FEBRUARY. 
37 
to these we now propose to refer briefly, under the sub-divisions of Stove, 
Greenhouse, and Hardy plants. 
It is amongst Stove plants that the greatest acquisitions have been made, 
and of these the groups of foliage plants and Orchids have been most 
highly favoured. Of other Stove plants which will be grown for their 
blossoms, we have gained two entirely new and very ornamental genera of 
Acantliaceous plants, which will rival the best of those already grown. 
Sanchezia nohilis is one of them, and is remarkable for its long tubular yellow 
flowers disposed in large erect panicles, which have their parts subtended 
by broad ovate crimson bracts. The other is named Ancylogyne longiflora, 
and this, too, bears large panicles of tubular flowers, only the panicles are 
here drooping, and flowers, calyces, pedicels, and ramifications of the 
panicle, are alike of a rich vinous purple colour. Both these are from 
Tropical America, and both have been introduced by Messrs. Veitch & Sons. 
A third flowering stove plant of undoubted merit, is the Passiflora fulgens, 
introduced from Brazil by M. Linden through his collector Mr. Wallis, and 
which adds to a somewhat remarkable form of foliage, having the sinuate 
outline which reminds one of an Oak leaf, a profusion of brilliant scarlet- 
crimson blossoms, set off with an orange-scarlet coronet barred with white. 
Nothing that we cultivate resembles any of these; and we might add to them 
the pretty little Rudgea or Psychotria nivosa, a native of Parana, shown at 
the great International Exhibition by M. Linden, an evergreen shrub, with 
erect stems, elliptic-oblong leaves, and terminal cymes of snow-white woolly 
tubular flowers. 
The year which has witnessed the first public exhibition and recognition 
of such a glorious plant as Cattleya Douiana marks an era in Orchid-growing. 
It was, indeed, flowered in 1865 by Messrs. Veitch & Sons, to whom the credit 
of its introduction is due, but owing to trade exigencies it was only towards 
the latter part of 1866 that the public were permitted to make acquaintance 
with the plant, a specimen of which, acquired from the Messrs. Veitch, was 
shown in blossom by Mr. J. Bateman, and delighted the eyes of all who 
saw it. It may be described as the counterpart of C. labiata in habit, and 
in the size and character of its flowers; but the latter have the sepals and 
petals of a rich nankin yellow, and the broad frilled lip of a uniform rich 
puce purple, traversed throughout by radiating golden veins. This unique 
and splendid Cattleya comes from Costa Bica. Scarcely less valuable an 
acquisition is the Saccolabium giganteum , of which the Messrs. Veitch have 
obtained plants from Rangoon, but which, though in the country previously 
under the name of Vanda densiflora, has not till now been accessible. It 
is a stout-growing epiphyte, with the habit of other Saccolabiums, and with 
densely-flowered pendent spikes of flowers, which are nearly of the same 
shape as those of Saccolabium violaceum (Vanda violacea), but larger, both 
sepals and petals being cream-coloured, the latter bearing a row of amethyst- 
coloured dots. The lip is of a very intense amethyst colour, enlivened by 
darker amethyst-coloured veins, the lateral ones radiating outwards. The 
smell is deliciously aromatic, and at the same time remarkably powerful. 
Very striking in colour and a most showy and ornamental plant is the 
Oncidium Marshallianum, from South America, a species allied to 0. crispum, 
but with large flowers of a rich golden yellow—a colour too little cared for 
of late amongst new Orchids, but most valuable in the Orchid-house or the 
exhibition table. Another debutante of the season has been the lovely Den- 
drobium thyrsiflorum , which is, perhaps, the best of Messrs. Low’s introduc¬ 
tions from Moulmein. It has much the habit of D. densiflorum, its lovely 
