a number 
•of years. We know of some weighing from 3 to 6 lbs. each that have 
been grown in large pots stood along the side of walks in a town 
garden, the plants now approaching the size of Gooseberry bushes, and 
covered with flowers in the summer like huge bouquets of various 
colours. The bushes would be still larger if the tubers were planted 
out, but might not be quite so floriferous. They fill the garden with a 
delicious perfume in the sultry nights of summer and in early autumn. 
The plants are interesting through being what gardeners term 
in the West Indies the Marvel of Peru is commonly called the “ Four 
o’clock Plant,” as the flowers commence opening about that time. They 
are shown slightly reduced in the accompanying engraving. 
MANCHESTER BOTANICAL AND HORTICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 
Great Whitsun Exhibition. 
This opened as usual on the Friday before Whit-Sunday in the very 
finest of weather ; indeed, the weather at Manchester up to the evening 
of Whit-Monday was all that could well be desired, though on Sunday 
and Monday the wind blew fresh and chilly as if betokening rain. The 
Exhibition was thought by those qualified to judge to be one of the very 
best ever held at Old Trafford ; and every part of the huge Exhibition 
house, the new annexe, and the spacious concert hall were crowded 
with exhibits. As is usual all the leading stove and greenhouse plants, 
including the Orchids, were staged in the Exhibition house. The large 
groups, the Roses, Pelargoniums, herbaceous and bulbous plants, &c., 
found a place in the annexe, while all the cut flowers and not a few 
of the smaller plants were in the concert hall. Each of the three 
divisions of the Show buildings differed materially in detail, and it 
seemed as if three distinct exhibitions were provided for the members. 
