238 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[January 16. j 
Order Bignoniads, and to lL-Didynamia 2 Angiospermia 
of the Linnaean system. It is a native of the pestilential 
coast from Sierra Leone southwards, through the Bight 
of Benin, the Ashantae country to beyond the equator; 
was introduced in 1825, and probably lost without 
having flowered. In 1846 it was again brought under 
cultivation, and dowered last summer by the Messrs, 
j Lucomb, Pince, and Co., of Exeter. It is a moderate 
sized tree in the African tropics, but, like its allies the 
1 Jacarandas , will flower as a small plant if the ends of 
j the shoots are rooted after the plant has finished its 
j growth, and they are half ripened. There is another 
I Spathoden in our stoves, sent over, we believe, by Mr. 
Whitfield, some ten or a dozen years ago, but which, we j 
think, has not yet been brought into a condition to 
flower. It is believed to be S. campanulata, a splendid 
tree of from twenty to thirty feet in height, with a rough 
stem, having a spreading head of branches clothed with 
long pinnate leaves ; the whole tree appearing at a dis¬ 
tance much like a palm. When our postal steam-packets 
are established along the African coast, as they will soon 
be between Rio, Bahia, and other Brazilian stations, and 
Southampton, the cultivators of such fine jdants as are 
recorded among Bignoniads will find an easier way of 
introducing them, by pieces of the old roots packed up 
in sand or mould. These being from old established 
flowering plants, will, no doubt, flower a year or two 
after their introduction to our stoves. Even by the 
present arrangements for communicating with the Bra¬ 
zilian ports, we have often wondered that such men as 
Mr. Beaton and Mr. Appleby have not thought of this 
scheme of introducing such plants as are difficult to be 
obtained by seeds. We are indebted to the former, it is 
true, for a hint about introducing the top parts of the 
Columnar Cactuses from Mexico and Pern, but our long- 
cherisbed idea of thus using the large fleshy roots of 
; trees, shrubs, and climbers, have not engaged the atten¬ 
tion of any of our industrious gardeners, and we should 
be gratified by hearing their opinion of it. They are 
already aware of how difficult it is to import sound seeds 
of Bignoniads; these are so small, and being entirely ! 
destitute of albumen, there is but little chance of ever j 
getting many of them to vegetate after a long voyage. 
The African Spathodeas owe then* name, and all that is 
known to us of their history, to one of the most persevering 
botanists of the last century, although his name is not 
familiar to English ears. Ambrose Maria Francis Joseph 
Palisot de Beauvois, a French naturalist, possessed of con¬ 
siderable family property, which did not enervate his indo¬ 
mitable spirit of discovery, took advantage of the French 
j expedition to the coast of Africa in 1786, to found a colony 
in opposition to the English influence in that part of the 
world, and sailed, at his own cost, with a view to prosecute 
his favourite pursuits in Benin and the neighbouring king¬ 
dom of Oware, where he spent fifteen months investigating 
tlm natural history of those pestilential swamps,—swamps 
which our seamen are now blockading against the slave 
traders. Here he made a large collection of skins of ani¬ 
mals, insects, minerals, and dried plants, a part of which he 
sent to M. de Jussieu, at Paris, and among which were spe¬ 
cimens of these Spathodeas. Tart he put on board a vessel 
in which he sailed to St. Domingo, but the chief portions of 
his collections were destroyed by the English fleet who 
burnt down the whole of the French settlement. At St. 
Domingo he increased his collection considerably, and on 
the insurrection of the slaves in 1792, he was commissioned 
by the French authorities to the United States to solicit 
from the government assistance against the slaves. On his 
return from this fruitless mission, the slaves being masters 
of the island, his whole collection was burnt in the confla¬ 
gration of Cape Francois, and himself put in prison, whence 
he expected daily to be taken out for execution; but he 
made his escape, and on reaching Philadelphia, pennyless, 
he learned that his name was among the proscribed in ' 
France; but nothing daunted, like the late King Louis 
Phillippe in his adversity, he supplied his wants cheerfully 
by teaching music and languages until the arrival in the 
United States of the French Minister, Adet de Beauvois, 
who soon supplied him with means to prosecute once more 
his predilections in natural history. He explored many | 
parts of the United States, and on his return to Phila¬ 
delphia, loaded with acquisitions, he learned that his pro¬ 
scription had been erased, and also that his patrimony had 
not been sold. Forthwith he returned to France, and 
arranged his collection, and re collections, for publication. 
But that by which he is best known to botanists is his Flore 
d'Oware et. de Benin, in which many extremely curious and 
rare plants are described from the portion of his herbarium 
sent to M. de Jussieu, among which are the Spathodeas , as 
we have said, and also the greatest curiosity in the vegetable 
kingdom, which he called after Napoleon Buonaparte, Napo- 
leona imperealis; a plant recently introduced to British gar¬ 
dens, and which was afterwards called after its discoverer, 
Belvisia ccerulea; but the prior name must be retained. 
Palisot d’Beauvois’s Flore d'Oware, etc., was published 
between 1804 and 1821; and in it the wood of Spathodea 
campanulata is mentioned as that of a middle-sized tree, 
smelling of garlic. Mr. Ansell, the young botanist who 
accompanied the ill-fated late expedition to the Niger, says 
he too had the satisfaction of seeing the Spathodea in flower, 
in different situations ; and no doubt some more species are 
yet to be discovered in the same regions, as well as more 
species of the Napoleona and other plants, which have not 
been seen by any naturalist except Beauvois. When we 
reflect on the increased communications between this coun¬ 
try and those parts of the coast of Africa where such splendid 
trees abound, and that pieces of their roots may be as easily 
brought home as a packet of seeds, and at whatever season 
of the year they may be met with, we may congratulate our 
friends on the expectations they may naturally entertain of 
such acquisitions. Since writing part of the above, we have 
learned that our plan has been actually in operation for 
some years between Sydney and London. The large roots 
of the Australian Waratah ( Telope a speciosissima) are said 
to endure a four months’ voyage if well packed in strong 
wooden cases full of soil. We ourselves have had four cases 
of plants, large shrubs, from a friend in South Carolina, by 
way of New York, and they were two months on their way to 
London; and on their arrival we thought them dead, 
although the soil in the cases was moist, and said to have 
been kept so throughout the whole journey. On the advice I 
of a skilful gardener, however, we examined the roots, and 
| found them quite fresh, and plahts have been reared from 
them ; but the whole turned out common tilings, which we 
might buy at a hundredth part of the expense of the car¬ 
riage at the nearest nursery. 
Spathodea hems lias a woody but soft stem. Leaves mostly | 
alternate, leafleted, leaflets opposite, pointed egg-shape, with 
large-toothed edges, smooth, and stalkless. Flowers in a 
bunch, or panicle, at the end of a branch, with white pink- j 
streaked corolla, funnel-shaped, irregularly five-lobed, so as 
to be obscurely two-lipped; calyx green, tipped with red, I 
channelled, and split down one side; stamens four, with an i 
abortive fifth surrounding the pistil. It is raised from cut- j 
tings in sand, under a glass, with bottom heat. It prefers a 
light rich loam.—B. J. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
Peach Forcing. —This is an excellent period at which 
to begin forcing this noble and luscious fruit, which will 
thus be ripe by the beginning of June; and, by good 
management, continue in succession until the middle of 
July. We have said, noble fruit; for, notwithstanding 
