1880. ] 
PANAX PLUMATUM.—GARDEN GOSSIP. 
93 
under notice is one of these, and we think the 
best and most elegant of them, its nearest ally 
being P. Ultimatum, which, however, is less 
compound in regard to the division of its leaves. 
It was imported from the South Sea Islands by 
Mr. Bull, of Chelsea, to whom we owe the use 
of the accompanying woodcut. Mr. Bull de¬ 
scribes it as a very elegant small-growing 
stove plant of erect habit, the leaves of which 
form a crispy head of foliage, and are very ele¬ 
gantly divided, the primary pinnai being long- 
stalked and ovate in form, the divisions of the 
pinnae cut into numerous distinct, oval-shaped 
lobes, and the lobes notched at the edge, with 
more or less up-curved teeth. It is a plant of 
pleasing character, being many degrees more 
finely cut than the allied P. laciniatum. While 
young and when grown with a single stem, it 
is exceedingly well adapted for all decorative 
purposes.—T. Moore. 
GARDEN 
AHE ravages of the Vine Louse {Phyl¬ 
loxera vastatrix ) seem to have turned 
the heads of sage politicians, and led 
them to devise regulations for preventing- its distri¬ 
bution which are not only worthless and ineffective 
in themselves, but can only operate to the serious 
detriment of important national industries. The 
convention agreed to by the sovereign powers of 
Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Italy, and Swit¬ 
zerland, which forbids the importation into those 
countries of any plants having their roots sur¬ 
rounded by earth, while destructive to the trade in 
hothouse and greenhouse plants and all evergreen 
GOSSIP. 
trees, will be powerless to prevent the introduction 
of the vine louse, since it can be brought in in other 
ways. The Ghent nurserymen have formed a 
Committee to defend their menaced interests, 
and have addressed a memorial to the Belgian 
Foreign Minister, calling attention to the gravity of 
the situation, and seeking his aid in procuring the 
revision of the obnoxious convention, especially that 
part of it which requires the removal of the whole 
of the earth from the roots of plants allowed to pass 
the frontiers of the respective countries. The sub¬ 
ject has been brought under the notice of the Royal 
Horticultural Society, with tho view to some action 
beiug taken ; and not too soon, for some of our own 
colonies have adopted similar useless restrictions as 
