Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

an exuberance of white and richly aromatic flowers; it attracts the notice of all who approach it. Pimenta trees grow spontaneously and in great abundance, in many parts of Jamaica; but they cannot be propagated, without great difficulty. The usual mode of making a Pimenta walk, or plantation, is to appropriate for this purpose, a piece of woody ground in the neighbourhood of an already existing walk, or in a part of the country, where the scattered trees are found in a native state. The other trees are cut down, and, in a year or two, young Pimenta plants are found to spring up in all parts, supposed to have been produced from berries dropped there by birds, which eagerly devours them. About the month of September, and not long after the blossoms have fallen, the berries are in a fit state to be gathered. At this time, though not quite ripe, they are full grown, and about the size of pepper-corns. They are gathered by the hand; and one labourer on a tree will strip them off so quickly, as to employ three below to gather them up; and an industrious picker will fill a bag of seventy pounds weight in a day. The berries are then spread on a terrace, in the sun to be dried; but this is an operation which requires great care, from the necessity of keeping them entirely free from moisture. By the drying they lose their green colour, and become of a reddish brown; the process is known to be completed by their change of colour, and by the rotting of the seeds within the berries. They are then packed into bags or hogsheads for the market. When the berries are quite ripe, they are of a dark purple colour, and filled with a sweet pulp. Pimenta is thought to resemble nutmegs and cloves, whence it has obtained the name of all-spice. It is also employed in medicine, as an agreeable aromatic, and forms the basis of distilled water, a spirit, and essential oil. The leaves of the Pimenta tree yield, in distillation, an odoriferous oil, which is not unfrequently used in medicine preparations instead of the oil of cloves.

ARTICLE VII.

REMARKS ON THE SENSITIVE PLANT.

BY LUCY.

THE movement of the leaves of the Mimosa pudica have their origin in certain enlargements, situated at the articulation of the leaflets with the petiole, and of the petiole with the stem. Those only which are

situated in the last articulation are of sufficient size to be submitted to experiment. If, by a longitudinal section, the lower half of this swelling be removed, the petiole will remain depressed, having lost the power of elevating itself: if the superior half be removed, the petiole will remain constantly elevated, having lost the power of depressing itself. These facts prove that the motions of the petiole depend on the alternate turgescence of the upper and lower half of the enlargement, situated at the point of articulation: and that contractibility is not the principle of these motions.

If one part of the plant be irritated, the others will soon sympathise, or bear witness, by the successive falling of their leaves, that they have successively felt the irritation.-Thus, if a leaflet be burnt slightly by a lens, the interior movement which is produced will be propagated successively to the other leaflets of the leaf, and thence to the other leaves on the same stalk. A very clever French experimentalist, Mons. Dutrochet, found,

1st. That this interior movement is transmitted equally well, either ascending or descending.

2nd. That it is equally well transmitted, even though a ring of bark has been removed.

3rd. That it is transmissible, even though the bark and pith be removed so that nothing remain to communicate between the two parts of the skin, except the woody fibres and vessels.

4th. That it is transmissible, even when the two parts communicate merely by a shred of bark.

5th. That it may be transmitted, even when the communication exists by the pith only.

6th. But that it is not transmissible, when the communication exists merely by the cortical parenchyma.

From these very interesting experiments, it results that the interior movement produced by irritation, is propagated by the ligneous fibres and the vessels.

The propagation is more rapid in the petioles than in the body of the stem; in the former it moves through a distance of from three to six tenths of an inch in a second; in the latter, through from eight to twelve hundredths of an inch, during the same portion of time. External temperature does not appear to exert any influence on the rapidity of the movement, but very sensibly affects its extent.

Absence from light, during a certain time, completely destroys the

irritability of the plant. Such change takes place more rapidly when the temperature is elevated, than when it is low. The return of the sun's influence readily restores the plant to its irritable state. It appears, therefore, that it is by the action of light, that the vital properties of vegetables are supported, as it is by the action of oxygen that those of animals are preserved, consequently, etiolation is to the former what asphyxia is to the latter.

PART II.

MISCELLANY

OF

NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE.

New or Rare Plants.

ACANTHOPHIPPUM JAVANICUM. THE JAVANESE. (Bot. Reg. 47.) Orchidacea. Gynandria Monandria. Discovered in the woods of Mount Salak in Java, and has bloomed in the collection of Messrs. Loddiges. The flowers are pale yellow with a tinge of brown, streaked lines of purple, and the five parted mouth a clear lilac with a blotch of yellow in each. The lip is three lobed. Each flower is bellying, and about an inch and a half long. Singular and pretty. The following are the species hitherto known, viz. :—A. Javanicum, A. striatum; flowers French white striped with duller colour. A. Sythetense; flowers white, scentless. A. bicolor; flowers yellow with crimson and purple tips.

