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NEW AND RARE PLANTS. 
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The Pleasures of Gardening. —"We know not one fancy, one recreation, so unalloyed in all its points as the culti¬ 
vation of a garden. It seems to afford, in common with all the rest of the fancies, the full enjoyment common 
to all, and to have a large balance in its favour. The miser over his treasure gloats not more completely upon 
his money than the gardener does upon his choice fruit, flowers, and vegetables. The picture-collector is not 
prouder of his paintings than the florist is of his Tulips ; nor does the owner of the ancient gems of art point them 
out with more satisfaction, than the gardener shows his best named flowers. If the owner of a gallery of pictures 
has his Rubens, his Leonardo da Vinci, his Paul Potter, so has the owner of a bed of Tulips. The florist combines 
in his single garden as many fancies as would occupy half the population, and delights in all of them. What if 
the conchologist boasts of his collection of shells ? He can only look at them in one state ; there they are, always 
alike, no change ; only a few people can see them at once, and not one in a thousand, though they may he pleased 
with the beauty, can estimate the rarity of them. The antiquarian pores over his coins in solitude; be boasts 
perhaps, that this crown, that guinea, or the other medal, are the only known ones in existence ; hut can he in¬ 
crease them ? Can he oblige a single friend with an offset ? Will it ever he better? hut, if another he found 
like it, will it not he worse ? What has he rare that the florist may not in his own estimation equal ? The Tulip- 
grower would say, “What coin have you got equal to my fine Louis XVI ? ” And no possessor of the only coin 
of a kind, prizes himself more upon his treasure than a florist does in twenty different flowers of twenty different 
families. The lover of the garden is a general collector, and a creator of new beauties into the bargain; he sows 
his seed with pleasure, he watches the progress of his plants with interest, he looks for their opening flowers or 
swelling fruits with anxiety; and if his hopes are crowned by one solitary plant, fruit, or flower, better than his 
present stock, he is repaid for all his trouble, labour, and watchfulness ; if not, he begins again, nothing daunted, 
saying to himself, “ Bad luck now, better another time.” Is there any fruit eats so sweet as that from our own 
garden ? Does not every day develope some new claim to our attention ? Every new visitor in the form of a 
flower, or fruit, or vegetable, is a welcome one. A man does not go into his garden, as he must into a gallery of 
pictures, a cabinet of coins, or a museum of natural history, to see the same things in the same places time after 
time : he finds something new every day: his beds of Tulips and Ranunculuses, his collections of Picotees, Carna¬ 
tions, and Pinks, his Pansies, Dahlias, Auriculas, Polyanthuses, and other flowers, come in, one after the other, to 
reward him for his recreation—for, though there he much exertion occasionally required, he will not call it labour. 
His vegetables and his fruit repay him for the trouble and expense he incurs; and, after all, there is one sweetener 
to all his cares, one refreshing reward for all his anxieties, one circumstance that gives an additional relish to all 
he personally enjoys, and it is this,—he has not to seek a connoisseur to participate in his happiness, for ask whom 
he may to see his establishment, all the classes of society are delighted with a well-kept garden. It delights all 
the senses; its fragrance, its brilliancy, its usefulness, all speak to us in language not to be misunderstood upon 
the numerous pleasures and duties which are inseparable. But there is one point of which we must not loose 
sight,—it is the facility with which every class of society can accommodate his gardening to his means, and yet 
excel as far as he goes; one cottager, with scarcely more ground outside his house than his house covers, can be 
king above his neighbours for the growth of Stocks ; another prides himself upon his double Larkspurs ; a third 
will allow none to surpass him in Pinks; a fourth will shine in Pansies ; and so, according to the means at his 
disposal, the owner of a garden may be ambitious, successful, and happy.— Thomas Miller. 
Trop.eodum Beuthii, Klotzsch. Beuth’s Indian Cress {Ally. Gard. Zeit .) — Xat. Ord., Tropseolaceae § Tro- 
paeoleas.—A small climbing greenhouse herbaceous plant, resembling T. hrachyceras. The leaves are peltate, 
roundish, deeply cut into five or six obovate leaflets, which are bright green above, paler beneath. The flowers 
are yellow, with a short straight spur, and obcordate petals twice as long as the divisions of the calyx. From 
Bolivia. Introduced in 1849. Flowers in spring. Messrs. Low, of Clapton. 
Onciditjm nigratum, Lindley. Black-spotted Oncid (Paxt. FI. Gard.f., 58).—Nat. Ord., Orchidaceae § Vandese- 
Brassidae.—A curious and distinct stove epiphyte, allied to 0. phymatochilum. It has branching panicles of pale 
yellow or cream-coloured flowers, the sepals and petals linear-lanceolate, marked with a few irregular brownish- 
black blotches; the lip is triangular, brighter yellow, with a brown stain or two below the point. From Guiana. 
Introduced “many years since.” Flowers in summer. Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney. 
Oncidium trilingue, Lindley. Three-tongued Oncid {Paxt. PI. Gard., i., 42).—Nat. Ord., Orchidaceae § 
Vandeae-Brassidae.—A curious stove epiphyte, of which the leaves and pseudo-bulbs are undescribed. The flowers 
grow thinly in a half-climbing racemose panicle, and are of a deep chocolate brown, the petals and crest of the lip 
edged and spotted with bright yellow. From Peru. Introduced about 1848. Flowers in spring. Sir P. M. 
Egerton, Bart. 
Oncidium longipes, Lindley. Long stalked Oncid {Paxt. FI. Gard ., i., 46).—Nat. Ord., Orchidaceae § Van- 
deae-Brassidae.—An unimportant stove epiphyte, with oval two-leaved pseudo-bulbs, and a scape bearing two 
flowers on long peduncles; the colours are yellow and brown. Supposed to be from Brazil. Introduced through 
M. Morel, of Paris, about 1845. Flowers in April. 
