1)ecember !)0. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
241 
The llowers arc middle sizecl, chieHy red, and the leaves 
I are quite smooth. It is a scarce plant now. 
^ Hojiarea niRTEi.L.v.—Tliis is the second best species 
in cultivation, a native of iMc.xioo. Tlie sepals are red, 
and the petals greenisli, dotted all over with red dots; 
it docs not run so much as Aciiti/olin, but it is more 
hardy, growing up to a stake in the common shrubbery, 
as I saw it last October, and in flower, near Oxford, in 
the beautiful garden of the Kev. •!. l,ys. It seeds against 
a wall, but will not cross with AcutifoUa, from the same 
country. It was first named by Sweet, and figured in 
liis British Flower Garden. After tliat it was called 
Ovnta in the Botanical Magazine; but Omta is a 
nonentity, and must bo expunged from our Dictionary. 
It goes to rest earlier, and rises later in the spring than 
ActUifolia; those are tlie two that would twine round 
for an edging to a bed of Aklriimeria. 
Boai.vre.v s.alsiel.a.—T his is a Chilian species, and 
one of the oldest, being the third species whicli Feuillct 
brought to France, Peregrina and Ligtu being the 
others; but, liy a strange oversight in the Botanical 
Magazine, Ligtu and iSalsilla, out-door plants, were 
confounded with Edidisfind Alstriimeria caryoithglloules, 
wliich are stove plants, and the error is handed down 
to this day in some collections. Salsilla is a very scarce 
plant: the flowers arc pur])lish-red, the two back petals 
having a black spot at the bottom, and the lower petal 
a light spot. Jjike AcutifoUa, it does not always come 
true from seeds. 
Bojiarea SI5IPLF.X —Tlicro are three varieties of this 
with reddish-pink flowers. They are i\Ir. I’cntland’s 
plants from Cusco, and they flowered out-of-doors, 
against a greenhouse, with Dr. Herbert, at Spoflbrth, 
in Yorkshire, but what became of them when his collec¬ 
tion was dispersed 1 never ascertained. These are all 
the Bomarcas that 1 know of in cultivation. Matthews, 
Tweedie, and Col. Hall, are our chief authorities for the 
best not yet introduced, of which the following are the 
chief:— 
P. mperha. Flowers large, orange and red, twelve in a 
head, and each flower nearly two inches long. Bern. 
Ji. crinita. Flowers orange and red, on footstalks as 
long as those of Gohmi scandens, sotting the flowers 
widely apart; they are longer and larger than those of 
superba, and ten in a head. It must be a magnificent 
thing. Peru. 
P. crocca. This is figured in the Flora Peruviana, 
from “Chumpulla in thel’eruviau province of Panama.” 
It is saffron-coloured, and grows eighteen feet high. 
P.ptardina. Twenty large flowers on short stalks, 
making a superb head of yellow or orange flowers, 
spotted like a leopard, found by Col. Hall at a place 
called Patacocha, “ on the western declivities of the 
Andes, at an elevation of (5000 feet.” A splendid thing. 
P. Patacocensis. “ Another magnificent jilant,” from 
the same locality as the last; flowers reddish-yellow, 
and thirty or more of them in a crowded head. 
P. hUea. Flowers bright yellow (Col. Hall), by the 
road to IMindo, at an elevation of 0000 feet, “ on the 
western declivity.” 
P. formosissinia. Figured in the Flora Peruviana; 
flowers large, ]mrplish-red and yellow, the petals richly 
spotted, and as many as eighty flowers have been 
counted in one head! It grows from ten to twelve feet 
high, “ in woods near Mimna.” 
P. Ilonkeriana. I’etals deep orange; sepals red; one 
hundred flowers in one head! and leaves six inches 
long. Fl-om the province of Chacapozas, in Peru. 
P. densiflora. In habit and colour like AcutifoUa, 
and with nearly as many flowers as lloukeriana, and 
from the same locality. 
