1870. ] 
KEW PLANTS OF 18G9. 
O 
maturity and ripeness ; Orpheline cVEngltein also remains ripe witliout rotting 
for a long time. JSfarie Louise is a delightful pear, but it has almost to be 
watched, for it is rij)e in one hour and rotten in the next. Could we obtain a 
Marie Louise with the amiable peculiarity of waiting a little longer to be eaten, 
what a gain it would be to gardeners !— William Ingram, Belvoir. 
NEW PLANTS OF 1869. 
® HE record of Novelties for the year that is past is by no means a scanty one. 
Some of the subjects which it includes we have from time to time referred 
f to, but we propose in this place to note a few words collectively concerning 
those New Plants which, in our judgment, are, for our gardens, the most 
important acquisitions of the year. 
Among Palms, those princes of the vegetable world, Weljia regia, from the 
Amazon country, recommends itself as a handsome plant, with deeply bilobed 
leaves ; while Plectocomia eloiigata, from Java, with the stalks whitened and 
studded with tufted pale-coloured spines, and Martinezia Lindeniana^ from 
Tropical America, a palm of a very distinct character, its short, broad leaves 
being jagged at the margins, and its glaucous leaf-stalks being furnished with 
long, slender spines, are other welcome additions to the bilobed group. Seafortliia 
Veitchii, from Australia, is a novel pinnate species in the way of S. elegans. Then 
Veitchia Johannis^ from the South Sea Islands, with truncate leaflets; Oiico- 
sperma Van Houtteanum^ from the Seychelles, with dark, needle-shaped spines on 
the reddish stalks ; Ptgchosperma Alexandres^ from Tropical Australia, with quite 
smooth leaf-stalks—all these having bold arching foliage ; and Cedamus ciliaris, 
from Java, with its neat short leaves, formed of narrow, closely-set pinnae, are 
other examples of elegant species furnished with pinnate foliage. Of a distinct 
tj^pe is Thrinax havanensis^ from the West Indies, which furnishes a very hand¬ 
some slender-growing palmate-leaved species, strikingly adapted for decorative uses. 
Ferns have received some important additions. Amongst the stove species, the 
finest by far is Davedlia g)(dlida alias Mooreana^ a large decompound pale-green 
species, from Borneo, remarkable for its small oblique segments, and its bulging 
sori. Acropliorus (or Davallia) hemiptera forms a charming small pinnate basket 
fern, with creeping rhizomes, and comes also from Borneo ; while amongst new gold 
ferns we have Gymnogramma Lancheana gigantea, a deep golden, broad pinnuled 
Belgian variety, of great beauty and interest. Greenhouse ferns are represented 
by Adiantum Capillus-veneris magnijicum^ a variety with very large crisp}^ and 
incised pinnules, rivalling in beauty the exquisite A. farleyense ; another variety 
of the same species, undulatum^ is interesting from its crispy appearance; and 
A. excisum Leyi^ also a garden variety, forms a condensed cristate mass. Asple- 
niurn fernandeziamim^ introduced from Montevideo, is a pretty dwarf pinnate 
proliferous species ; Pteris serrulata cristata magnifica^ an English seedling, is a 
grandly crested form of an elegant species, common in the tj^pical form, and re- 
