von Biebei*stein. By the Chevalier de Lamarck it was re- 

 corded as a variety of datum. Subsequent observations 

 have decided its specific distinction. We do not find it in 

 the Hortus Kewensis. In Sweet's Hortus Suburbanus Lon- 

 dinensis, it is inserted in the Appendix; and is stated to 

 have been introduced in 1815. We have never seen it in 

 any other collection than in that of Messi-s. Whitley and Co. 

 of the Fulham nursery, where the drawing was taken in 

 June last. A hardy and very ornamental perennial. 

 Grows naturally in the Russian dominions, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Saratof, on the banks of the lower Wolga. 



The present is a straight plant of about 3 or 4 feet high ; 

 stem upright, branchingly panicled at the top; leaves pe- 

 tioled; petiole not undulated at the base; blade cuneately 

 tapered at the base (or rather at the base of the lobes), irre- 

 gularly 5-lobed to beyond the middle; lobes oblong, acumi-. 

 nate, incisively scored or cleft; racemes long loose branch- 

 ing; bractes subulate, very thin, smooth, shorter than the 

 pedicles; bractelets smooth pressed close to the flower; 

 calyxes smooth, of a beautiful blue; spur horizontal^ 

 straight, the length of the calyx; petals brown, 2 upper 

 ones smooth entire at the top, 2 lower ones bifid bearded 

 with deep-yellow hairs; germens smooth or else covered with 

 a thin pubescence. The plant varies with an entirely smooth 

 surface, and one that is very finely velvetted. A spontane- 

 ous specimen sent from Saratof to Monsieur Decandolle, 

 differed from the garden ones, in having the pedicles, brac- 

 telets, calyxes, and even the capsules, in a younger stage, 

 covered with a fine dense yelvet,-like pubescence. 



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