ÆSCHYNANTHUS BOSCHIANUS. VANDEN BOSCH's. (Pax. Mag. Bot.) Gesneraceæ. Didynamia Angiospermia. An evergreen Epiphyte, from Java, which blooms freely in a stove or greenhouse. The flowers are produced in axillary clusters. Each blossom tubular, nearly three inches long. The calyx is a rich purplish and brown colour an inch long, and the corolla of a very rich deep scarlet, with yellow streaks inside the mouth. It blooms throughout spring and .summer. It is in the collection of R. G. Loraine, Esq., and some of the London nurseries.

AMICIA ZIGOMERIS. TWO-JOINTED PODDED. (Pax. Mag. Bot.) Leguminoseæ. Monadelphia Decandria. A native of Mexico. It is a shrubby plant and somewhat a climber, thriving in either a stove or greenhouse. It grows freely and blooms plentifully. It does well too in summer in the open air, in a warm situation. The flowers are pea-shaped, an inch and a half across, a rich yellow colour, very showy, and in doors blooms through winter.

CLERODENDRUM SINUATUM. SINUATE-LEAVED. (Bot. Mag. 4255.) Verbenaceæ, Didynamia Angiospermia. A native of Sierra Leone. It is a low stove shrub, producing numerous large corymbous heads of white flowers, which are highly fragrant.

DATURA CORNIGERA. HORN-BEARING. (Bot. Mag. 4252.) Solaneæ, Pentandria Monogynia. A shrubby plant, blooming freely in the open air in the summer season, and protected in a cool greenhouse the other seasons. This species, Sir William Hooker observes, is known in collections under the name Brugmansia Knightii. The flowers are about six inches long, creamy-white, VOL. XIV. No. 164

X

funnel formed, and the reflexed points of the five parted lobes are long and horn like. It is well deserving a place in a collection of plants, especially for the open air in summer.

DIASTEMA OCHROLENCA. THE PALE YELLOW. (Bot. Mag. 4254.) Gesneriaceae, Didynamia Angiospermia. Sent from New Granada to the Royal Gardens of Kew. It is nearly allied to Achimenes, probably intermediate between Achimenes and Gesneria. It is a stove plant. The flowers are produced numerously in panicled heads. Each blossom is about an inch long, the tube cream colour, and the five parted (about the size of Achimenes coccinea), mouth white. It is a neat and interesting species.

HOLBOLLIA LATIFOLIA. BROAD-LEAVED. Monæcia Hexandria. (Bot. Reg. 49.) A hardy, or half hardy shrubby climber, a native of Nepal. It has bloomed against the open wall at the residence of L. W. Dillwyn, Esq., of Sketty Hall, near Swansea. The flowers are white, in clusters, small. The fruit, berries, are eatable.

HYDRANGEA JAPONICA; VAR. CERULEA. JAPAN HYDRANGEA. (Bot. Mag. 4253.) Dr. Siebold discovered the Japan Hydrangea on the Island of Nipon, and abundantly cultivated by the Japanese. Two varieties are distinguished by him-" Benikaku," with rose-coloured flowers, and "Konkaku" with blue flowers. The one here figured is the blue, and is much handsomer than the rosecoloured. It is a shrub growing three feet high, and succeeds admirably with the same treatment as the common Hydrangea. It deserves a place wherever it can be grown.

LESCHENAULTIA SPLENDens. SPLENDID SCARLET FLOWERED. (Bot. Mag. 4256.) Goodenovieæ. Pentandria Monogynia. It has bloomed in the collection of Messrs. Lucombe, Pince, and Co., at Exeter nursery. It is a shrub from one to two feet high, copiously branched. The flowers are produced in corymbs of several blossoms. The size of each flower is about the same as L. biloba, the blue, but of the richest scarlet, having a pale tube. It is a very splendid flowering plant.

LILIUM SANGUINEUM. BLOOD-RED LILY. (Bot. Reg. 50.) It is said to be of Japan origin. It is a half-hardy species, growing about half a yard high, and blooms in May and June. The fine erect flowers are of a vivid orange-red colour with dark spots, not quite so large as those of the old orange lily of the gardens. Each stem, however, produces but one flower. Mr. Groom possesses a most extensive collection of this species, and other hardy hybrids, &c., which produce a fine display in his garden during summer.

JASMINIUM NUDIFLORUM. NAKED-FLOWERED. (Bot. Reg. 48.) Jasminaceæ, Diandria Monogynia. Introduced from China by Mr. Fortune to the London Horticultural Society. It is a shrub with trailing branches. The leaves fall off early in autumn, and at the axils of the leaves which have fallen, the flowers are produced. Each blossom is an inch across, a rich yellow colour. It appears to be a greenhouse plant, and blooms very freely during the winter.

