64 
HELIOPHILA trifida. 
Trifid Suncress. 
TETRADYNAMIA SILIQUOSA. 
Nat. ord. Brassicacem. (Crucirers, Vegetable Kingdom, p. 351.) 
HELIOPHILA, L.—Bot. Reg. fol. 838. 
H. trifida ; herbacea glabra viridis, siliquis moniliformibus patulis pendulisve, 
foliis inferioribus trifidis aut rarius pinnatim 5-fidis lobis subfiliformibus 
superioribus integris, staminibus lateralibus dente auctis.— Schauer in 
Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaften in Hamburg. 
vol. 1. p. 217. 
H. trifida, Thunb. prodr. 108. A. cap. ed. Sch. 495. DeCand. prodr. 1. 232. 
H. pinnata, Linn. fil. suppl. 297. nec Vent. 
This species has been carefully defined by Mr. Sonder, 
in his excellent monograph of the genus in the Hamburg 
Natural History Transactions. He states that it occurs in 
sandy tracts, on the plain near Cape Town, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Doornhoogde, where it flowers in October and 
November. 
In our gardens it proves to be a very pretty, half-hardy 
annual, requiring to be grown in a mixture of sandy peat and 
loam, to which should be added a small portion of well de- 
composed leaf-mould, or rotten dung. The seed should be 
sown about the end of February, in pots, and raised in a 
close pit or greenhouse, and treated like other half-hardy 
annuals. When the plants are sufficiently large, they should 
be transferred to other pots, not more than three or four plants 
being placed in each pot. It produces its gay ultramarine 
blue flowers from June to September, in the greenhouse, and 
grows about a foot in height. 
It was raised in the garden of the Horticultnral Society, 
from seed purchased from Mr. J. F. Drége of Hamburg. 
Fig. 1. represents the stamens and ovary; 2. the ripe 
pod ; 3 and 4. the embryo in different positions. 
December, 1846. 2 A 
