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Mexico (Exceedingly pretty species)

An exceedingly pretty species, being covered with star-like rosettes of yellow spines.

M. tenuis (slender). fl. pale straw-colour, slightly tinged with red externally, solitary, small, campanulate, produced from below the summit and from all sides of the plant. May. Stem 2in. to 4in. high, 1in. or more in diameter, cylindrical, or tapering upwards, and, as well as the copious globular side offsets, covered with green hemispherical tubercles; these are about 1/4in. in diameter, each tipped with a soft tuft of white down, from which diverges a cluster of about twenty slender aculei, at first reddish, then yellowish or pale tawny. Mexico, 1830. (B. M. 3646; B. R. 1523.) M. tetracantha (four-spined). fl. bright full rose-colour, paler in the disk, numerous, small, from the axils of the tubercles, crowded about the depressed portion of the plant. July. Stem sub-globose, flattened at top, nearly 9in. high, and a little less in diameter; tubercles conical or pyramidal, terminated with a depression, from which arise four spreading prickles; the latter are about 3/4in. long, at first brown, tipped with a darker colour, then paler, becoming at length nearly white; axillae between the tubercles occupied by a dense mass of white wool, as are also the apices of the tubercles. Mexico. (B. M. 4060.) M. turbinata (top-shaped). fl. about 1in. in diameter, borne on the upper part of the plant; petals pale yellow or straw colour; anthers and stigmas yellow. June. Stem globose, depressed at the summit, and contracted at base, as large as a moderate-sized apple; tubercles at the contraction of the stem flattened, and lengthened out transversely; the rest are prominent, sub-hemispherical, but obtusely quadrangular and umblicated at top, whence, in the upper ones, rises a fascicle of from three to five spines; the other tubercles are spineless, the spines being deciduous. Mexico, 1838. (B. M. 3984.) M. Wildiana (Wilde's).* fl. rose. Stem 3in. to 4in. high, cylindrical, closely surrounded by offsets; tubercles conical, dull green; spines in two series, the outer white, closely spreading; the others fewer and large, yellowish, and hooked at the apex. Mexico. A desirable species.

MANDEVILLA (named after H. J. Mandeville, a British Minister at Buenos Ayres). SYN. Amblyanthera. ORD. Apocynaceae. A genus comprising about forty-five species of tall climbing shrubs, natives, for the most part, of tropical America. Flowers yellow, white, or rarely violet, often large, in simple racemes; calyx five-parted; corolla funnel-shaped; tube cylindrical or ovoid; throat campanulate or oblong, without scales. Leaves opposite, feather-veined. M. suaveolens, the only species yet introduced, is a very handsome, half-hardy, deciduous climber, thriving in a compost of good peat and turfy loam, in equal parts, to which may be added plenty of silver sand. It forms an excellent subject for planting in a conservatory and training up a rafter, or may be successfully cultivated, in some parts of England, in the open air, if provided with protection in winter. Propagated by cuttings, made of small, stiff, side shoots, about 3in. long, and inserted in sand, under a bell glass. This plant rarely succeeds when grown in pots.

M. suaveolens (sweet-scented). fl. pure white, large, very fragrant, sometimes borne in great profusion. Summer. l. opposite, cordate oblong, dark green. Buenos Ayres, 1837. (B. M. 3797; B. R. xxvi. 7.)