NOVELTIES AT THE LONDON EXHIBITIONS 
87 
The novelties claim a more detailed enumeration. Foremost was a new plant allied to Thunbergia, 
which came from Mysore in British India, and was produced by Messrs. Veitch; this plant, 
the Hexacentris mysorensis of Dr. Wight, is a stove-climber, with woody stems, elliptic-oblong 
acuminate three-nerved leaves, and pendulous racemes of very curious flowers, which stand upwards 
from the pendent axis which supports them, and are enwrapped at the base by a pair of large oblong 
rich red-brown coloured bracteoles ; the corolla is funnel-shaped, with an oblique limb reflected back¬ 
wards on each side as in Mimulus cardinalis ; this part is yellow, with the tips of the segments of a 
rich reddish-brown. Altogether, from the position and colouring of the flowers, it is a most remarkable- 
looking plant, adapted for training on rafters, or on trellises which will display its peculiar flowering 
habit. Next to this in interest was a small species of Azalea, introduced from the North of China bv 
Mr. Fortune, and believed to be nearly hardy; this, which was exhibited by Messrs. Standish and Noble, 
is well called A. anicena , and is a fit associate for the compact-growing brilliant-flowered A. obtusa 
which was obtained from the same source a few years since by the Horticultural Society; the colour 
of the flowers is a pleasing rosy-purple, but the peculiarity is that the calyx is corolloid, so that there 
seems to be one flower within another as occurs in the common hose-in-hose primrose. It will be 
invaluable as a breeder independently of its own peculiar beauty. Messrs. Standish and Noble also 
had a small plant of the purple variety of the Himalayan Rhododendron lepidotum, and two varieties 
of a striped Chinese Azalea ( A . vittata), which, though pretty, are of less importance. Among the 
Rhododendrons produced, was one called sulphureum, from Mr. Lane, which bore fine trusses of 
primrose-coloured flowers free from the dingy indistinctness which is so common among what are 
called “ yellow” hybrid Rhododendrons. 
M. Van Houtte sent a prettily variegated species of Aplelandra [?], in which the curved veins 
which spring from the midrib on each side are marked by a broad white line; and with it was a hybrid 
Water Lily with rose-coloured flowers. A very pretty Tetratheca called ericifolia, a stiff shrub with 
drooping rosy flowers, not new, but lately reintroduced; the compact growing Gastrolobium calycinum, 
a very showy species, with glaucous opposite oblong carinate cuspidate leaves, and spikes of opposite 
orange and brown flowers issuing from between large membranous bracts; a white flowered variety of 
Impatiens platypetala ; and the pretty Pultencea ericifolia , a desirable exhibition plant, figured in the 
Gardener's Magazine of Botany last year, were all contributed by Messrs. Henderson, of the Edgeware 
Road. 
Besides their Hexacentris, Messrs. Veitch sent plants of two new hardy evergreen trees, which in 
the mature state are said to be very ornamental. These are Fitz-Roya patagonica and Saxe-Gothea 
conspicua. In the young state in which they were produced the former is an elegant cypress-like 
plant, the latter too much like a yew. They had also some nice pots of their new annual Collinsia 
multicolor , in the way of C. bicolor, but more highly coloured, and Streptocarpus biflorus bearing 
much larger flowers than S. Rexi, two on a stalk, but otherwise similar. A Boronia, named Mollinii, 
from Sir J. Cathcart’s garden, appeared to be not different from that cultivated under the name of 
B. spathulata. Messrs. Rollisson showed Caraguata lingulata, a spineless pine-apple-like plant, 
having a spreading head of crimson bracts, and the curious Ataccia cristata. Mr. Cole, gardener to 
H. Colyer, Esq., of Dartford, had an Ixora, known in nurseries as I. aurantiaca ; and appearing to 
be intermediate between coccinea and crocata. A promising blue-flowered Libertia was sent by Mr. 
Hally, of Blackheath. 
Messrs. Veitch had a fine new Dendrobe, D. clavatum, a species with oblong lanceolate leaves along 
the stems, and deep orange-coloured flowers, having a yellow lip with dark eye-like spots; _D. 
albo-sanguineum, a very handsome species, exhibited last year; and also a finely-branched Aerides from 
Moulmein, in the way of A. affine. A pretty variety of Cattleya intermedia, with the upper half of 
the central lobes of the lip purple, came from Mr. Shaw of Cheltenham. Mr.. Ivison sent a good plant, 
of the handsome yellow flowered Oncidium sessile ; and a pale worthless Trichopilia, probably a bad 
variety of T. coccinea [T. marginata ) came from Mrs. Lawrence’s garden. 
The Royal Botanic Society’s Exhibition in the Regent’s Park took place on the 19th ult., and was 
