infusion of the roots of the Hibiscus manihot, or the leaves of Rivaria Japonica, with the flour of Japan rice, is then mixed with it, and poured on their moulds; which are not, like ours, formed of wire, but of fine rushes, and the sheets laid on a matted table with a fine shred of bamboo between each, and covered by a board with a stone upon it, to squeeze out the water, dried the next day singly on flat boards, and then packed up for sale. Our figure was made from fine plants in the garden of J. Vere, esq. [Illustration] PLATE CCCCLXXXIX. GNAPHALIUM GRANDIFLORUM. _Large-flowered Gnaphalium._ CLASS XIX. ORDER II. _SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA._ Tips united. Superfluous Polygamy. ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER. RECEPTACULUM nudum. Pappus pilosus, vel plumosus. Calyx imbricatus, radiatus, radio colorato. RECEPTACLE naked. Down hairy, or feathery. Empalement imbricated, rayed, with the ray coloured. SPECIFIC CHARACTER. GNAPHALIUM grandiflorum: floribus paniculatis, albis, lucidis: pedunculis albis, lanatis: foliis ovato-acutis, albâ lanâ tectis. GNAPHALIUM with large flowers: flowers grow in panicles, white, and shining: footstalks white, and woolly: leaves are ovate-pointed, and covered with a white wool. REFERENCE TO THE PLATE. 1. A scale of the empalement. 2. The same shown from the under side. 3. A flower complete. 4. The same magnified. 5. The seed-bud, chives, and pointal magnified. 6. Seed-bud and pointal. 7. The same magnified. This Gnaphalium is at present the largest flowering species (the G. eximium excepted). Its flowers are equally durable with those of any Xeranthemum, nor does it vary essentially in any particular from that genus (as a section of which it would have been much better understood). The genus Elychrisum we find, upon examination, to be built upon the same equivocal ground, and there is little doubt but at some future period those two superfluous genera will fall into the old Linnæan genus of Xeranthemum. Our figure was made from a fine plant in the Clapham collection, about a foot and a half high. We have seen it grow much taller, but it is not then so handsome. It is certainly not a new plant, but has not been as yet figured in any modern publication. The whiteness so prevalent in its flowers and leaves (by way of contrast to the green foliage of most other plants) would render it deserving a place in every collection, even if its long-lived shining flowers were not a sufficient recommendation. [Illustration] PLATE CCCCXC. PONTEDERIA DILATATA. _Dilated Pontederia._ CLASS VI. ORDER I. _HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA._ Six Chives. One Pointal. GENERIC CHARACTER. CALYX. Spatha communis, oblonga, latere dehiscens. COROLLA monopetala, 6-fida. STAMINA. Filamenta sex, corollæ inserta. Antheræ oblongæ. PISTILLUM. Germen oblongum, inferum. Stylus simplex.