taking much in the character of growth of F. acuminata. The flowers are of a rich blue-purple colour, more than an inch across, and produced in corymbs said to be even larger than those of F. hydrangaformis. It is in some of the London nurseries.

HELIOPHILA TRIFIDA-TRIFID-LEAVED HELIOPHILA.

Brassicacea. Tetradynamia Siliquosa.

A native of the Cape of Good Hope, from which it was introduced in 1819, and is known also by the name of H. pinnata. It is a half hardy herbaceous annual, and does well in the greenhouse, or if raised in pots, and turned out in the open borders in May. It grows about a foot high, branching, and produces a profusion of spikes of lovely blue flowers, having a white centre. Each blossom is three quarters of an inch across. Figured in Bot. Reg., p. 64.

HOYA IMPERIALIS-IMPERIAL HOYA.

Asclepiadacea. Pentandria Digynia.

This, it is said, is the most noble climbing plant ever introduced into this country. It bears large clusters of flowers, of a most beautiful white waxy texture, similar to the well-known lovely H. carnosa, except that the tiara-like rays in the centre are more of a bright purple than crimson colour. Each separate flower, we are informed, measures three inches across, and being grouped together in large umbels their appearance must be surpassingly magnificent. It was discovered in Borneo by Mr. Low, jun., who some time ago went out purposely to collect plants for the Clapton Nursery establishment. In remarking upon it, in a letter from Sarawak, dated 12th January, 1846, Mr. Low observes," On the next day, when in the territory of the Gumbang Dyaks, I found another curious plant, belonging to Asclepiads; it is an epiphytal climber; there was but one individual, growing from the decayed part of a tree, also overhanging the river. The flowers are large and in umbels; the leaves are leathery, and the stem abounds in a white, perhaps acrid juice. The contrast between the purple of the petals and the ivory white of the parts of fructification renders it highly beautiful." The leaves are lanceolate, six inches long, and the stems woolly. It is an invaluable plant, and we hope soon to see every stove ornamented with it.

HYDROLEA SPINOSA-SPINY HYDROLEA.

Hydroleacea. Pentandria Digynia.

A most beautiful and neat growing evergreen greenhouse shrub, introduced many years ago, but from an entirely inexplicable cause, for it is of easy multiplication by cuttings and grows freely, it is still a somewhat rare plant. It forms a compact bush, about a foot high and as much across. The flowers, produced with remarkable freedom, are of a lovely bright blue colour, rather larger, but of a similar shape to, Anagallis Monelli. It deserves to be grown in every greenhouse, and will also, especially on account of its colour, of which there is a deficiency, be found a valuable acquisition in the

summer flower garden, where it will succeed well if planted in a mixture of sandy peat and vegetable mould. Figured in Pax. Mag. Bot., Dec.

IMPATIENS PLATYPETALA-BROAD-PETALLED BALSAM.

Balsaminacea. Pentandria Monogynia.

Messrs. Veitch imported this very pretty flowering species from Java. It is a perennial plant, and requires to be treated similar to Gloxinias, Achimenes, &c. It was exhibited during the last summer at one of the Horticultural shows at Chiswick, and much admired. It blooms profusely, and so open are the beautiful rose coloured flowers, as somewhat to resemble Achimenes grandiflora. Each blossom is about an inch and a half across. It flowers the greater part of summer if kept from drying winds. It increases freely by cuttings. Figured in Bot. Reg., p. 68.

LYONIA JAMAICENSIS-JAMAICA LYONIA.

Ericacea. Decandria Monogynia.

A pretty wild plant, known in some gardens under the names of Andromeda fasciculata and A. Jamaicensis. It inhabits the high mountains in Jamaica, and forms a moderate sized shrub, branching freely and blooming profusely. The flowers are produced at the axils of the leaves, in close racemes of an inch long, and in colour are waxy white, slightly tinged with green and blush. Figured in Bot. Mug., p. 4273.

ODONTOGLOSSUM HASTILABIUM-HALBERT-LIPPED ODONTOGLOSSUM. Orchidacea. Gynundria Monandria.

