Sunday 31 January 2010

T. C. Claflin


Tennessee Celeste Claflin (October 26, 1844 – January 18, 1923),
Lady Cook, Viscondessa de Montserrate

J. Gurney & Son Photographers, from the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540. LOT 13301, no. 151

[photograph taken between 1880 and 1890] She married Cook in 1885 when he was in his sixties.

Lotus Jacobaeus



The Botanical Magazine; Or, Flower-Garden Displayed by William Curtis

79. Lotus Jacobaeus. Black-Flowered Lotus.

Class and Order:
Diadelphia Decandria.

Generic Character:
Legumen cylindricum strictum. Alae sursum longitudinaliter conniventes. Cal. tubulosus.
Specific Character and Synonyms:
LOTUS Jacobaeus leguminibus subternatis, caule herbaceo erecto, foliolis linearibus. Lin. Syst. Veg. 601.
LOTUS angustifolia, flore luteo purpurascente, infulae S. Jacobi. Comm. hort. 2. p. 165. t. 83.
No. 79

This species of Lotus has been called black-flowered, not that the flowers are absolutely black, for they are of a very rich brown inclined to purple, but because they appear so at a little distance; the light colour of the foliage contributes not a little to this appearance.

"It grows naturally in the Island of St. James; is too tender to live abroad in England, so the plants must be kept in pots, and in the winter placed in a warm airy glass cafe, but in the summer they should be placed abroad in a sheltered situation. It may be easily propagated by cuttings during the summer season, and also by seeds, but the plants which have been two or three times propagated by cuttings, seldom are fruitful." Miller's Gard. Dict.

It continues to flower during the whole of the summer; as it is very apt to die off without any apparent cause, care should be taken to have a succession of plants from seeds, if possible.

Island of St. James = S. Tiago, Cape Verde / Cabo Verde

Wednesday 27 January 2010

Eugenia myrtifolia

Eugenia myrtifolia may mean:
In the Regnum Plantae:
Eugenia myrtifolia Salisb., nom. superfl. (Magnoliophyta : Myrtaceae) = Eugenia uniflora
Eugenia myrtifolia Roxb., 1813, nom. inval. (Magnoliophyta : Myrtaceae) = Syzygium myrtifolium
Eugenia myrtifolia Sims, 1821, nom. illeg. (Magnoliophyta : Myrtaceae) = Syzygium australe or Eugenia oleaeoides
Eugenia myrtifolia Roxb., 1831, nom. illeg. (Magnoliophyta : Myrtaceae) = Syzygium myrtifolium
Eugenia myrtifolia Cambess., 1833, nom. illeg. (Magnoliophyta : Myrtaceae) = Eugenia neomyrtifolia



Banksia praemorsa Andrews


Banksia marcescens.
Marcescent Banksia.
Plate 2803 from Volume LV of Curtis's Botanical Magazine,

Proteaceae
Banksia marcescens R.Br. [ nom. illeg. ] nom. superfl..
Brown, R. (1810) On the natural order of plants called Proteaceae. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 10(1): 208 [tax. nov.]


basionym: Banksia praemorsa Andrews
Comment: Given under BANKSIA L.f. (nom. cons.).George, A.S. (1981) The genus Banksia L.f. (Proteaceae). Nuytsia 3(3): 347-348
synonym of: Banksia praemorsa Andrews George, A.S. in Wilson, A.J.G. (Ed) (1999), Flora of Australia 17B: 215, Map 214
synonym of: Banksia praemorsa Andrews CHAH (2005), Australian Plant Census
synonym of: Banksia praemorsa Andrews

Sciadopitys verticillata


Siebold/Zuccarini, Flora Japonica, 1870


The plant was first introduced to Europe by John Gould Veitch in September 1860.


James Herbert Veitch (2006 reprint). Hortus Veitchii. Caradoc Doy. pp. 51–52.

Pinus wallichiana - A.B.Jacks.


Flora of China Illustrations vol. 4, fig. 23, 1-9
(Wu and Raven 1999).




Pinaceae - Pinus excelsa


Neerland’s plantentuin. Afbeeldingen en beschrijvingen van sierplanten voor tuin en kamer by Cornelius Antoon Jan Abraham Oudemans (editor) and others.Groningen, J.B. Wolters, 1867, volume 3 (plate 42). Chromolithograph (sheet 174 x 263 x mm).



A beautifully illustrated monthly journal about Dutch garden plants and indoor plants. Only 3 volumes were published. With extensive contributions by its editor C.A.J.A. Oudemans and C. Glijm, J.B. Groenewegen, J.H. Krelage and H. Witte. The decorative chromolithographed plates by A.J. Wendel and others lithographed by Emrik & Binger, Marriën & Amand, G. Severeyns, L. Stroobant, etc.* Jackson p. 479; Nissen BBI 1477; Stafleu & Cowan 7148.





Antiquariaat Jan Meemelink

Tuesday 26 January 2010

Fascicularia bicolor ssp. bicolor





Here is plate 8087 from Curtis's Botanical Magazine vol. 132, 1906. At this time it was published as Rhodostachys pitcairniifolia. This name has however been demonstrated as synonymous with
Ochagavia litoralis (Phil.) Zizka, Trumpler & Zöllner, Willdenowia 32: 340 (2002).

Ochagavia has red or pink petals. The plant illustrated above obviously has blue petals and is in fact a Fasicularia. It is a plant that is widely grown in mild European gardens. The muddle was sorted out by the same authors in the NEW PLANTSMAN of December 1997. The plant in the illustraion is Fascicularia bicolor ssp. bicolor.

