Plate 180. 
ACHIMENES, PURPUREA ELEGANS, AXE 
LEOPARD. 
The claims of the Achimenes to be one of the most useful of 
our autumn-flowering plants cannot, we think, be justly dis¬ 
puted, while its easiness of culture puts it within the reach of 
all those who have any means at their disposal for starting the 
tubers in a little gentle heat. In that case plants of almost 
any size may he obtained, and a house be made very gay when 
comparatively few flowers are to be had. 
There is another use to which we have seen the Achimenes 
put that makes it also valuable, we mean table decoration,— 
the neat habit of its growth, the profuseness of its bloom, and 
the brilliancy of colouring in many of the varieties, making it, 
when placed in vases in the centre of a dining-table, as we have 
seen it during the past summer, a very beautiful object. 
Xo raiser has been more successful in hybridizing this beau¬ 
tiful tribe of plants than Mr. Parsons, of Welwyn, Herts. The 
pages of the Magazine have already been enriched by his pro¬ 
ductions, those beautiful varieties Carminata elegans and Mauve 
Queen having been raised by him; and as we spoke highly of 
their merits at the time, it is no small gratification to us to 
know that they have given universal satisfaction. Those now 
figured are from the same source, and will he sent out in 
spring by Mr. B. S. Williams, of Paradise Nursery, Holloway, 
along with several others of nearly equal merit. Mr. Williams 
thinks very highly of them, and considers them as the best 
selection ever offered to the public. Purpurea elegans , Pig. 1, is 
quite distinct in colouring, being of a deep mulberry or claret 
colour, while the throat is a light orange, with dark spots. It 
