Tas. 6868. 
ECHIUM CANDICANS. 
Native of Madeira. 
Nat. Ord. Boraainex.—Tribe Borage. 
Genus Ecuivum, Linn. ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 863.) 
Ecuivum candicans; fruticosum, cano-hirsutum v. virescens, caule elato robusto 
ramoso, ramis crassis apices versus foliosis, foliis caulinis pedalibus lanceolatis, 
infra-floralibus multo minoribus confertis subulato-lanceolatis erectis v. paten- 
tibus, panicula elongato-oblonga ramulis perplurimis gracilibus patulis, floribus 
sessilibus, sepalis linearibus subacutis, corolle pallide azurex lobis late ovatis 
obtusis, staminibus longe exsertis, stylo piloso ramis brevibus. 
E. candicans, Linn. f. Suppl. Pl. p. 181; Jacg. Collect. vol. i. p. 44; Ic. Pl. 
Rar. vol. i. t. 30. 
E, fastuosum, Jacq. fil. Eclog. t. 41, not of Aiton. 
This noble plant belongs to a group of the genus, in- 
habiting Madeira and the Canary Islands, all the species of 
which are so imperfectly characterized that I am in great 
doubt as to the name it should bear. Of these species two 
or more appear to be variously described under the names 
of H. candicans, Jacq., fastuosum, Ait., fastuosum, Jacq. fil., 
nervosum, Ait., and virescens, DC. It is uncertain whether 
all are Madeiran or some only, or all or some Canarian 
also. All are founded on cultivated specimens. In the 
hope that by shortly giving their history and the characters 
attributed to them the attention of horticulturists may be 
directed to the subject, I shall here do so. 
In 1781 the younger Linneus published FH. candicans, 
from specimens brought by Masson from Madeira; and in 
1786 the elder Jacquin figured it from a young and im- 
perfectly developed specimen with an unformed panicle of 
very pale blue flowers in the Schoenbrunn Gardens; adding 
in the description that after six years the plant becomes 
‘subarboreous and bears a much longer and broader panicle. 
In 1793 he more fully described it in his ‘ Collectanea,” 
erroneously giving ‘Teneriffe (Masson) as the native 
country. He was followed by Aiton, who in 1789 
APRIL Ist, 1886. 