A lovely Orchideous plant wholly new to our collections. It is from South America, where Mr. Purdie gathered it in the woods. The flowers are produced on racemes numerously, each blossom being about three inches across; sepals and petals rather narrow, green beautifully marked with transverse purple lines and dots. The stem (column) of the labellum is purple, and the lip which spreads out broad is a pure white. They are highly fragrant. Figured in Bot. Mag. p. 4272.

SALVIA CAMERTONII-CAMERTON'S SAGE.

Labiata. Diandria Monogynia.

This is a very distinct and handsome kind, with bright crimson flowers nearly as large as those of S. fulgens. The leaves are about an inch and a half long, of a light green colour, and possess an agreeable scent. The plant is of compact habit, and forms a bush from one and a half to two feet high. It has bloomed with us, and is well worthy of recommendation, especially for budding in the summer flower garden.

SCUTELLARIA VENTENATI-VENTENAT'S SKULL-CAP.

Labiata. Didynamia Gymnospermia.

Mr. Purdie sent this new species to the Royal Gardens at Kew,

from Santa Martha. It is a perennial herbaceous plant, and has bloomed beautifully in the greenhouse. The stems are erect, simple or branched, two feet high. The flowers are produced in long terminal racemes. Each blossom is an inch long, tube formed with a large capped end. They are of a rich deep scarlet, very bright and showy. No doubt it will make a beautiful plant for the flower garden during summer, forming highly ornamental masses in beds. Figured in Bot. Mag., p. 4271.

SWAINSONIA GREYANA-CAPTAIN GREY'S SWAINSONIA.

Fabaceae. Diadelphia Decandria.

From New Holland, and is a very showy half herbaceous plant, sent to the Horticultural Society, in whose garden at Chiswick it has bloomed. The flowers are produced in long racemes very profusely, they are of a rosy-purple colour, with a white eye. It blooms during the summer and autumn in the greenhouse. Fig. in Bot. Reg., p. 66.

ACHIMENES AND OTHER GESNERACEOUS PLANTS.

GENERAL TREATMENT.

BY WILLIAM CHITTY, STAMFORD-HILL.

DURING the past summer I was visited by a Yorkshire reader of your Magazine, who was so much pleased with the appearance of some of my Achimenes and other Gesneraceous plants as to suggest it might be useful if I would transmit to you, for insertion in the Cabinet, an account of the mode of culture adopted, and although much excellent information has already been communicated in your own and other publications on this subject, especially, I may mention, some very valuable remarks by a neighbour of mine in the early part of the present year (vol. xiv., p. 118), yet as my mode of treatment of these plants is somewhat different, and as I flatter myself I am tolerably successful in their management, I readily assent to the suggestion, and beg you to permit me to contribute my mite of information to the general fund.

There is no tribe of plants with which I am acquainted so well calculated for permanent decoration in the greenhouse throughout the summer months, as the different species and varieties of Sinningia, Gloxinia, Achimenes, and the summer-flowering kinds of Gesneria. I say, permanent decoration, because if previously to their introduction into the greenhouse (say about the last week in May or early in June) they have received proper treatment, each individual plant will invariably continue to flower from the time of such introduction until the end of September or beginning of October. To Gloxinias particularly this remark applies; and no plants can make a more charming display than they do when well furnished with their rich pubescent foliage, and a good proportion of beautiful flowers; these intermixed with the shining-leaved Sinningia, ornamented with its curiously spotted or self-coloured flowers, and the very distinct and

charming colours of the various Achimenes. And the culture of the plants is withal so simple, that no one need be deterred therefrom by fear of not succeeding who possesses the ordinary convenience of a stove, or, for lack of a stove, a common frame heated by fermenting manure or other material.