Sunday 17 January 2010

Hardy Species of Eucalyptus, 1889

Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Gardens, Kew), Vol. 1889, No. 27 (1889), pp. 61-62

It is well known that some species of Eucalyptus are hardy in certain districts in this country, but the ordinary Blue Gum, E. Globulus is only sparingly so. We have recently received from Mr. Abbott, Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens at Hobart Town, Tasmania, a small quantity of seed of this species collected from trees growing at high altitudes and exposed to severe frosts. Seeds were also recived of E. coccifera from trees which were coated with icicles a foot long." It is probable that plants raised from seed of such hardy forms would likely bear with impunity the rigours of an English winter. The seed received has all been sown and the results will be duly noted later. In the meantime the following extract from a letter received from Mr. Abbott will be read with interest : -

In the same package I put a little seed of Eucalyptus Globulus from Tullochgorum, a part of the Colony where the winters are severe, and on that account the plants raised from the seed forwarded are likely to withstand an amount of cold that would kill the ordinary form, at all events it is so here, as all attempts to introduce the plants into the district from the southern parts of the island failed, the cold proving too severe. Eventually a few isolated plants of E. Globulus were found growing in a sheltered gully some 20 miles from Tullochgorum. These were the only plants of the species that have been found growing naturally in so cold a climate, and plants raised from these trees were planted about Tullochgorum, and grew into large trees ..."

Saturday 16 January 2010

Rhexia glandulosa Bertol.




Aimé Bonpland, Description des plantes rares cultivées à Malmaison et à Navarre . Vol. I
OBSERVATIONS
Le Rhexia glandulosa est, ainsi que le Rhexia pendulifolia, originaire de la Guyane. Cette nouvelle espèce n'a aucun rapport avec celles qui sont déja connues; semée à la même époque que le Rhexia pendulifolia, elle a fleuri um mois plus tard, c'est-à-dire, en avril; mais ses fleurs ont été d'une plus longue durée que celles du Rhexia pendulifolia. Cette nouvelle espèce ne s'est pas élevée dans les serres à plus d'un pied (3 decimètres). Elle étoit rameuse dès sa base et garnie de feuilles très petites. Ses fleurs, très-analogues à celles du Leptospermum juniperinum, sont remarquables por deux corps glanduleux qui se trouveent placies au sommet et sur les côtés des filets.
Il est extrémement difficile de cultiver les Mélastomacées dans nos serres, et de les conserver. Les graines de ces plantes, nouvellement arrivé de l'Amerique et des Indes, lèvent assez facilement; mais ; mais les jeunes plantes périssont [?] bientôt. Pendant cinq années de suite que j'ai fait semer des graines Mélastomacées avec le plus grand soin, je n'en ai pu sauver que trois espèces, qui sont le Rhexia pendulifolia, figuré à la planche XXVI de cet ouvrage; le Rhexia glandulosa, à la planche XXVII; et le Melastoma malabathrica, qui n'a que deux ans de semis, et n'a pas encore fleuri. Les autres espèces de cet order qui se cultivent à Malmaison sont le Melastoma elaeagnoides et le Cymosa. Ce dernier, par son fruit supère et capsulaire, doit être rapporté au genre Rhexia.


Rhexia glandulosa Bonpl., Descr. Pl. Malmaison 70. t. 27. 1815

Stifftia chrysantha




STIFFTIA CHRYSANTHA.
Golden-flowered Stifftia.

Few cultivators have seen native specimens or the fine figure given by Mikan of this beautiful shrub, without feeling desirous to possess it in our stoves. It has been longer in our collections than we were aware of. Many years ago, plants of it were presented to Kew by Mr. Henderson of the Pine-Apple Nursery; and plants have been also communicated to the Edinburgh Botanic Garden; yet no one suspected that it was the celebrated Stifftia till its flowers appeared, nearly at the same time, both in Edinburgh and Kew. Our drawing was made from the Edinburgh specimen, kindly sent in February, 1849, by Professor Balfour, with the following notes. W. J. H.


" This plant has been flowering for some time in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. It is a native of Brazil, and was derived, I believe, originally from Kew. It is cultivated in a warm stove.

Descr. The plant is at present almost six feet high (according to Mikan it attains a height of eight to ten feet) and has six heads of very showy flowers. The woody stem is four inches and a half in circumference at the base, and the bark is rough. The primary branches come off in a somewhat dichotomous manner. Leaves lanceolate, acuminate, alternate, shortly petiolate, entire, smooth and shining, having a single mid-rib, which is slightly penninerved both on the under and on the upper surface; venation reticulated, primary veins ending in curved veins within the margin. Petiole slightly grooved on its upper surface, articulated with the stem. Capitula solitary, terminal on the young branches, homogamous, containing about twenty-five discoid flowers. Peduncles short, thickened upwards, having small scales. Involucre somewhat turbinate, coriaceous, having thirty to forty imbricated scales arranged in several series, closely appressed in the young state, spreading after the corolla falls; scales green in the centre, paler towards the margins which are fringed with short hairs; outer scales short, ovate, obtuse, often tipped with black, intermediate scales longer and less ovate, innermost oblong-linear, pale greenish, and about one inch in length. Receptacle having milky juice, nearly flat, marked with hexagonal spaces, in the centre of each of which there is a depression or pit for the flower. Corolla smooth, regular, tubular, about one inch and three-quarters long, of a pale orange colour below and becoming darker above, its limb divided into five narrow, revolute circinnate segments, which when unrolled are about half an inch long. Filaments smooth, coloured, inserted into the upper part of the corolline tube, alternating with the segments of the limb, arching over the orifice of the tube to join the anther below the middle; anthers two-lobed, much exserted, bifid at the apex, ending below in a bipartite prolongation ; pollen elliptical, furrowed. Style cylindrical, exserted nearly one inch beyond the corolla and about a quarter of an inch beyond the antheric tube, undulated at its lower part, straight above. Stigma bifid, its segments equal, acute, hairy on the inner side of its lobes, which close on the application of the pollen. Ovary green, triangular, three-quarters of an inch long, with a short yellowish beak at the summit whence the pappus proceeds. Pappus reaching to near the upper part of the corolline tube, in several rows, its hairs unequal and beautifully serrated with projecting cellular processes, of a pale orange colour, spreading much after the corolla falls." J. H. Balfour.

