42 
TRADESCANTIA tumida. 
Gouty-jointed Spiderwort. 
HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Nat. ord. COMMELINACES. 
TRADESCANTIA. Botanical Register, vol. vi. fol. 482. 
T. tumida ; caulis erecti pilosi internodiis tumidis, foliis vix vaginatis oblongis 
revolutis convexis margine et infra pilosis, umbellis sessilibus axillaribus 
et terminalibus multifloris, sepalis pilosis, petalis ovatis concavis mox 
convexis. 
A Mexican half-hardy herbaceous plant, raised in the 
garden of the Horticultural Society, where the accompanying 
figure was made in September, 1839. 
When young its leaves are purple on the under side; but 
this colour is afterwards lost, and they become a very deep 
green. Their peculiar rolled-back direction, and the tumid 
joints by which they are separated, gives this species a very 
unusual appearance, and appears to separate it from Jr. 
Humboldtiana, with which it otherwise seems to agree in 
many respects, so far as can be ascertained from the descrip- 
tion that has been published of that species. 
It is a greenhouse perennial of the most easy cultivation, 
having the same habits as the hardy species common in every 
garden. It grows freely in sandy loam, but is very apt to 
suffer from much wet or damp in winter. Like the other 
species of the genus it is readily multiplied, either by cuttings, 
layers, or seed. 
The following account of the Tradescants, after whom the 
genus is named, was given by the late Sir James Smith, — 
* John Tradescant, one of the fathers of natural history in 
England, having been the first who made any considerable 
collection of natural productions, as well as one of the earliest 
cultivators of exotic plants in this country, is reported by 
Anthony Wood to have been a Dutchman. -His name never- 
theless appears to be English, and was originally of two 
syllables, Trade-scant, though it subsequently became Tra- 
des-cant, as appears from a line in his family epitaph, 
‘ beneath this stone, 
Lies John Tradescant, grandsire, father, son.’ 
