OCTOBER. 
209 
ANTHURIUM SCHERZERIANUM. 
WITH AN ILLUSTRATION. 
The genus Anthurium, one of the Orontiacese, is remarkable rather for the 
beauty of its foliage than for the showiness of its inflorescence. Some species 
of recent introduction, as, for example, Anthurium cordifolium, alias magnifi- 
cum, and grande, furnish, indeed, leaves which vie with those of almost any 
other plants we cultivate—so graceful is their outline, so soft the blendings of 
their velvety colours, and so pleasing the contrast afforded by the flowing lines 
of ivory white, marking the course of their nerves and nervures; but these, 
and indeed the majority of the species, can claim no importance from an orna¬ 
mental point of view, in regard to their inflorescence, which comprises a spathe 
of dull green, and a spadix of an equally dull tone of colour. 
In the subject of our present plate we have floral beauty combined with 
brilliancy of hue in no common degree, winning for its subject one of the fore¬ 
most places amongst stove plants recently introduced to our gardens. Its im¬ 
provement since first brought into notice, too, has been wonderful. Shown 
first in 1862 in company with the glorious Lilium auratum, it was, indeed, ad¬ 
mired, but elicited little warmth of admiration; and the figure which about 
that time appeared in the “Botanical Magazine,” shows the plant in a state 
ludicrously inferior to that in which it has been shown the present year, as 
represented in our plate. In the older figure just mentioned the spathe 
measures If inch in length, and three-quarters of an inch in breadth, while as 
now grown, and as shown in the accompanying portrait, it measures about 
3 inches in length and If in breadth. In this improved state it ranks, indeed, 
amongst the finest of decorative plants. 
Anthurium Scherzerianum is a native of Guatemala and Costa Rica. It 
was introduced in 1862 by M. Wendland to the Royal Gardens of Hanover, 
and from this source, we believe, was received by Mr. Veitch, of Chelsea, by 
whom it was first exhibited in this country, and by whom the wonderfully im¬ 
proved plants just adverted to were also produced. It is a dwarf-habited her¬ 
baceous plant, having a short erect stem, on which the petiolate, elongate- 
oblong, acuminate, leathery leaves are closely packed, and from which roots are 
protruded between the leafstalks. From between the leaves spring up the 
flower-stalks, which are coloured red, and terminated by an oblong, ovate, rich 
scarlet spathe, which forms the most attractive part of the inflorescence, and is 
always bent back against the stalk. The spadix, which is orange-coloured, is 
quite exposed, and vermiform. The plant is easily cultivated in the stove. We 
are indebted to Mr. Yeitch for our figure. M 
CHRONICLES OF A TOWN GARDEN—No. XXI. 
A eew plants of Gladioli, forming a kind of supplement to the list of those 
then in flower given last month, are yet in bloom; somewhat later than the 
others, it is true, but later just because they happened to occupy a cool and 
somewhat shady border, not so much open to the action of the sun’s rays as 
that occupied by those varieties whose time of flowering I chronicled last 
month. They were a little drawn in stature—lanky without being lean, for 
they produced good spikes of flowers, though the colours were not so brilliant 
as if they had occupied a more open position. The bright scarlet Bowien- 
sis, generally a tall grower, was seen to be overtopping til the rest, and 
yet it was so fine and showy as to make me marvel it is not more generallv 
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