Cult. This is a shrub of a robust and bushy habit, requiring the heat of the tropical stove, and growing in any kind of garden loam not retentive of moisture. Although we have had it in cultivation for about eight years, it was only recently that it showed flower ; but we are of opinion that if young plants were vigorously grown, they would not be so dilatory in producing their curious inflorescence. It is propagated readily by cuttings placed under a bell-glass in bottom-heat. J.S.


Fig. 1. Single flower:—magnified.


April 1st, 1849


Curtis's botanical magazine, Volume 75


Table 4438

Macrozamia Denisonii


Macrozamia denisonii C. Moore & F. Muell., in F. Muell., Fragm. 1: 41 (1858).

Alexander Macleay (1767 - 1818)




Born in Ross-shire, the son of the Deputy-Lieutenant of Caithness, 24 th June, 1767. Died at Sydney 18 th June, 1848.

Fellow 1794, and Secretary, 1798 -1825, of the Linnean Society. Fellow of the Royal Society 1809. Colonial Secretary of New South Wales 1825-37, and first Speaker of the Legislative Council 1843-46, and First President of the Australian Museum at Sydney, founded in 1836. His name was given by Robert Brown to the genus Macleaya, (Bocconia), belonging to the poppy family.

There is a silhouette drawn on paper and a bust, profile to the right, in the Hooker Collection. There is also a line engraving by Charles Fox, after a painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., belonging to the Linnean Society; to the waist, seated, clean shaven face, three-quarters to the right There is a copy of this in the rooms of the Linnean Society of New South Wales.

A distinguished entomologist and "a practical botanist." (R.Brown, Proc . Linn. .Soc. ii, 45). See also. The Sydney Botanic Garden was under his official care in the early days and owes much to him. An admirable account of him from the pen of Mr. J. J. Fletcher will be found in the Macleay Memorial volume (Sydney 1893), in honour of his nephew, Sir William Macleay.

He is commemorated in
Anopterus macleayanus F.v.M.
Catakidozamia macleayi Hill
Macrozamia macleayi Hort.
Leichhardtia macleayana Sheph.= Octoclinis macleayana , F.v.M.;
Frenela macleayana Parlat.= Callitris macleayana , F.v.M.

Source: Maiden, J.H. (1908) Records of Australian botanists- (a) General, (b) New South Wales. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Soiciety of New South Wales for 1908 . 42:60-132

Thunbergia grandiflora Bot Mag 2366




Native of Bengal, growing in uncultivated places, in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, and flowering in the rainy season. Requires to be kept in the stove. May be propagated by cuttings.
Our drawing of this beautiful plant was taken at Haringay House, the seat of Edward Gray, Esq. in whose stove it grows luxuriantly, and flowers freely.

Curtis's botanical magazine, or, flower-garden displayed: in ..., Volume 50, 1823

Thunbergia grandiflora


222 THUNBERGIA GRANDIFLORA.
(large-flowered Thunbergia.)

CLASS: DIDYNAMIA.
ORDER: ANGIOSPERMIA.
NATURAL ORDER: ACANTHACEAE.

Generic Character.— Vide vol. iii. p. 28.

Specific Character.—Plant sub-shrubby, climbing, perennial. Stems woody, with the young shoots a little hairy, and slightly quadrangular. Leaves opposite, petiolate, spreading, angularly cordate, with five or seven nerves, somewhat roughened on both sides by small, white hairs. Petioles erect, nearly as long as the leaves, smaller towards the base. Peduncles axillary, one-flowered. Calyx two-valved, about as long as the throat of the corolla, with no interior segments. Corolla campanulate, very large, pale blue ; limb five-parted, lobes nearly round, two upper ones erect, throe lower spreading.

Like the fine species of Blandfordia depicted in a previous page of this Number, the noble Thunbergia, to which attention is now more immediately invited, has had to sustain for a time the contumely of the fanciful, to make room for numbers of the far less worthy acquisitions of modern collectors. But whether it be because the favourite of one day, though discarded the next, is, if possessing any decided claims to regard, almost certain to be reinstalled at some subsequent period, or whether, as we would fain believe, the public taste is becoming less fickle, and more in accordance with staid principles ; we are pleased to see the subject of these strictures again making its way to popular esteem, and attaining that place in a collection of stove plants which it so well deserves.

