open ground, it is also a striking ornament ; but it is only 

 when collected into a large bed in the open air, and allowed 

 to entangle and interlace its branches, till every piece of soil [ 



is concealed, that its whole splendour is developed. It 



produces, from August to October, a 



of 



purple blossoms, which are yielded in such profusion, and 

 of so bright a colour, as to render the spot where it grows 

 almost too bright to look upon. 



It will grow in any sort of earth, but prefers a rich old 

 long-cultivated soil, with a warm and sheltered exposure. 

 It is readily increased by cuttings, which should be struck 

 like those of a Geranium. 



Petunia violacea, Nierembergia phamicea, and especially 

 Salpiglossis integrifolia, are the names by which it is known. 

 We adopt the first in preference, for the following reasons : 

 Salpiglossis is a genus now common in this country, with 

 didynamous stamens and an imbricated corolla, two highly 

 important characters, which are wanting in this plant; 

 Nierembergia is, like it, pentandrous; but the peculiar 

 form of the corolla, the absence of teeth upon the disk, 

 and the singular lunate stigma of that genus, render it 

 impossible to place this in Nierembergia without violating 

 every principle of generic distinction : if there is any ^one 



natural and more positively defined 

 by obvious and important characters than another, it is 

 Nierembergia , properly so called, with which this ought 

 r _ ... account to be confounded. But from Petunia, ot 

 which the now common Petunia nyctaginiflora may be 

 taken as the type, the plant before us differs in n °J nl "2 

 whatever except the inflated tube of its corolla, and ^the 

 size of its embryo : Petunia is remarkable for the thickene 

 bases of its filaments, which all arise upon the same plane 

 from the middle of the tube, for its capitate stigma, the 

 oblique limb of its corolla, the leafy segments of its calyx, 

 and for its disk, which bears a distinct tooth on each siae 

 where it touches the suture of the ovarium. Now_ ■ if'fJ- 

 not one of these highly characteristic marks in which tn 

 plant differs from Petunia, to which we, without any scrr** 

 refer it. 



more 



on no 



pie 



and 



Having been referred to Salpiglossis by so acuie « 

 perienced a Botanist as Dr. Hooker, it is to be presumed 



