THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[February 20. 
316 
be a fall of only sixpence from one prize to another, the 
highest prize would he fourteen shillings, the lowest four 
shillings. But if there he, from other sources, five 
pounds more, that would ho equally divided among the 
twenty prizes, making the first nineteen shillings, the 
last nine shillings—because it is presumed that all the 
members interest themselves alike in procuring the 
extra funds. And none hut those who have attended 
these meetings, can form an idea of the enthusiasm that 
prevails when the cloth is cleared, and the flowers are 
on the table. It is scarcely credible how these little 
rivulets help to swell the great river of floriculture. Five 
hundred such societies would do good; but multiplying 
public shows in the same localities does mischief; there 
is nof enough patronage to keep all doing well.—E. Y. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
Gauntletted Tacsonia [Tacsonia nianicata). — Pax¬ 
tons Flower Garden, i. 131. — A splendid half-hardy 
climber—the finest of this beautiful section of Passion 
flowers —with brilliant crimson scarlet blossoms. A native 
ot the western declivity of the Peruvian Andes, where it 
was first discovered, in 1842, by Mr. Hartweg, who trans¬ 
mitted seeds of it to the Horticultural Society, in whoso 
garden, at Turnham Green, it was reared in 1843.* The 
so-called genus Tacsonia was founded by the venerable 
Jussieu, many years back, on the Indian name of some 
of the species which yield eatable fruit, as, for instance, 
Mollissima, Speciosa, Tripolita , and probably others not 
known to us. The second name, Manicata, means, lite¬ 
rally, a gauntlet, or sleeve, and is applied, in the lan¬ 
guage of botany, to the surfaces of leaves or other parts 
of plants covered with entangled hairs, which can be 
torn off like a skin; and wo believe it is applied in the 
instance before us to the downy hairs on the under sur¬ 
face of the leaves, which may be stripped off in flakes. 
The large bracts are also furnished with a Manicate 
* The Gardeners' Magazine of Botany is wronc in Bnyinff—intro¬ 
duced in 1817 . 
covering of down. It belongs to the Natural Order 
Passion flowers (Passifloraceae), and to the third order 
of the fifth class in the Lin me an system, b-Pentandria 
3-Trigynia. 
The progress of scientific cross-breeding will, in time, 
we believe, reveal the truth that the Passion flower 
family has been unnecessarily divided into fictitious 
genera, of which Tacsonia is the most conspicuous, and 
offers the least of those essential characters on which 
separations among vegetables are based. In Paxton's 
Flower Garden, in which Tacsonia manicata is figured, 
Dr. Lindley, the Editor, confesses that “the grounds 
upon which Tacsonias are separated from the Passion 
flowers, seem by no means clear. De Candolle relies on 
the long calyx tubes and scarlet coronet of the former, 
with which this species does not agree. Meisner’s 
analysis brings out no more; and it is impossible to 
gather any distinction from Endliclier’s descriptions. 
Nevertheless, there is something very peculiar in the 
appearance of Tacsonias, and we trust a real distinctive 
character will, in time, be discovered.” Here the “ruling 
passion” is, at least, “ acknowledged.” But the truth is, 
whether the art of cross-breeding can establish the fact 
or not, nature has not stamped “ a distinctive charac¬ 
ter ” on Tacsonias that will maintain their separation 
from the true Passion flowers. Manicata, itself, is a true 
link between those Passion flowers which have a coronet, 
or filament-like appendages called rays, and those, the 
Tacsonias, in which these appendages are not fully, if at 
all, developed. Among the older Passion flowers, them¬ 
selves, a far more marked distinction is seen in the ter¬ 
minal spike inflorescence of Passiflora racemosa, from 
the more usual axillary flowers of the genus, than the 
want of, or partially developed, fringes in the flowers of 
Tacsonia. And as this distinction, has not proved a bar, 
or forbidden the union of the axillary-flowered cccrulea, 
and the terminal raceme-flowered, or racemosa, we may 
entertain the opinion that the want of a developed 
coronet in Tacsonias, will not hinder their union with 
the older Passion flowers; and we cannot conceive two 
parents more likely to pay the labours of the gardeners 
who would apply the pollen industriously, and at the 
proper time, under favourable circumstances, than the 
subject of this biography and Passiflora racemosa. Even 
an entire failure to unite the two sections by the influ¬ 
ence of the pollen dust, would not shako our faith in the 
identity of kind, nor in the possibility of obtaining a 
mule; that is, on the supposition that the Tacsonias 
are capable of breeding among each other, and that the 
“ something peculiar in their appearance” foretells the 
fertility of their union. 
It is well known, that the fruit of ten or more species of 
the Passion flower are good for eating, and also that of 
three kinds of Tacsonias ; and this circumstance is not to 
be overlooked when experiments in cross-breeding are enter¬ 
tained. I'acsonia mollissima crossed with Passiflora. cdulis, or 
incarnate., would procure us a plant with a more hardy con¬ 
stitution than either of the latter, with the chance of an im¬ 
proved fruit in addition. On their proper cultivation it is 
not our province to enter. Mr. Appleby and Mr. Beaton 
have each, in their turn, described their culture lately in 
these pages. Mr. Lobb sent home Tacsonia mollissima, and 
Mr. lfartweg met with others, and particularly a yellow one, 