Within the last five years we can remember observing this plant, with a most miserable aspect, in nursery and other establishments, cramped into a small pot, almost smothered by larger specimens, and exclaimed against as a species which hardly ever blossomed; the truth of the matter being that it never had any opportunity of making other than the most slender shoots, which, not being able to arrive at maturity from the circumstances amidst which they were formed, did not, of course, develop any flowers. Such, indeed, is very generally the case with stove-plants that are called shy bloomers ; the cultivator's bad treatment and not the constitution of the plant, being the cause of the defect. Thus, it is always found, when the specimens decried are placed in those conditions which are evidently essential to their proliferousness, they commence flowering most profusely, and continue to do the same while a similar system of management lasts.
Having examined, with some care, plants of T. grandiflora which bloom
abundantly, and others on which a single blossom is rarely to be witnessed, it is
obvious to us that the two states are brought about solely by attention or inattention
to some very trifling particulars. First, it should be potted in a compost with
some pretensions' to be called rich, but not of an extremely nutritive description.
Two parts of maiden loam, and the remainder of heath-soil, leaf-mould, and sand,
will, if mixed, constitute an excellent material. Next, the pot to which it is
transferred must be exactly of the size suited to its wants, and neither so large as
to leave more than three quarters of an inch between the roots and its edge, nor so
small as to check the extension of the rootlets, unless the specimen be too exuberant.
Lastly, each plant ought to have an open space of at least half a foot on all sides of
it, that the influence of the external aerial agents may be duly received, and that
it may not relapse into a weakly state, with long, sickly branches, bare towards
the bottom.
The best mode of training for the attainment of these ends is to a small round trellis of either wood or wire, around which the shoots can be fastened in such a manner as not to grow higher than four or five feet from the stage. In the summer months this species needs watering with great liberality, and syringing rather forcibly three or four times in a week. Throughout the winter, however, it is to be kept much drier, and suffered to stand on a wooden or stone surface.
Our drawing of this splendid plant was made in the nursery of Messrs. Henderson, Pine-Apple Place, whose recent culture of stove plants, and the spirited manner in which they have constructed houses for their reception, are much to be commended. It is an East Indian species, described by Dr. Roxburgh as growing " among bushes in wild uncultivated spots near Calcutta, where it flowers in the rainy season." With us it blooms freely through several of the autumnal months.

Cuttings of the young wood, taken off in spring, and placed in sandy loam, plunging the pots in heating bark or manure, and protecting the whole by a handglass, will strike root with tolerable freedom.
Paxton's magazine of botany, and register of flowering plants, Volume 7 , 1840, p. 221

Thunbergia laurifolia Lindl.


Thunbergia laurifolia. Lindl. in Gardeners' Chron. 1856, p. 260.


Two very striking new kinds of Thunbergia (of the same group with Th. grandiflora, Roxb.) have lately appeared in our gardens, both having a certain affinity, especially in the size and colouring of the corolla. The one we have now the pleasure of figuring: the other, much more beautiful than the present, will shortly form the subject of another plate. That now before us was first raised at Frogmore Gardens from seeds presented to Mr. Ingram by an officer, who brought or procured it from the Malayan peninsula,—we presume so, at least, from the fact of our having since received and raised seeds of the same plant from Dr. Thomson, of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, collected in that region. These have produced fine flowering plants with us; but our drawing was taken from Mr. Ingram's plant. The name was given by Dr. Lindley, in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' above quoted, to specimens from Frogmore, which were exhibited at the rooms of the Horticultural Society of London in 1856. It is a plant of rather rapid growth, and flourishes in the stove, either trained against a back wall or beneath a rafter,—flowering at various seasons of the year, not unfrequently in early spring; and is really a striking object.

Descr. A climbing much-branching shrub, with the younger branches terete and green, glabrous. Leaves opposite, long petiolate, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, entire, or sometimes a little toothed, three-nerved, reticulated with transverse nerves. Petioles two to three inches and more long, slender, remarkable for being incrassated both at the apex and at the base; at the apex the thickened portion is nearly terete; at the base the incrassation extends for a greater length, and is flattened or plane on the upper side, and even slightly winged. Raceme of flowers, both axillary and terminal, sometimes bearing a few flowers, and destitute of leaves; at other times the raceme consists of whorled flowers, with a pair of opposite leaves at the base, which are smaller than those of the stem. Bracteas of two vaginant leaves or large scales, resembling a spatha, open and free at the lower edge, adherent by the upper margin, faintly striated; this embraces the lower gibbous portion of the tube of the corolla. Calyx very small, cup-shaped, dotted. Corolla very large, pale blue, with a yellowish eye. Tube obliquely funnel-shaped, wide at the mouth. Limb very large, spreading, five-lobed; lobes rotundate, deeply emarginate, almost bifid. Stamens quite included, inserted near the base of the tube of the corolla. Filaments broad, subulate, curved. Anthers oblong, apiculate, fringed in front, and having two subulate spurs at the base. Ovary subglobose, sunk in a fleshy disc or cup, crenate at its edge. Style long, but included within the tube of the corolla; stigma bifid; each lobe channelled within.


Fig. 1. Stamens, including the pistil. 2. Calyx, cupular disc, and pistil:— magnified.
Curtis's botanical magazine, Volume 85 tab. 4985, 1857

Ruellia baikiei




TAB. 5111

STEPHANOPHYSUM Baikiei.


Dr. Baikies Stephanophysum.


Nat. Ord. Acanthaceae.—Didynamia Gymnospermia.

Gen. Char. Calyx 5 -partitus, laciniis angustis sequalibus. Corolla tubo brevi, faucibus in plerisque campanulato-inflatis deorsum ventricosis aliis ovalibus oblongisve aequalibus; limbi laciniis brevibus aequalibus erectis (v. magis minusve patentibus). Stamina 4, didynama, faucibus inserta, corollam plerumque aequantia; filamenta per paria basi connata; anthera biloculares, loculis parallelis, lineares, basi sagittatae, demum recurvse. Stigma bilabiatum, labiis planis acuminatis, superiore breviore. Capsula a basi ad medium contracta, elocularis, hinc bilocularis, 4-12-sperma. Semina plana, orbiculata, retinaculis fulcrata.—Herbse Americae (et Africae) tropica, foliis plus minus dentatis (v. integerrimis). Cymse umbellares, laterales, pedunculata, 4-flda, abortu bifidae, raidiis bifidis, bracteis parvis subulatis, bracteolis nullis: abortu evadunt pedunculi uniflori, sub flore bibracteati, vel flores terminales, aggregati, subracemosi, pedicellis ebracteatis. Corolla digitaliformis, coccinea. Nees in De Cand.


