124 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
This year, when half a dozen are mentioned for some dis¬ 
tinct point in their favour, we hardly know a flower that can 
he shown without an hour or two can he occupied in poking 
open their quilly petals, for dressing is now arrived to such 
a discreditable pitch, that gentlemen who cannot, or will 
not, condescend to disguise a flower, stand no chance in 
competition. E. Y, 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
Opposite-leaved Schcenia (Schcenia oppositifolia ).— 
Botanical Magazine, t. 4560.—This is a new genus of 
Composites, named in honour of Dr. Schoen, a botanical 
artist. It has the character termed by gardeners ever¬ 
lasting in the flowers, which in Schcenia optpositifolia are 
rose-coloured. Among Composites it is nearest related 
to Helichrysum : the accompanying woodcut will suffi¬ 
ciently explain the second or specific name. It was 
discovered in Western Australia by Mr. Drummond, by 
whom seeds of it were transmitted to the Ivew Gardens, 
where it flowered for t^ie first time in the April of 1846. 
It is an upright-growing annual, a gem of its land, and 
may be compared with such things as Mesembryanthemum 
tricolor of the gardens, Portulaccas, Mangles’s Rhodanth, 
with which, and with Lawrencella rosea, Sir W. Hooker com¬ 
pares it, and quite equal it is to either of them for interest 
and beauty. The rosy hue of the flower envelopes is what 
gives the real charm to this little greenhouse or half-hardy 
annual, the flowers being collected together in heads or 
corymbs on the top of the stalk, and densely guarded by 
these coloured scale-like coverings. To cultivate this suc¬ 
cessfully, the seeds should be sown in a hotbed in the 
spring, using one half peat earth, and the other half made 
up of leaf-mould, loam, and sand. As soon as the little 
seedlings appear, the pots are to be removed to a front 
shelf in the greenhouse, where a free current of air will be 
secured, so as not to force them into premature flowering 
condition. As soon as the seedlings are strong enough to 
bear transplanting, four or five of them should be at once 
[May 29. 
transferred into the pots in which they are to produce their 
flowers ; after this potting they ought to be put into a close 
frame for a week or ten days, to enable them the more 
readily to make fresh roots. After that, the greenhouse or 
a good wiudow-sill would be the best situation for them; 
they do not require much water at any time, but still the 
pots should not be allowed to get dry, as they, and indeed 
most of the pot annuals, do not flower well if they suffer 
from any sudden check while they are growing. 
Stem erect, angled, downy, unbranched, except by flowers 
at the top. Leaves opposite, united at the base, narrow 
spear-head shaped, slightly downy and hair-fringed, gra¬ 
dually diminishing into bractes. Flowers in a corymb; 
flower-stalks with bractes ; involucres scaly, and the inner¬ 
most row of scales are like the ray petals of the daisy, 
&c., owing to their having rose-coloured appendages ; recep¬ 
tacle, or disk, full of yellow florets. 
Dark-flowered Metrodorea (Metroclorea nigraJ .— 
Gardeners Magazine of Botany, vol iii. 49. —This genus 
was named by Auguste Saint Hilaire in commemora¬ 
tion of Metrodoro Sahino, “ who, according to Pliny, was 
the first to illustrate plants by means of figures, and the 
specific name alludes to the dark purple colour of the 
flowers.” It belongs to a section of the Rueworts (Ru- 
taceae) peculiar to the equinoctial regions of America, and 
called Pilocarps, from Pilocarpus, another genus of the 
order. It is also closely related to EsenhecJcia, one of the 
Quinas of Brazil, which, in those regions, is in as high 
public estimation for its febrifugal properties as the 
Cinchona, or Peruvian Bark itself. The great bulk of 
the Rueworts inhabit our Cape Colony in the shape of 
Diosmas, and the like; or the open plains and hill sides 
in New Holland, as Eriostemons, Boronias, Correas, and 
others, which with us require only the shelter of the 
greenhouse. The Brazilian Rueworts, like this Metro¬ 
dorea, on the contrary, must have the stimulus of a hot 
damp stove in their growing season. 
Metrodorea nigra is a strong-growing, woody, or shrubby 
plant, attaining the size of a large currant-bush, and pro¬ 
ducing its numerous small dark purple flowers on loose 
panicles from the end of the branches, eight or nine inches 
long—a mode of flowering very well represented by our 
artist in the accompanying woodcut. Although this plant 
makes a showy appearance when it is in full flower, it is 
rather bulky to stand by the side of such stove plants as 
