Etruscan Sarcophagus

Wonderful atmospheric photograph. Once again from Antonio Passaporte.

Begonias clearly distinguishable. B. rex to the right, B. manicata(?) in bed around fountain. Wisteria snaking around cave, with Semele androgyna. Ferns in baskets hanging from rafters.

Sarcophagus with clearly chiseled relief - looks to be in excellent condition.

Tibouchina urvilleana

Pleroma kunthianum BM 4412

Tibouchina urvilleana Cogn.

Fl. Bras. (Martius) 14(3): 358.

Melastomataceae

Last time I looked, there was still one left, near the Cromlech. But what a pity such a beautiful plant has almost disappeared from Monserrate. Walter Oates records one from the small lawn below the chapel terrace in 1929.

This plant will naturalise in cool moist conditions. It is a weed in Hawaii, and in Madeira at Santo da Serra and other damp cool highlands. Sintra is too dry, here it is a cherished garden plant. It spreads by vegetative means, no viable seed is produced in cultivation. This explains why it is only invasive in damp conditions - roots from stem fragments. In habitat it actually grows in quite dry scrubby situations.

Infuriating nomenclatural history, far too many synonyms, often misidentified. Oates called it T. semidecandra. Hooker called it Pleroma Kunthianum. It was illustrated in Curtis's Botanical Magazine (4412) under this designation. (December of 1848) This species was introduced to Europe when raised from seeds received at Glasgow Botanic Garden (sent by Gardner when collecting in the Organ Mountains above 3000 ft.). Murray later sent seeds to Kew. Paxton in 1847 considered this to be a stove-shrub.

In 1841 Gardner took six wardian cases full of live plants by ship to England from Piedade, Brazil, one of these he refers to in a footnote as Pleroma Benthamiana. He had found it growing at Chapeo d'Uva in the Organ Mountains.

But there was a later introduction of a closely related species with much larger flowers, produced precociously on small plants. This too was illustrated: Pleroma macranthum BM 5721 (1868). "This magnificent plant ... the finest flowered of all Melastomaceae" Collected by M. Libon in the province of St. Catherine, and introduced by Linden from his nursery at Brussels. Mr Bull of Chelsea flowered it in April of 1868. Sometimes listed today is var. Floribunda, or var. Grandiflora. As we shall see this was actually Tibouchina urvilleana. As a superior plant it quickly displaced T. semidecandra, but the name stuck.

The mix up of names is still confusing today. Informed opinion (New York Botanic Garden) suggests that the Brazilian Tibouchina semidecandra is no longer in cultivation, plants grown in gardens are all Tibouchina urvilleana (synonymous with Lasiandra macrantha and Pleroma macrantha). Since this mix-up dates from at least the beginning of the twentieth century, it is almost certain that Oates's plants were Tibouchina urvilleana.

Tibouchina conumdrum:

Pleroma Benthamianum, Pleroma macranthum, Pleroma splendens

Lasiandra Kunthiana, Lasiandra macrantha (still offered in some Portuguese nurseries under this name).

Tibouchina grandiflora, Tibouchina semidecandra

From Flora Brasiliensis vol. 14 part 3 p. 358

TIBOUCHINA URVILLEANA Cogn.

syn. Lasiandra Urvilleana DC

Pleroma vimineum Triana.

Habitat in insula S. Catharina : D'Urville, Guadichaud n. 242

Trivia: French naval officer Jules Sebastian Cesar Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842), was responsible for the purchase by the French government of a Greek statue found on the island of Milos: the Venus de Milo

Trithrinax brasiliensis

Les Palmiers, Kerchove, Paris 1878

Trithrinax brasiliensis Mart.
Henderson, A., G. Galeano & R. Bernal 1995. Field Guide Palms Americas 1–352.

Trithrinax acanthocoma Drude (Gartenflora 27: 361. 1878)
Modern Botanists include T.acanthocoma within T. brasiliensis.

Still growing below the chapel as described by Walter Oates in 1929. For many years I overlooked this palm as a Trachycarpus (common throughout the garden). The spines within the fibrous trunk were concealed by ivy. These, along with the palms identity, were revealed in clearing works carried out in late 1990's.