Now, to say nothing of some most beautiful Alstrii- 
■incriats and Oollanias that might lie met with, and fifty 
more plants equally beautiful, that wc know of only 
from dried specimens, these Potnareas themselves 
would pay a spirited nurseryman to send out a clever 
man on purpose for them. Every one of them would 
outlive the winter with slight protection, or, what is just 
as likely, without any protection whatever. Their very 
names are circulated to-day for the first time among 
British, or oven European gardeners, and how can we 
push for things we know nothing about. 
Bravoa gejiiniflora (F’lowering-at-the-joints). This 
j is a small bulb, and in looks is the nearest to an Ixia 
' of all the Amaryllids. The bulb^is solid like that of a 
I crocus, and about the same size. From among its Ixia- 
i like leaves, it throws up a jointed flowcr-scape, nine or 
i ten inches long, flowering all the way up, two flowers at 
' every joint, of the same shape and colour as the flower 
I of Watsonia meriana, a dull red-tubed flower, hut not 
I more than a sixth part of the size. It is a native of 
! Mexico, where it takes a wide range. Galcottu found it 
, growing with tdprekvUa formosissima. I had it from 
him, and I flowered and seeded it in an open border. It 
goes to rest all the winter, and will grow in any light 
soil. It does not appear to do well in a pot. 1 never 
see this plant without its reminding me of an item in the 
invoice sent with it—Xi.S for a stupid mule, which made 
a false step, pulled a huge Cactus out of a gorge, tum¬ 
bled over a precipice, and broke his neck, yet the brute 
may bo alive to this day for ought that I know. The 
British Consul in Mexico at the time could tell the tale 
better than 1 can. 
Brodi.ea C.vi.iFORNioA.—This is a true LiUjirort, and 
is he.xandrous, or six-stamend, notwithstanding the views 
of Decandollc, which are followed in our Dictionary; 
I the old genus has been sjilit many years, and the species 
I with three barren stamens arc now called Leucocorgne. 
The present S 2 )ccies is the newest of them. It was sent 
to the Horticultural Society, in 1H4S, by Mr. Hartweg, 
I from “ the mountains and plains of the Sacramento, 
I where it is scarce.” It is a very desirable hardy bulb, 
I with pale-blue flowers, having a dark lino uj) the centre 
I of each petal and sepal, it ju'opagatcs itself readily by 
I offset bulbs from the old one, and it flowers in any good 
garden soil from July to October; but the great value 
of this plant is for improving tho other species, on the 
supposition that it will cross with any of them. The 
Chilian section, called AcHCoeoryne, are the most difficult 
to keep, to flower, or to increase, of all the half-hardy 
bulbs. One of them, which i shall mention in its 
projier place, is so like this one in flower, and both are 
so like grandijlom, except in tho relative size of tho 
parts, that one can hardly believe they would refuse to 
cross. Tho constitution of this ])lant must be very 
similar to that of tho Chilian s[iecies, judging from the 
nature of the two localities. 
Brodeea congesta. —This is a North American species 
from tho southern states, and may require, like grandi- 
flora, some ju-otection in hard frost, as does the Ata- 
raasco lily, from the same parts. This has a light blue 
flower, but is more dwarfish, and smaller in all its parts 
than grandiflora. Tho three are not well adapted for 
pot culture, owing to their way of growth, like the 
liviolirions of Syria, and our own S([uills These, their 
allies from America, look better in borders, and are less 
liable to mishaps tliero than in pots. F'or a man to be 
able to grow a good collection of bulbs in jiots, he would 
require to find out a part of tho world where no one 
could get at him from one year's end to another. 
Broj>i.ea graxiuei.oua. —Notwithstanding tho name, 
this flower is not quite so large, nor of such strong 
substance as P. Galifornica. In other respects it is 
much like it, and it is equally hardy, and flowers in 
summer. They all rest in the winter, and prefer a light, 
deep sandy-soil, if it is fresh, vwd if not, leaf mould is the 
dressing for them. In very hard weather the border 
should be covered with saw-ilust, tan, or coal ashes, and, 