When I remove my Gloxinias from the greenhouse to make room for its proper inmates, usually the first week in October, I cut off the tops close to the bulb, considering it preferable to do so than allow them to die down, because they are apt to rot and carry decay into the heart of the bulb; after this I place the pot on a shelf in the stove, where they receive no water throughout the entire winter until they are repotted in February, March, or April, according as the circumstances of their growth may indicate it to be necessary to perform that operation; for notwithstanding they are kept perfectly free from moisture, and the heat in which they are placed does not average more than 58 or 60 degrees, they will soon after they are cut down begin again to grow, and continue slowly so to do throughout the winter, and by the time potting season arrives some of them frequently have formed fine heads three or four inches in height, and five or six inches in diameter, ready to start with the utmost vigour when they shall be stimulated by the application of fresh soil, water, and an increase of heat. By the beginning of February I pot a few of the strongest, that seem by their forward growth absolutely to require it; but the general potting I defer until the end of the month or beginning of March. The soil I employ consists of equal parts of rough turfy bog earth and well rotted leaf mould, fully incorporated with about one-twelfth of white sand; this year I also added a good proportion of potsherds broken small, and my plants have, in consequence, been unusually fine, the particles of pot not only rendering the soil open and accessible to the roots of the plants, but forming so many reservoirs of moisture and nutriment. In potting I rub most of the old soil off the roots, and place them at once in the pots in which I intend them to flower, taking care to ensure thorough drainage. I am not partial to shifting unless I find any pushing with unusual vigour, and promising to make extra fine specimens, in which case I remove them into pots two sizes larger. When the whole are potted they receive a copious watering, and in two or three days, if a moist genial heat is kept up, their fine roots may be perceived spreading on the surface of the mould, a certain indication they are thriving, subsequent attention to watering when necessary, frequent syringing, and maintaining a genial heat, is efficient to cause the plants to progress with great vigour, and by the end of May or beginning of June the plants will begin to expand their blossoms, when they are at once removed to the greenhouse there to display and continue their beauties throughout the summer.

The mode of treatment I pursue with Gesnerias and Sinningias is similar to the above, but with Achimenes some difference in shifting is necessary to be observed. I will therefore remark that I cut them down as soon as the tops decay, and place them on a shelf in the stove, where they remain perfectly free from moisture in the same

pots until returning growth in the spring has been resumed, and the young shoots have attained an inch in height. I then divide them, inserting four plants into a 54-sized pot, placing them close to the edge, and using precisely the same compost as for Gloxinias; when potted I set them in the warmest part of the stove as near the glass as possible, where, with attention to watering, frequent syringing, &c., they grow very fast, and in three weeks or a month the pots become filled with their roots; they are consequently at once removed into the pots in which they are to bloom, some into 32's, others into 24's and 12's, as occasion may require. In shifting at this time I separate the plants, retaining equal portions of the ball to each, and place them about an inch from the sides of the larger pot; this not only enables the roots to shoot with greater vigour into the fresh soil, but affords ample room for the growth of the lateral shoots, and their arrangement by tying, &c. When the flower-buds become prominent, the plants are removed into the greenhouse to bloom, where, having more air, they develope their flowers with greater perfection than in the stove, and continue for a longer time to enliven the house by their beauty.

VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.

THE STEMS AND LEAVES OF PLANTS.

BY J. TODD, DENTON GARDENS, LINCOLNSHIRE.

THE roots of plants, with their functions, having been described in a previous article (pages 275-277, vol. xiv.), the stems and leaves come next under consideration. The stem, in its most usual form, is that of a cylindrical column, differing from the root in its tendency to seek light and air, and in its being the immediate seat of those beautiful appendages, the leaves and flowers. The leaves are flat expansions of the cortical integument or bark, from which, however, in European plants, they are mostly articulated, and after the lapse of a few months fall away, others in due time being produced from those buds which are always developed in their axils. In bulbs, grasses, and all flowerless plants, the leaves have no distinct point of separation, being only disengaged from the parent structure by putrefaction. The stem serves as a sort of conduit, through which the moisture absorbed by the roots is transmitted to the leaves; it also serves to elevate the latter into the most favourable position for receiving the full influence of light, heat, and air, (a circumstance in plant culture of much importance,) the presence of which is indispensable to the perfect consummation of their function, viz., the conversion of the crude and watery fluid imparted to them into an inspissated and nourishing sap.

In making a transverse section of a branch or stem of any of our ordinary trees or shrubs, such as the common Hazel (Corylus Avellana) for example, we perceive it to consist of three distinct parts, usually known as pith, wood, and bark. The pith arises from the collar, or that point which separates the root from the stem, and