MAY. 
105 
a shrubby Labiate from Central Africa, forming a lioary twiggy bush, 4 to 
0 feet high, clothed with small ovate entire leaves, and flowering copiously 
from their upper axils. The two-lipped dowsers are remarkable for their dark 
maroon purple colour, and their delicious violet-like perfume. It was 
raised from seeds sent by Mdlle. Tinne, and was first shown at the Inter¬ 
national Exhibition of 1866. During the winter and spring, it has flowered 
at Ivew T ; also with Mr. Williams in a warm greenhouse. Another Kew 
plant deserving of notice is Dombeyct Mastersii (Bot. Mag., t. 5689), a Ster- 
culiaceous stove shrub, which flowered for the first time last January, though 
it lias long been cultivated. The plant has cordate-ovate acuminate leaves, 
and corymbose heads of perfumed white flowers. The beautiful Saccolabium 
ffujanteum (Bot. Mag., t. 5685), one of the choicest of Orchids, and nearly 
related to the charming S. violaceum, flowered in great perfection last 
autumn with Messrs. Yeitch & Sons, who have introduced plants from Ran¬ 
goon. The flowers, which are white spotted with violet, and most power¬ 
fully and deliciously scented, continued in beauty “for nearly a quarter of a 
year.” It has thick leathery bilobed leaves, and long dense racemes of 
flowers, of which the sepals and petals are white with a few lilac dots, and 
the lip is three-parted at the top, and there marked with a broad prominent 
blotch of deep violet. It is one of the choicest of recent acquisitions among 
Orchids. 
A very pretty figure of Fittonia argyroneura occurs in M. Van Houtte’s 
work (Flore, 1.1664). The leaves of this novelty (which is a congener of the 
plant known as Gymnostachyum Verscliaffeltii, and of which a brighter- 
coloured form has since been called in gardens G. Pearcei), are broadly ovate 
with a cordate base, and of a bright green, having the principal and secondary 
veins traced out with pure white—a very elegant stove herb. The yellowish 
variety of Iresine Herbstii called aureo-reticulata (Floral Mag., t. 383), differs 
from the type in having the leaves green instead of red, and in the secondary 
veins being confusedly marked out with creamy white blotches, the stalks and 
main ribs being rosy red as in the original form, and the creamy hue ex¬ 
tending along the sides of the primary veins. It is distinct, and is said to 
be constant, but lacks the rich colouring evident in the original form when 
that is seen at its best. It remains to be ascertained whether it will prove 
more generallv acceptable as a summer bedder. 
M. 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE KALOSANTHES. 
I puepose, in the following notes, to treat more especially of those 
varieties of the Kalosanthes which are commonly known under the syno- 
nyme of Crassula coccinea. Few, if any, evergreen plants introduced from 
the Cape of Good Hope repay careful and attentive culture better than 
these ; independently of which, they combine with an originality of form, 
that contrasts most favourably with other greenhouse plants, and much 
brilliancy of colour, a degree of facility in cultivation second to none. I 
will commence from the beginning of April, and sketch out the subsequent 
treatment necessary to insure success. 
Young plants in a thriving state selected at that season for the purpose 
of being grown into fine specimens, should be pinched back so as not to 
allow them to flower during the following summer. They are to be kept well 
lunched in, and near the glass, until the next July twelvemonths. When 