Stephanophysum Baikiei; suffrutex ? glaber, ramis 4-angulatis, foliis ovatolanceolatis acuminatis integerrimis basi in petiolum longum attenuatis, panicula composita terminali multiflora, calyce piloso-glanduloso, corollis elongatis infundibuliformi-tubulosis curvatis lateraliter compressis basi angusto-attenuatis medio subventricoso, laciniis patenti-recurvis, glandula hypogyna magna cupuliformi carnosa, antherse loculis basi brevi-calcaratis.



One of the many highly interesting plants lately sent home from the present Niger Expedition by its successful Commander Dr. Baikie, and collected by the indefatigable naturalist, Mr. Barter. Seeds accompanied the dried specimens, and these have germinated, and the plants flowered in great beauty during the winter months of 1858—9. The structure is in every essential particular so much of that of Stephanophysum, Pohl (of which however the thirteen species described by Nees are all South American), that I can have no hesitation in referring the plants to that genus.

Descr. Our plant is between two and three feet high, herbaceous at present, but will probably prove to be suffruticose, erect, branched with opposite, square or tetragonous, erecto-patent branches. Leaves in opposite pairs, sometimes nearly a span long, including the petiole, ovato-lanceolate, submembranaceous, entire, penniveined, acuminate, attenuated at the base. Panicle terminal, with copious bracts and bracteoles, and composed of many-flowered opposite racemes or spikes. Flowers opposite, sessile. Calyx cut nearly to the base into five, narrow, erect, linear-subulate, glanduloso-pilose segments. Corolla more than two inches long, scarlet, tubuloso-infundibuliform, curved, very slender and much tapering at the base, inflated or ventricose in the middle, the five triangular lobes of the limb patent and even recurved. Stamens included within the tube. Anthers with a small spur at the base of each cell. Ovary sunk into a large, fleshy, cup-shaped disc. Ovules about four in each cell.

Fig. 1. Calyx, including the pistil. 2. Stamens. 3. Two-celled anthers. 4. Ovary surrounded at the base by the cup-like fleshy disc:—magnified.



Stephanophysum baikiei Hook.
Bot. Mag. 85: t. 5111. 1859
Acanthaceae



Currently accepted name:

Ruellia baikiei ( Hook. ) N.E.Br.
Suppl. Johnson's Gard. Dict.: 999 (1882)

Aphelexis spectabilis grandiflora


Aphelexis spectabilis grandiflora : exposée par M. H. Colyer, dans la grande exhibition de Juin dernier de la société d'horticulture à Chiswick.



Flore des serres et des jardins de l'Europe: annales générales d'horticulture, Volume 7, L. Van Houtte., 1852, p. 118
477. Exemplaires modèles d'Aphelexis spectabilis grandiflora, de Camarotis purpurea et de Brassavola nodosa


On peut, sans être taxé d'anglomanie, avouer que l'horticulture britannique excelle dans l'art de former les plantes en magnifiques exemplaires. A cet égard, mieux vaudrait cent fois s'efforcer de rivaliser avec nos voisins, que d'aller leur demander à prix d'or les éléments de triomphes faciles sur notre propre terrain. Combien ne voit-on pas, en effet, dans mainte exposition d'horticulture, de ces produits prétendus du crû, qui portent dans le vase même qui les renferme le certificat de leur origine anglaise! Combien de geais que le bon public prend pour des paons, mais dont le faux plumage ne trompe pas l'œil des malins! Combien de Bruyères.... mais là-dessus, motus. Stimulons plutôt l'émulation par des exemples:


Aphelexis spectabilis grandiflora : exposée par M. H. Colyer, dans la grande exhibition de Juin dernier de la société d'horticulture à Chiswick. On connaît l'éclat de cette belle Immortelle (Hélichrysée) : qu'on juge de son effet en aussie manifique touffe fleurie

vignette extrait du Gardener's Magazine of Bot. rédigé par MM. Moore, Henrey etc.


Grown at Monserrate under name of Aphelexis spectabilis this plant is now known as Helichrysum humile Less. The Monserrate plant would have been a selected form with larger purple flowers also known as APHELEXIS macrantha purpurea.

Aphelexis humilis




APHELEXIS HUMILIS.
(Humble Aphelexis.)

Class SYNGENESIA.

Order.SUPERFLUA.
Natural Order. ASTERACEAE. (Composites, Veg. King.)

Generic Character.— Capitulum many-flowered. Florets of the ray female, arranged in several rows, each with a spreading limb. Florets of the disk hermaphrodite. Receptacle paleaceous. Pappus setaceous.

Specific Character— Plant an evergreen shrub, about two feet in height. Branches numerous, slender, spreading, covered with a white tomentum. Leaves subulate, erect, imbricated. Peduncles scaly, single-flowered. Flowers rose-coloured.


This good old inhabitant of our greenhouses was introduced from the Cape of Good Hope, so long ago as 1810, and has always been a favourite amongst cultivators.


The beautiful flowers, which only expand during sunshine, are produced in great profusion in May and June, and are of a rich rose-colour. The habit of the plant is dwarf and spreading, and as the management is not difficult, it has for some years past, since cultivation has been well understood, held a place amongst first class subjects in all our Horticultural exhibitions.


Aphelexis Humilis Macrantha, Large-flowered Dwarf Aphelexis.—This is a very striking variety of the above, which was raised from seeds a few years ago, and, with a similar habit, has larger and more conspicuous flowers.


The soil in which these plants grow best is sandy peat, and it is advisable in potting to elevate them a little in the centre of the pots. Good drainage, also, is indispensable, and a judicious supply of water, especially during the winter season, which should be rather scanty than otherwise.


