THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 10. 
flower, in the rudimentary-cup, by which Dr. Herbert 
separates these from Stenomesson; but it seems a pity 
that a genus founded on the splitting of a hair should 
have been named after Mr. Pentland, to whom we are 
so much indebted for a knowledge of the vegetation ot 
southern Peru. This genus is sure to lapse into Steno¬ 
messon, when such bulbs come more into cultivation, 
and are crossed. Miniata, lacunosa, and Sulivanica, 
are but three forms of one species. The flowers .are 
beautiful orange and red, and are produced in four or 
six on an umbel, from early spring to July, first spread¬ 
ing out a little, and then hanging down; the bottom 
part of the flower is much contracted, as in Stenomesson. 
Pentlandias rest, or ought to rest, all the winter, and 
flower with the rise of the leaf after resting. Light 
sandy loam, free air, and abundance of water after the 
full growth of the leaves, and a partial shade, seem to 
suit them better than anything. All this race may be 
distinguished by their comparative shortness, and from 
the bottom and point of the leaves running narrower 
than the middle. 
TEYROUSIA. 
This is a genus of pretty little Ixia-like bulbs and 
flowers with the habit of Anomatlieca, but with a much 
more tender constitution, all natives of the Cape of 
Good Hope ; and, were it not that they are little known, 
| 1 would have included them in the Ixia group of “ Cape 
Bulbs,” and would recommend them to be grown in 
| very sandy loam—more than half sand, with any light 
l loam ; for, like the smaller Lachenalias, there is no 
such thing as keeping them alive in peat of any texture. 
Corymbosa, aneeps, and oculata, are the best of them, 
and they are very pretty blue flowers; oculata is blue 
I and yellow. Six or seven bulbs of each of these could 
be grown in a forty-eight size pot. They are very 
impatient of much water after the leaf is full grown, 
and if the soil, particularly peat, gets the least sodden 
while the plants arc in flower the bulbs perish. They 
ought to be shaken out, and to be kept in sand when at 
rest. The late Mr. Young, nurseryman at Taunton, 
was the best grower of them in England, and I believe 
his secret was the loam instead of peat. The genus is 
spelled Peyrousia, and Lapeyrousia, after the French 
navigator; neither of which, however, is the legitimate 
one, for Sprengel had them first in his genus Ovieda. 
PHzEDRANASSA. 
This is, comparatively, a new genus, and the bulbs are 
all but new to gardeners, but they have been long 
known to science. Humboldt found chloracra in the 
neighbourhood of Quito, and mistook it for a Hceman- 
thus (H. dubius, of Humb.), a genus to which it has no 
resemblance or affinity. In 1S37, Dr. Herbert includes 
1 the plant, with some hesitation, among Phycellas, 
' without seeing it alive. Mr. Hnrtweg sent it to the 
Horticultural Society, from the Highlands of Quito, 
! and several gardeners flowered it in 1814, myself 
among the rest. I mistook it for a new Coburgia, per¬ 
haps splendens, of which I had seen a figure from a 
1 dried specimen; hut a specimen sent to a meeting of the 
Society passing oft’ for a Phycella (April, 1844), I gave 
! up my chance of a new Coburgia. As soon as Dr. 
Herbert saw a live flower of chloracra, he saw it could 
not stand as a Phycella, and, botanically, it could not 
rank with any kirown genus, and he named it Phce- 
| dranassa (Botanical Register, 1845), from two Greek 
! words, meaning a Gay Queen, and 1 am quite sure that 
| if ever this gay queen marries out of her own family it 
must be to one of the Coburgs, to which, however, she 
j is first cousin already. There is not a drop of Phycella 
| blood in her veins. 
PILEPRANASSA CHLORACRA. 
This is a handsome flower—a strong, hardy constitu- 
tioned bulb—throws up a scape of from 20 to 00 inches 
high, with an umbel of from eight to fourteen or fifteen 
flowers, some of which are past before the last one is 
seen in the bud, thus holding on a long time in flower. 
Coburgia incarnata gives a very good idea of this 
plant, only that the red in this flower is brighter than 
in any of the Coburgs ; the tips of the flower are 
greenish, and also the bottom, hut the middle part is a 
bright red, with a lighter shade. It goes to rest in 
August, or September, and flowers in the spring before 
the rise of the leaf. It blossomed with me once in Sep¬ 
tember, hut that was caused by a hard experiment. 
The bulb is a native of the same hills as some of the 
most difficult Coburgias, and I, mistaking it for a Co¬ 
burgia, placed it on the sand, on a slate shelf, where I 
succeeded to flower somo difficult bulbs. On this shelf 
it had only one inch of very sandy soil in depth, and 
when the roots obtained a full size the bulb was nearly 
all out of this soil. It was a very cool damp-kept 
house, with the front ventilators open day and night, 
except in hard frost, or very dull weather. Here the 
bulb, leaf, and flower came out in perfection, and the 
scape kept on flowering for seven weeks. In the spring, 
by the end of July, the leaves ripened; and in six weeks 
afterwards the bulb was again in flower, but not nearly 
so strong as in the spring; in fact, the stimulus of a 
constant moisture at the roots, when it ought to be at 
rest, caused the flowers that woidd come next March or 
April to rise in September. This and the next species 
arc easily known by the leaf, which is short, broader in 
the middle, and very narrow at bottom. 
For the right soil see the next species. 
PILEDRANASSA OBTUSA. 
This is a much smaller plant in all the parts than 
Chloracra —a smaller bulb, leaf-scape, umbel, and indi¬ 
vidual flower, but the colours are nearly alike. The 
Horticultural Society had it from Mr. Hartweg, and it 
flowered in their garden in the autumn of 1844, when it 
passed as Phycella obtusa ; but certainly not the Phycella 
obtusifolia, described, by Dr. Herbert, as a Chilian va¬ 
riety of Phycella attenuata. 1 have a drawing made from 
Bridge’s specimen of the latter now before me, and I 
had Hartweg’s plant, in flower, in my hand the other 
day, at Shrubland Bark, so I can tell the difference with¬ 
out charging my memory. Phycella chloracra and obtusa 
must be cancelled from our Dictionary; they are these 
gay queens. A light sandy loam, such as would flower 
a Dutch Hyacinth, but with no peat or leaf-mould, and 
an upright thirty-two pot, will grow chloracra to perfec¬ 
tion ; and a pot of that size would flower three bulbs of 
obtusa. Like the Coburgias, these will endure great 
heat for a season or two, but either of two things must 
follow, as surely as night follows day, and that is, that 
Coburgias run to leaf-spawn, like Shallots, and never 
flower at all; and Plucdranassa neither spawns, or 
increases the number or size of the leaves, but flowers 
weaker and weaker, every year, till the growth dwindles 
to death’s door. Obtusa, flowering in the autumn with¬ 
out the leaves, is very liable to injury from too much 
water. Like the Guernsey Lily, people will water it 
long before it wants auy, because the flower-scape is 
rising; and if the plant happens to he the least con¬ 
fined, the leaves are thus forced to rise before their time, 
and weaker than they ought; and then we go on to say, 
one generation after another, that such and such bulbs 
cannot he grown in our climate. 
PLANTIA FLAVA. 
This is a pretty little Cape of Good Hope bulb, which 
has been lately rescued from a host of similarities, which 
all go, at present, under the genus Sisyrinchiums. It was 
named, by Dr. Herbert, in compliment to Mr. Plant, a 
zealous cross-breeder and nurseryman, at Cheadale. I 