JONOPSIDIUM ACAULE, STEMLESS VIOLET-CRESS. (Bot. Reg. 51.) Sononym, Cochlearia acaulis. It is an annual, found wild on the hills near Lisbon. It is a hardy annual, quite dwarf, growing in any rich garden soil, and blooms profusely from April to October. Each blossom is about half an inch across, at first coming out white but turn to a beautiful lilac. It does best in a rather moist and shady situation, admirable for the edging to borders, walks, &c., also does well in a suitable place on rock-work. It has bloomed in the garden of the London Horticultural Society.

TALAUMA CANDOLLII. DE CANDOLLE'S. (Bot. Mag. 4251.) Magnoliacea Polyandria Polygynia. (Synonym Magnolia odoratissima, M. pumila.) A charming stove shrub, a native of Java. Grown in a pot it becomes about three feet high, in Java fifteen feet. The flowers are produced solitary, terminal, drooping, cream-coloured, fragrant. Each flower about nine petals, and three to four inches across.

LONDON HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, September 1.-Although the subjects for exhibition on this occasion were not numerous, some of them were far from being devoid of interest. A very fine specimen of the large white-flowered Dendrobium formosum, for which a Banksian medal was awarded, came from the nursery of Messrs. Rollisson, of Tooting; and of the same interesting tribe, Messrs. Loddiges, of Hackney, produced a series of plants, consisting of the dingy brown-flowered Cymbidium giganteum, a Warrea from Guiana, the delicate blush-flowered Eulophia guineensis, a Galeandra from Santa Martha, something in the way of, but less handsome than G. Baueri, a well-bloomed specimen of which accompanied it, and a variety of Peristeria elata. From the same collection was also a Saccolabium from Bombay, not strikingly different from S. guttatum, together with Oncidium tetrapetalum, the green-flowered Cynoches chlorochilum, and a handsome variety of the comparatively new Cattleya granulosa. Along with these were likewise a lovely specimen of the bright orange-flowered Dendrobium chrysanthum, and the larger-flowered variety of Epidendrum asperum. A Knightian medal was awarded.-Mr. Glendinning, of the Chiswick Nursery, sent Torenia concolor, a lovely blue-flowered species introduced from China by Mr. Fortune. It has a trailing habit, and, in the present instance, was comparatively bare of blossoms; but when the plant shall have become better known, and more care bestowed on its culture, we have no doubt it will prove a worthy associate of the lovely T. asiatica, excelling the latter in beauty; for the flowers are nearly of as fine a blue as those of Salvia patens.—Messrs Veitch and Son, of Exeter, sent Eschynanthus radicans, another handsome addition to that beautiful genus; and a soft-wooded Gesneraceous looking plant, from Java, named Tromsdorffia speciosa. It is an erect growing plant, with large opposite obovate leaves, from whose axils spring clusters of Chirita-like flowers-pale blush, with the tube shaded with violet ; the plant had been grown in a stove, but in a specimen from the greenhouse, sent along with it, the tube was much deeper coloured. The ample and somewhat coarse foliage, however, will always hide much of the beauty of the blossoms. A certificate was awarded. From Messrs. Henderson, of Pine-appleplace, was the pretty bright red tubular flowered Cuphea platycentra, a half hardy plant, which answers well for bedding out; and Satyrium aureum, a Cape Orchid, which was stated to flower freely in peat in a cool well-aired greenhouse. Of florists' flowers, from the garden of the Society were Achimenes grandiflora, and a large mass of the old A. coccinea, the useful Niphæa oblonga covered with chaste white blossoms, a large Cuphea pubiflora, Mussænda frondosa, with singular large white bracts 'and yellow flowers, Oncidium microchylum, the pretty yellow-flowered Bletia-like Spathoglottis Fortuni, one of the first plants Mr. Fortune met with on the granite mountains of Hong Kong, together with Iochroma tubulosum, a half-hardy shrub growing from 4 to 5 feet high, which was found by Mr. Hartweg on the mountains of Yangana, near Loxa. Notwithstanding its somewhat rambling habit and coarse grey downy foliage, it promises to be a plant of much importance, producing clusters of long flowers of a deep porcelain blue colour. From the same collection was also Mr. Fortune's Abelia rupestris, a spreading bush, with bright green leaves, and white flowers, surrounded by a slightly-stained rose-coloured calyx; being sweet-scented it will be a valuable autumn-flowering greenhouse plant, if it should not turn out to be hardy, which is probable. Along with it was a new pale yellow blossomed Clematis from Chinese Tartary, which, being hardy, will no doubt form a valuable addition to the arboretum wall.

DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS IN SHRUBBERIES.—In thinning as well as in planting in the shrubbery, much may be done at this season to improve the general aspect of the place. The tasteful gardener must not fail to calculate the effect of height, and also the different kinds of foliage. Here he will have to cause an entire removal; there, displace by others more suited to preserve boldness or agreeableness in a particular direction. The beautiful idea of twilight contained in the lines of Gray,

"Now fades the glimmering landscape from our sight,”

« ZurückWeiter »