Cuttings strike readily, planted in pots of sand, and placed under a glass in a moderately cool part of the propagating house, where they will not receive too much moisture.


Our drawing was made in the garden at Brookland Park, Blackheath, in May, 1846.
The generic name is derived from apheles, simple, and exis, habit; habit and construction of the plants.


Paxton's magazine of botany, and register of flowering plants, Volume 15, 1849, p.269
Asteraceae
Aphelexis macrantha Paxton
Fl. Mag. xv. 269.
xv. 269 0
Original Data:
Notes: =Helichrysum humile

Helichrysum humile

Helichrysum humile

Dianella caerulea Sims



This plant is a native of New Holland, and we believe was first raised in this country from seeds from Port Jackson, about the year 1783, by our much respected friend, the late Mr. Cuff, of Teddington, a gentleman of great zeal and assiduity in cultivating plants and promoting the science of Botany, to vhose liberality the Brompton Botanic Garden is indebted for this and many other scarce and beautiful plants.

It succeeds well in the greenhouse, begins flowering about the month of May, and continues in blossom during the greatest part of the summer. Is readily increased by parting its roots in the spring, and should be planted in pots filled with loam and peat earth.

The Chevalier de la Marck. has given the name of Dianella nemorosa to the Dracaena ensifolia of Linnaeus, with which this plant has confiderable affinity, but is certainly a distinct species. The Dianella nemorosa of Jacquin, figured in his Hort. Schoenb. t. 94. appears to be different from both.
We have adopted the name by which it is known in those collections about town which possess it.—We hope to take another opportunity of saying something more on this genus as distinguished from Dracana.
Botanical Magazine 15: , t.505. 1801.
Grown at Monserrate 1861 together with another undentified species of the same genus from South Australia

Baeckea virgata


(2127)
BAECKEA VIRGATA. TWIGGY BAECKEA

Class and Order.
Pentandria (Octandria. Smith.) Monogynia:

Generic Character.

Cal. infundibuliformis, 5-dentatus. Cor. 5-petala, Caps. 3—s. 4-locularis, polysperma, calyce tecta.

Specific Character and Synonyms.
Baekea virgata ; foliis lineari-lanceolatis pellucido-punctatis, pedunculis axillaribus umbelliferis. Bot. Repos. 598.
Baeckea virgata. Hort. Kew. Epit.
Leptospermum virgatum ; foliis oppositis lineari-lanceolatis. Forst. Gen. p. 48. Sweet Hort. suburban, p. 81.

Descr. Leaves opposite, crowded, linear-lanceolate ; faintly
three-nerved, dotted with pellucid glands. Peduncles axillary.
bearing a few-flowered umbel. Calyx superior, 5-toothed,
teeth distant, coloured. Cor. 5-petalled : petals roundish,
with a long narrow claw. Stamens from five to ten, shorter
than the claw of the petal, inserted at the base of the calycine
teeth. Five or ten appears to us the natural number,
but in the flowers we examined, the number was generally
five ; sometimes six, being two stamens to one of the calycine
teeth, and only one to the other four. Our specimen flowered
in the middle of December ; perhaps in a warmer season
there would have been two stamens to each of the teeth.
Filaments short, incurved, terminated with a gland, which
gives to the anthers the appearance of being 3-lobed ; but as
the gland soon dries up, to observe this the examination must
be made before the flower is expanded. The Germen is at
first concave at the crown, but afterward» becomes flat and
enlarged.
ВAEСKЕА, LEPTOSPERMUM, and FABRICIA, are very nearly allied, and all belong to the natural order of Myrti Indeed, except in the number of stamens, which seems also to be inconstant, we do not find any difference between this species and Leptospermum. With the Chinese species we have had no opportunity of comparing it. In our account of Fabricia laevigata, (vide No. 1304) by an error of the press, the Class is said to be Hexandria instead of Icosandria.
Native of New South Wales. Requires only to be protected from frost. Flowers from September to the end of December. Communicated by Mr. Lee, of the Hammersmith, Nursery.
Curtis's botanical magazine, or, flower-garden displayed: in which the most ornamental foreign plants, cultivated in the open ground, the green-house, and the stove, are accurately represented in their natural colours ...,
Table 2127, Volume 47, 1820
Grown at Monserrate 1861.

Friday 15 January 2010

Harmogia virgata ( J.R.Forst. & G.Forst. ) Schauer

A plant was grown under this name at Monserrate in 1861. It was sent there by Sir William J. Hooker at Kew who in one of his many writings on Australian Plants : Hooker's journal of botany and Kew garden miscellany, Volume 8, p. 67, equates this species with Camphyromyrtus pluriflor F. Muell.; "leaves spreading, lanceolate-linear or oblong-lanceolate, acutish, awnless, with flat, perfectly entire margin; peduncles generally three-flowered. HABITAT On the banks of the Tambo, on the Snowy River, and on several of its tributaries."

So the plant was collected in south-eastern Australia. This is significant in determining the true identity of the plant once grown in Monserrate. Modern nomenclature for Harmogia virgata is generally given as Baeckea virgata which under revision in the 1990's by Tony Bean of the Queensland Herbarium was changed to Babingtonia virgata. This species according to this author is however restricted to New Caledonia. Australian plants previously known as Baeckea virgata were assigned to one of 8 species:

Babingtonia angusta
Babingtonia bidwillii
Babingtonia brachypoda
Babingtonia collina
Babingtonia crassa
Babingtonia papillosa
Babingtonia pluriflora
Babingtonia similis


The Monserrate Harmogia virgata belongs therefore to one of the above!

See the ANPSA Blog Gumnuts for more detail and source.