Cette espèce, sans ètre commune, est encore une de celles dont l'habitation est très-étendue. Je l'ai vue sur deux points seulement : près du Rio Parana, un peu au-dessus de la Bajada, c'est-à-dire vers le 31.º degé de latitude sud. Elle croissant isolément au sommet des falaises de Féliciano, au milieu des broussailles, en des lieux très-secs. Comme tous les plants en étaient assez rabougris, je dus croire qu'elle se trouvait aux confins de sa zone d'habitation. Je l'ai retrouvée ensuite vers le 17.º degré de latitude, au sein de la grande forêt (Monte Grande) qui sépare santa-Cruz de la Sierra de la province de Chiquitos (Bolivia). Elle croit alors par bouquets et par bois, sur les lieux les plus élevés de l'immense plaine qui sépare le versant de l'Amazon de celui de la Plata. Elle se mêle souvant aux autres arbres, et specialment aux boissons; car je ne l'ai jamais rencontrée au sein de la forêt, quand celle-ci est composée de grands arbres.
Ses feuilles, cueillies avant leur épanouissement, servent à tresser des chapeaux assez estimés.
Les Espagnols du pays la nomment Saho, mot corrompu, sans doute, du nome de Utsaho, que lui donnent les Indiens Guarayos de la Bolivia. Les Chiquitos l'appellent dans leur langue, Huaichick.

Alcide d'Orbigny
Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale(le Brésil, la république orientale de l'Uruguay, la République argentine, la Patagonie, la république du Chili, la république de Bolivia, la république du Pérou), exécuté pendant les années 1826, 1827, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, et 1833,V.e Levrault, 1835-47.
Vol. 7 pt. 3, p. 44., Paris, Pitois-Levrault et c.e; Strasbourg, 1835-47

Exochorda racemosa

Exochorda racemosa (Lindl.) Rehder

Plantae Wilsonianae 1(3): 456. 1913.

Walter Oates was using the old name for this rosaceous shrub, Exochorda grandiflora, as described in Gardener's Chronicle & Agricultural Gazette 1858: 925. 1858. Once growing below the chapel, it is long gone, not only from Monserrate, but also it has practically disappeared from Portuguese gardens altogether.

Sent by Fortune as Amelanchier racemosa from the north of China, to the Bagshot nursery of Standish and Noble. Hardy in Surrey, flowered May, 1854.

Synonyms

Amelanchier racemosa Lindley 1847

Spirea grandiflora Hooker Bot Mag LXXX (4795) 1847

also illustr. Fl. des Serr. IX. 247, (954) 1854

Passiflora mollissima

Bot. Mag., Nº 4187

Passiflora mollissima
Bot. Reg. for 1846 plate 11
Paxton's Mag. of Bot., vol. xiii, p.25


Tacsonia " a genus of very ornamental climbing plants, with the habit of the Passion Flowers, but easily distinguished from them by the immense length of the tube of the calyx. The name Tacsonia is derived from that applied to one of the species in Peru. There are numerous species in the genus, but only two as yet have been introduced." Jane Loudon Ladies' Flower-garden of Ornamental Greenhouse Plants (1848).
The two species referred by Mrs. Loudon were Tacsonia pinnatistipula Juss. and Tacsonia mollissima H. B. et K. She describes the plant as "not so ornamental as T. pinnatistipula" though of similar growth and thriving best in a conservatory. A native of the tropics of New Granada, it grows at an altitude of nine to eleven thousand feet, thus suited to a temperate climate. When grown in a stove the blossoms fall off without expanding.

Found by Humboldt at santa Fè de Bogota, and Lobb in woods near Quito. Raised from seeds sent to Veitch at Exeter. (1844).

An important identifying characteristic of this species is the presence of 12 green glands which stud the purple petiole.


Photograph of genuine Passiflora mollissima from Mobot

The plant generally grown under this name in Portugal is a hybrid.

