THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[April 17. 
I 32 
but knows nothing about plants ; when it is quite clear to 
many of the public that he must know as much of one as of 
the other; and it is not quite clear whether the very party 
so pronounced upon, might not give some very useful les 
sons, and whether he has not already given some very im¬ 
portant lessons to plantsmen, so called, upon the discre¬ 
ditable manner in which plants have been distorted and 
unnaturalised for the purposes of exhibition. Indeed, it was 
i mentioned at a recent meeting of florists, that it was some j 
! of those unanswerable strictures on the ungardener-like 
practice of a few successful exhibitors, that induced the 
I attack on his judgment. Truth, however, will prevail; and 
] there will be a speedy change in the horrible practice 
j (founded on props and wires), that has completely destroyed 
the nature and the habit of really good subjects.—E. Y. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
Spotted-leaved Bertolonia (.Bertolonia maculata ).— 
Botanical Magazine, t. 4551.—This is a little gem for 
our stoves from the Brazils, requiring the heat of a damp 
stove in summer, and to he kept cool and rather dry 
while it is at rest during our long winters. It belongs 
to the Natural Order Melos tornado (Melastomacem), or 
mouth stainers, so called on account of the fruit of some 
of them, on being eaten, staining the mouth, as black 
currants do. In the Linn lean system, it comes in the 
first order of the tenth class, JDecandria Monogynia, 
having one female and ten male organs. The genus 
was named by Joseph Raddi, not by Martins as has 
been asserted, in compliment to an Italian botanist, 
Bertoloni, who published a floi - a of his native land, at 
Genoa, about the beginning of the present century. 
If we may judge from the number of genera which were 
i named in honour of Bertoloni, he must have held a high 
' standing in the opinions of contemporary authors—Decan- 
dolle, Sprengel, Kafinesque, and Raddi, having each named 
a Bertolonia , but the subject of our present biography by 
the latter has the precedence, being the first of the four. 
Decandolle’s Bertolonia is a Composite plant (Asteraceae), 
that by Sprengel a Guttifer (Clussiacese), and Rafinesquo’s 
i is a Lippia, a genus of aromatic plants belonging to the 
order Verbenes (Yerbenacese). Our subject was introduced 
in 182!) from the Continent, by Mr. Henderson, of St. John’s 
Wood Nursery, London, under the name Eriocnema an cum, 
but Sir W. Hooker has restored the legitimate name. Mar- 
tius called this Bartolonia Triblemma, now a synonyme of 
the genus ; and had it not been that maculata, the specific 
name, had precedence, we should prefer the continental 
specific (by Naudo), which means spotted—the leaves being 
spotted on the upper deep green surface, while the under 
side is a reddish purple. These curiously coloured leaves 
are of themselves sufficient to render this little herbaceous 
plant conspicuous among a collection of stove varieties, 
without the aid of the gay rose-coloured blossoms, which 
are borne on spikes not more than six inches high. 
Stem single, or slightly branched, short, thickly covered 
with rusty hairs. Leaves opposite, long-stalked, pointed, 
heart-shaped, slightly tooth-edged, five-nerved, dark velvety 
I green, and bristly above, purple beneath. Flowers in a ter- 
j minal raceme ; stalk red and bristly ; calyx three-angled, 
ribbed, fringed with hairs; petals five, rosy, reversed egg- 
shaped. 
Add to this that the plant is easy to manage, requiring 
very little room, and we may venture to predict that it will 
soon become a general favourite. 
Speaking of it botanic-ally, however, we must call it ano¬ 
malous among its race, for it has much of the habit and also 
the winged fruit of a Begonia; and, notwithstanding the 
great distance which, lies between Begoniads and Melasto- 
mads, in the consecutive arrangements of botanists, such 
plants as this seem to indicate some near relationship 
between the two orders. 
Bracted Gaultherta (Qaultheria bracteata). — Bo¬ 
tanical Magazine, t. 4401.—The genus Gaultheria origi¬ 
nated with Linnaeus, ancl was named in honour of 
M. Gaulther, M.D., a French Canadian, who wrote a 
treatise on the maple sugar. It belongs to the Natural 
Order Heathworts (Ericaceae), and is nearly related to 
Andromeda. In the sexual system of Linnaeus, it is in 
the first class of the tenth order, Decandria Monogynia, 
having ten stamens and one style. 
Gaultheria bracteata was so named by Mr. George 
Don, from the numerous rosy bracts which accompany 
the flowers on their axillary spikes. Ventenat called it 
Gaultheria erecta, or upright, in opposition to the trail¬ 
ing habit of the original species. Humboldt, Bonplanu, 
and Kun th, gave it three names— odor ala, or sweet- 
scented ; cordifolia, or heart-shaped leaved; and rigida, 
which nearly accords with erecta of Ventenat; so that 
between them, these authors have given us a tolerably 
good insight into the nature of this addition to our Gaul- 
thers. It was lately figured in the Botanical Magazine, 
from a plant which flowered in the Ixew Gardens last 
summer, where it was introduced in 1848. Its habit 
and red flowers will prove a good addition to our bor¬ 
ders of new and select plants in summer, but it must be 
put into a pot at the end of the season, and have the 
