nformed me,
that he had that season raised several plants of it from seeds,
communicated by Dr. J. E. SMITH, who received them from Madrid, to which
place they were sent from South-America, and where the plant as Mons.
CAVANILLE informs us, grows spontaneously near Mexico. In October 1793,
we had the pleasure of seeing the plant again in blossom in the
aforesaid garden, raised from seeds which ripened there the preceding
year, but unfortunately from the lateness of their flowering, and the
very great injury the plants had sustained from the Cobweb Mite (_Acarus
teliarius_) vulgarly called the red Spider, there seemed little prospect
that the seed-vessels would arrive at perfection.

The seeds were sown by Mr. FAIRBAIRN, in March, and the plants kept in
the green-house till very late in the summer, when to accelerate their
blowing, they were removed into the dry stove: it is worthy of remark,
that these plants, even late in the autumn, shew no signs of blossoming,
but the flowers at length come forth with almost unexampled rapidity,
and the seed-vessels are formed as quickly, so that if the flowers were
not very numerous, their blossoming period would be of very short
duration; future experience may perhaps point out the means of making
the plant blow earlier: in Spain, the blossoms appeared later than here,
Mons. CAVANILLE observed them in the Royal Garden, in November and
December, most probably in the open ground, as no mention is made of the
plants having been preserved from the weather.

It was not till long after our description was taken, that we had an
opportunity of seeing Mons. CAVANILLE'S most accurate and elegant work,
above quoted, in which this plant is first figured and described; we
have selected the most essential parts of his generic character, and
adopted his specific description: there is one point, however, in which
we differ from him; the part which he regards as the fifth Petal, we are
inclined to consider rather as that indescribable something, called by
LINNAEUS the Nectary, it is indeed of little moment whether we call it a
Petal or a Nectary, but there are several reasons why, strictly
speaking, we cannot regard it as a Petal: in general the number of
Petals correspond with the number of the leaves of the Calyx, those of
the latter are four; the base of this Nectary originates deeper than the
claws of the Petals, springing in fact from the same part as the
Filament, its structure, especially t