Synonyms
Murucuja mollissima Spreng. or Murucuia mollissima (Kunth) Spreng.
!Passiflora tomentosa Lam. invalid name
Passiflora tomentosa var. mollissima (Kunth) Triana & Planch.
Tacsonia mixta subsp. tomentosa (Cav.) Mast.
!Tacsonia mollissima Kunth invalid name
Tacsonia mollissima var. glabrescens Mast.

Hardenbergia comptoniana

Hardenbergia comptoniana Benth.
in Hueg. Enum 41.

Flora Australiensis, George Bentham (assisted by Ferdinand Mueller - govt. botanist, Melbourne, Victoria) London, 1864
West Australia. King Georg's Sound, R. Brown ; and thence to Swan River, Drimmond, 1st. collection and n. 271, Huegel, Preiss, n. 1093, 1094, and others.

Jardins de France (1857) "Hardenbergia Comptoniana Bth. Elle a été figurée dans le Botanical Register, tab. 290, sous le nome de Glycine Comptoniana, et elle est aussi connue des horticulteurs sous celui de Kennedya Comptoniana Link.

First classified as a Glycine (Wisteria) this vine was quickly transferred to Kennedya (under which name Walter Oates referred to it cautiously in his 1929 article). Grown as a glasshouse climber in Britain. Jane Loudon in her Ladies Flower-garden of Ornamental Greenhouse Plants (1848) calls it "one of the most common plants in greenhouses, as it is of remarkably easy culture". She gos on to state that "the plant is a native of the neighbourhood of Port Jackson, in New Holland, and it was introduced in 1803." She describes its "twining habit, and when planted in the free ground of a conservatory, it will grow to a considerable height."

From Paxton's Magazine 1841

The description that accompanies this illustration recommends this Hardenbergia for pot culture since in the glasshouse border it is apt to grow vigorously and flower only after it has reached considerable size. The example provided for the plate was grown on the estate of the quintessentially named Victorian gentleman: Sir Edmond Antrobus, Bart., at Cheam. His gardener was nicely named too: Mr. Green.


Hardenbergia macrophylla
Swan River Colony, West Australia. Introduced by Sir James Stirling, who sent seeds to England in 1835. Raised by Robert Mangles at Sunningdale, Berks. Flowered by Mr. Kyle gardener to R. Barclay of Layton Essex in May

Ficus rubiginosa

Ficus rubiginosa Desf. ex Vent.

"A small tree in our stoves" begins the description in Curtis's Botanical Magazine. This is a monster at Monserrate. The description continues more true to form "throwing out many, spreading branches, and from the the stem and branches numerous woody roots, which reach the ground, like those of the famous Banyan, and give new support to those parts. Introduced by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, from New South Wales to the Royal gardens, whence it has been distributed, and is , we believe, now general in collections of stove plants. Its frutification is, however, of rare occurance. The specimen from which the accompanying figure was taken was sent by the Messrs. SHEPHERD, from the Liverpool Garden, in the summer of 1827."

Ficus rubiginosa occurs from north Queensland southwards along the eastern coastline of Australia to the vicinity of Bega on the South Coast of New South Wales. It is found on the edges of rainforest and gullies and rocky hillsides. (Wikipedia)

There has been some confusion over the naming of this fig with Ficus macrophylla, a related though far larger tree that lacks aerial roots and the rusty indumentum. Ficus macrophylla in Southern Europe is often designated Ficus magnolioides Borzi (invalid synonym of Ficus macrocarpa subsp. columnaris). It is easy to see why Ficus magnolioides should be transferred to Ficus rubiginosa trees in error - to the unwary the large glossy leaves and rusty undersides of Ficus rubiginosa do look somewhat like a Magnolia .

There is a magnificent specimen of Ficus macrophylla subsp. columnaris at the Palermo Botanic garden It was planted in 1845 by Vincenzo Tineo (1791-1856). He was director of the Orto botanico di Palermo from 1814 until 1856. The tree was brought from Norfolk Island. This was Borzi's type specimen for his Ficus magnolioides.

Chapel

The saint returns to dwell,

Where Vathek once was lord !

There were a number of works of art displayed within the chapel. A large picture representing Christ and the miracle of the loaves and fishes was placed on the wall opposite the door. The stencilled wall decoration still exists today.