Plate 70 . 
THE COPPER-COLOURED MIMULUS. 
Mimulus cupreus . 
If there be one word which more than another has increased 
in value in the gardening world, it is that of “hardy;” and 
when we can prefix to it “ perfectly,” the flower so designated 
at once establishes its character. The last winter was so fatal in 
most places to the fairest productions of our parterres and shrub¬ 
beries ; before that terrible frost, following the wet and sunless 
summer, plants and flowers we had long ceased to think of as 
tender, fell in such multitudes, that many despair of ever seeing 
their gardens as they were previously. When the choicest 
Roses and the finest Conifers, nay, when our universal favou¬ 
rite the Laurustinus, and even (as at Elvaston) our common 
English Holly, were killed to the ground, we can thoroughly 
understand how much gardeners will prize anything which can 
be pronounced as “perfectly hardy.” It is this, as well as their 
intrinsic beauty, that gives such importance to those rare and 
beautiful variegated plants sent home by Mr. Fortune from 
Japan, and that, for the same reasons, will make the plant we 
now figure so very desirable. 
Mimulus cupreus was exhibited by Messrs. Yeitch and Son, 
of the Exotic Nursery, Chelsea and Exeter, at the opening fete 
of the Royal Horticultural Society, in a collection of miscella¬ 
neous plants, wdiich received a special award. It was then 
greatly admired for its exceedingly dwarf habit and the un¬ 
usual colour of the flowers. We are indebted to the kindness of 
Messrs. Yeitch, of Exeter, for the following extract from their 
correspondent’s letter in Chili:—“ A beautiful thing, not es¬ 
sentially differing from Mimulus luteus in form, except that it 
would be dwarfer and more delicate, but having flowers of the 
richest orange-crimson, if may use the term; in fact, an almost 
