This is one of five species of Himalayan plants which, until recently, were included in the genus vaccinium.  The new name for them is ugly enough to make one wish that they were vacciniums still.  Pentapterygium serpens is the most beautiful of the lot, and, so far as I know, this and P. rugosum are the only species in cultivation in England.  The former was collected in the Himalayas about ten years ago by Captain Elwes, who forwarded it to Kew, where it grows and flowers freely under the same treatment as suits Cape heaths.  Sir Joseph Hooker says it is abundant on the Sikkim mountains at from 3,000 to 8,000 feet elevation, and that it usually grows on the stout limbs of lofty trees.  In this it resembles many of the rhododendrons of that region, and it has been suggested that they are epiphytic from force of circumstances, not from choice.  On the ground they would have no chance against the other vegetation, which would strangle or starve them out.  Remove them from this struggle for existence, and they at once show their preference for rich soil and plenty of it.  All the pentapterygiums have the lower part of the stem often swelling out into a prostrate trunk, as thick as a man’s leg sometimes, and sending out stout branching roots which cling tightly round the limbs of the tree upon which it grows.  These swollen stems are quite succulent, and they serve as reservoirs of moisture and nourishment.  In the wet season they push out new shoots, from which grow rapidly wands three or four feet long, clothed with box-like leaves, and afterward with numerous pendulous flowers.  These are elegant in shape and richly colored.  They are urn-shaped, with five ribs running the whole length of the corolla, and their color is bright crimson with deeper colored V-shaped veins, as shown in the illustration of the flowers of almost natural size.  They remain fresh upon the plant for several weeks.  The beautiful appearance of a well grown specimen when in flower may be seen from the accompanying sketch of the specimen at Kew, which was at its best in July, and remained in bloom until the middle of September.

[Illustration:  PENTAPTERYGIUM SERPENS (FLOWERS NEARLY NATURAL SIZE)]

P. rugosum is also grown as a greenhouse plant at Kew, where it has been in cultivation about twenty years.  It has larger leaves and a more bushy habit than P. serpens, while the flowers are produced in fascicles on the old wood.  They are as large as those here figured, but differ in color, being whitish, with brown-red V-shaped marks.  Both species may be propagated from cuttings.  The plants thrive in sandy peat, and they like plenty of moisture at all times.—­W.  Watson, in The Gardeners’ Magazine.

[Illustration:  PENTAPTERYGIUM SERPENS (FLOWERS DEEP CRIMSON)]

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THE PERFORATION OF FLOWERS.

The subject of the relations and adaptations which exist between flowers and insects does not appear to excite as much popular attention as many other branches of natural science which are no more interesting.  Sprengel, Darwin, and Hermann Muller have been the chief authors in giving us our present knowledge and interest in the study; Sir John Lubbock has helped to popularize it, and Prof.  W. Trelease and others have carried on the work in this country.