So which of the Babingtonias comes from the banks of the Tambo?

Going back to Mueller:
George Bentham, Ferdinand von Mueller Flora australiensis: Myrtaceæ to Composita p.81
Baeckea - SECTION IV HARMOGIA

22. B. virgata, Andr. Bot. Rep. t. 598. Usually tall erect and loosely branched, attaining 10 to 12 ft., rarely low and diffuse. Leaves from linear-lanceolate to narrow-oblong, flat and often 1- or 3-nerved, usually acute and half to 1 in. long, but in some specimens all under half in. long, and occasionally some or nearly all obtuse both in the short- and long-leaved forms. Flowers small in the upper axils, usually several together in a loose umbel, on a common peduncle of 2 to 4 lines, the pedicels varying from 1 to 3 lines. Calyx-tube turbinate, at length hemispherical, about 1and a half lines diameter; lobes short and broad, the midrib more or less produced into a conical point or protuberance. Petals about 1 and a half lines diameter. Stamens 5 to 15, none opposite the centre of the petals ; filaments filiform ; anthers didymous, the cells globular, furrowed, opening in short slits; connective thickened into a gland almost as long as the cells. Ovary 3-celled, with 15 to 20 ovules in each cell round a peltate placenta. Capsule nearly flat-topped. Seeds usually angular. Embryo with the slender inflected end very short, with 2 small ovate cotyledons.—DC. Prod. iii. 229 ; Bot. Mag. t. 2127 ; Lodd. Bot. Cab. t. 341; Colla, Hort. Ripul. t. 6; F. Muell. Fragm. iv. 69 ; Leptospermum virgatum, Forst. Char. Gen. 48; Melaleuca virgata. Linn. fil. Suppl. 343; Harmogia virgata, Schau. in Linnaea, xvii. 238; Camphoromyrlus pluriflora, F. Muell. in Trans. Vict. Inst. i. 123 ; Harmogia umbellata, F. Muell. Fragrm. ii. 31 ; Baeckea umbellata, F. Muell. Fragm. iv. 69; Babingtonia virgata, F. Muell. Fragm. iv. 74.

N. Australia. Sandstone precipices, Victoria river, rare, F. Mueller.
Queensland. Bidwill; Upper Brisbane river, F. Mueller ; Moreton Bay, C. Stuart; Pine river, Fitzalan ; Rockhampton, Dallachy.
N. S. Wales. Grose and Hawkesbury rivers, R. Brown ; Blue Mountains, A. Cunningham ; northward to Macleay river, Beckler.
Victoria. On the Snowy and Tambo rivers, F. Mueller.

This species is also in New Caledonia ...."

Bean lists only one species as located at Tambo, Victoria, perhaps this Baeckea utilis is the Monserrate plant?

A revision of Baeckea (Myrtaceae) in eastern
Australia, Malesia and south-east Asia
A.R. Bean

Telopea 7(3): 1997

10. Baeckea utilis F.Muell. ex Miq., Ned. Kruidk. Arch. 4: 150 (1856).


p. 263
Victoria: Midlands: Worragee, 12 km NNE of Beechworth, Johnson 7, 16 Aug 1989 (MEL). Eastern
Highlands: 0.4 km east of Back Creek junction, Forbes SJF239, 7 Jan 1980 (MEL, NSW); c. 9 km E of
Mt Little Tambo, c. 0.5 km NE from junction of Currawong road and McDougall Spur track, Davies
595 et al., 10 Nov 1988 (CANB, MEL, NSW). Snowfields: Bogong Range, Brooker 5534, Feb 1977
(CANB); W side of Bogong High Plains road, 25.6 km ESE of Falls Creek, Jobson 4119, Feb 1996
(BRI, CANB, MEL); near Native Cat track, c. 40 km E of Benambra, Bean 9441 & Jobson, Dec 1995
(BRI, MEL); Buffalo Plateau, Collier 2425, 21 Apr 1987 (HO). East Gippsland: Bendock area,
Delegate River, Gunmark road, Paris s.n., 1 Jan 1982 (MEL, NSW); Maramingo Creek swamp, 7 km
E of Genoa, Bean 9419 & Jobson, Dec 1995 (BRI, CANB, MEL, NSW).

Indigofera decora


Indigofera decora. Lindl. in Journ. of Hort. Soc. v. 1. p. 68. Bot. Reg. p. 32. t. 22.

A most lovely and ornamental greenhouse plant, by no means so generally seen in our collections as it deserves to be; a native of China, and cultivated in the gardens of Shanghai, whence Mr. Fortune introduced it to the Horticultural Society of London. It flowers early in the season, and a cool greenhouse is rendered quite gay with its blossoms, which are of a lively pink and rose-colour, arranged in long, erect racemes; add to which the leaves are pinnated and of the most delicate green.

Curtis's Botanical Magazine
Tab. 5063
Vol. 84,
July 1st 1858

Grown at Monserrate in 1861

Agapetes pulcherrima


Thibaudia pulcherrima
Curtis's Botanical Magazine,
Plate 4303 (Volume 73, 1847).

