183 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
December 25. 
dodendrons are indeed splendid, but wo fear that the 
climate in which they delight is not to he piocured 
here, except at an outlay even the wealthiest would 
shrink from. Intense heat and brightest sunshine, 
yet varied by sudden suow-sliowers during the day, and 
keen frost at night, is the only climate in which they 
flourish in Northern India. 
The most complete herbarium that has ever been 
formed by an individual, or, perhaps, by any associated 
individuals, has now become the property of the Uni¬ 
versity of Oxford. We allude to the herbarium of the 
deceased Mr. Fielding, of Lancaster. It is bequeathed 
by him to the University upon terms with which they 
will have no difficulty in complying, and is said to 
consist of seventy-thousand species. 
All our readers must know the black>-beotle-like 
insect so prevalent at harvest-time and in haivest-fields, 
and which has the power, when alarmed, ol curving 
its tail upwards in a threatening attitude. Phis insect, 
popularly known as “ The Devil’s Coach-horse,” and to 
naturalists as Goerius olens, has long been condemned 
as noxious ; but such condemnation is another of oui 
“ vulgar errors.” It is a real friend to the gardener; 
for Mr. Curtis, at a recent meeting of the Entomological 
Society, stated that the usual food of this insect is the 
common earwig, and Mr. Westwood added that he had 
seen it attack a worm very far its superior in size, 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS, BIOGRAPHIES, AND CULTURE. 
Jameson’s Browat.lta (Browallia Jamesoni ).— Bota¬ 
nical Magazine, t. 4005.—Those to whom this genus 
was known only by the half-hardy annuals, B. data and 
demissa, could hardly believe that this plant was even 
in relationship with the genus, when it was exhibited at 
Chiswick, three summers back, by the Messrs. Veitch, of 
Exeter. It is a soft-wooded evergreen shrub, with beau¬ 
tiful orange-coloured flowers, requiring the same degree 
of protection in winter as the Salvias from Mexico. It 
was discovered in Northern Peru by Dr. Jameson, at an 
elevation of 0000 feet, whence he sent seeds of it; and 
when the plant flowered, as above, it was thought to be 
a good acquisition to our Midsummer half-hardy plants, 
and, as often happens in such cases, it was introduced 
to our notice with extravagant praise, even before little, 
or nothing, was known of its real merits. Thirty-one 
shillings-and-sixpence were freely given for it, and in 
less than two years no one knows what has become of 
it; for it has not been exhibited since, and all that we 
have heard of it is that the whole force of the country 
could not flower it a second time! 
The genus Browallia was named by Linnaeus in 
honour of John Browall, his countryman and contem¬ 
porary, Bishop of Abo, in Eindland, a town once 
celebrated for the mineral springs in the neighbour¬ 
hood, and its university, founded by Gustavus Adolphus 
in 1640, but which was destroyed by fire, with other 
public buildings and upwards of seven hundred houses, 
in 1827. The specific name was given by Sir W. 
Hooker in honour of Dr. Jameson. In the Natural 
Classification, Browallia is among the Figworts (Scro- 
phulariaceae), and is closely allied to Salpiglossis. In 
the system of Linnaeus it is referred to the second order 
of the fourteenth class Didgnamia Angiospenma. 
Browallia Jamesoni is a' shrub from four to six feet 
high, of rather straggling growth. Leaves, alternate, 
egg-shaped, short-stalked, wrinkled, and slightly downy, 
yet glossy. Flowers in a bunch at the end of the 
branches, bracts leafy, flower-stalks short; calyx large, 
tubular, and five-lobed; corolla orange-coloured, tube 
paler than limb, which has five lobes, the lower the 
largest; stamens four; stigma large and two-lipped.—B. J. 
Propagation and Cult are. —Any one who can strike, or root 
a Fuchsia, and grow a Habrothamnus, will find no difficulty 
in rearing and cultivating this beautiful plant; but hitherto 
we have all failed to flower it; and we have been put on the 
wrong scent, from the circumstance of its having flowered, 
by chance, so to speak, with Mr. Veitch at the wrong season. 
The only person, that I am aware of, who has succeeded in 
flowering it to perfection, is Mr. Jeffries, a nurseryman at 
Ipswich; and T must confess that T blushed deeply, after 
throwing the plant away, when I saw a beautiful specimen 
of it in full bloom with him at the end of February, 1850. 
I also saw Mr. Veitch’s plant in flower, which was of a much 
deeper colour, but nothing to be compared for the number 
of flowers on the Ipswich plant. It blooms exactly like the 
Habrothamnus fascicularis, on the wood made the preceding 
summer, but it requires greater stimulus than the Habro 
thamnus to bring the flowers out to perfection. The way to 
manage it is this, and I would strongly recommend to gar¬ 
deners to attempt it a second time. Take the oldest plant 
of it you can find next spring; a young plant from a cutting 
next February will not flower under two years, and this is 
what partly led us astray ; it must have a bard woody bottom 
before it flowers. A plant now’, in this condition, should be 
hard-pruned, all the soft wood cut away early in April, then I 
force it very gently, and when it is fairly in growth again, 
shake it out of the pot, as you would a geranium, trim the 
roots freely, and repot it in a very rich light compost, and in 
a small pot; then let it be encouraged till after midsummer 
with a damp, close heat, the same way as a Justicia. When 
the young growth is four inches long, stop all the shoots, and 
stop the strongest of them a second time about the end of 
June ; it should have a third shift about the middle of .1 nly, 
and as soon as it is well-rooted in this last pot, it is time to J 
turn it out into the open air, and there to remain till the j 