Rarely have I been more surprised and delighted with any plant than with the flowering specimen of this Thibaudia (Agapetes, Don), kindly sent from the Exeter Nursery by Messrs. Lucombe, Pince and Co. Imagine a branch four feet and a half long, dividing only at the top in from 4-6 rather short leafy ramuli: the leaves evergreen, 6-8 inches long; the old, long, and woody portion of the stem throwing out, on one side (unilateral), numerous, crowded clusters, or drooping sessile umbels, of from twelve to twenty blossoms in each umbel, and in all states of progress, from the early buds, when they, as well as the pedicels, are scarlet variegated with pale but bright green, to the fully expanded corollas, an inch long, narrowly campanulate, of an ochraceous red, veined and chequered (something like the flower of Fritillaria Meleagris) with deeper and brighter lines of red. The inner structure of the flower, too, is very curious, the stamens forming a close column around the style, and the anther-tubes of very great length, as shown by our figure and description. The plant is a native of the north of India, and Dr. Wallich, on my showing him the blossoms and a leaf, recognized it as a native of the district of Khasiya, and to which he had given the name of Th. pulcherrima, a name it well deserves. I find among some of Dr. Griffith's Vaccinieae in my possession, what I believe to be the same species, also gathered at Khasiya: but owing to the absence of corollas some doubt must still remain. It is quite different from any Indian species of Thibaudia (or Agapetes) yet described. " Planted against one of the walls of our Camellia House (which in winter is frequently within a degree of the freezing point) " observe Messrs. Lucombe and Pince, " in a border composed of peat, loam, and sand, which being very well drained admits of copious waterings during the growing or summer season, it thrives remarkably well, making vigorous shoots from three to four feet long in a year. The copious flowers appear on the two year old wood, and first began to develope themselves at Christmas, expanding early in April, and they still continue to expand, many at a time, in succession. It must then be considered a hardy Greenhouse plant, and I consider the best way to cultivate it, is to plant it out in the border of a Conservatory, where it will soon become a noble and interesting object."
Ericaceae
Agapetes pulcherrima ( Wall. ex Hook. ) Hook.f.
Gen. Pl. [Bentham & Hooker f.] 2(2): 571. 1876
Grown at Monserrate in 1861

Centradenia floribunda


Flore des serres et des jardins de l’Europe by Charles Lemaire and others.
Gent, Louis van Houtte, 1849, volume 5 (plate 453).
Hand-coloured lithograph (sheet 162 x 238 mm).

Melastomataceae
Centradenia floribunda Planch.
in Fl. des Serres Ser. I, v. (1849) t. 453.

Grown at Monserrate, 1861


Tous les amateurs connaissent le Centradenia rosea, cette jolie Mélastomée mexicaine avec ses mille ramuscules flexueux et diffus, ses petites feuilles inégales et obliques, rapprochées en recouvrement comme par couches horizontales, qui semblent jonchées d'innombrables fleurs d'un rosé clair. L'espèce que nous publions aujourd'hui appartient, comme la première, au même groupe de plantes gracieuses et délicates ; mais ses ramuscules dressés, ses feuilles à demi pendantes qui montrent, comme à dessein, par la torsion de leur lame, le joli contraste de la teinte violacée de leurs revers avec le vert foncé de leur face, ses corymbes groupés en un léger bouquet terminal, tous ces traits, sans affaiblir ses rapports d'affinité avec le Centradenia rosea, en font pourtant une espèce d'un port et d'un aspect ornemental tout particulier. L'inégalité des feuilles, l'obliquité de leur base, caractères si frappants chez la première espèce, le sont bien moins chez le Centradenia floribunda; mais, du reste, malgré la légère diversité de structure des anthères qui fait des deux plantes les types de deux sous-genres, nous n'hésitons pas à les ranger sous le même titre générique.

Les trois espèces de Centradenia, jusqu'ici décrites, appartiennent à la flore du Mexique; celle que nous faisons connaître aujourd'hui provient des régions tempérées du Guatimala. Élevée de graines dans l'Établissement Van Houtte, elle n'a pas tardé à former la jolie petite plante sous-ligneuse, dont la figure ci-jointe représente l'aspect et les proportions. Ses fleurs, d'un rosa clair, sont individuellement assez fugaces ; mais leur profusion, leur développement successif sur toute la longueur des racèmes, l'apparition de nouvelles inflorescences avec celle de nouvelles pousses, tout cela donne à sa floraison une très-longue durée. C'est, en somme, une jolie acquisition pour nos serres.

A l'esquisse des charmes extérieurs du Centradenia rosea, nous pourrions joindre celle des beautés moins frappantes, mais non moins réelles, qu'un peu d'attention découvre dans ses jolies fleurs. Nous tâcherions surtout de peindre ce singulier appareil staminal dont les modifications diverses , chez les différentes Mélastomées, apportent tant de variété dans le type, d'ailleurs uniforme, de ce groupe essentiellement naturel. Mais pourquoi anticiperions-nous à cet égard sur la satisfaction de l'amateur, curieux d'admirer ces miniatures, et qu'apprendrions-nous au botaniste, initié par ses propres yeux à la connaissance de ces minutieux détails ?

J.E.P.

CULTURE
Quoique l'on cultive le plus ordinairement en serre chaude le Centradenia rosea, dont le traitement doit s'appliquer à l'espèce qui nous ocupe, la chaleur de la serre tempéré suffit égalment à toutes deux. Elles demandent un sol léger, formé, par exemplo, d'un tiers de terre de feuilles et de deux tiers de sable. On arrose fréquement, et l'on coupe la tête des premières pousses terminales afin de rendre la plante plus touffue et de lui donner une forme agréable. Le Centradenia floribunda n'a pas encore donné des graines; mais il se reproduit facilement de boutures, sur cloche et sur couch tiède.

L.VH.

Syn. Donkelaaria erecta

Saturday 2 January 2010

JSTOR: Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Gardens, Kew), Vol. 1892, No. 61 (1892), pp. 1-10

JSTOR: Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Gardens, Kew), Vol. 1892, No. 61 (1892), pp. 1-10:

Agaves and Arborescent Liliaceæ on the Riviera
Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information (Royal Gardens, Kew), Vol. 1892, No. 61 (1892), pp. 1-10
(article consists of 10 pages)

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4102510"