Tab. 5651. 



IPOMCEA Geerabdi. 

 Gerrard's Ipomcea. 





Nat. Ord. Convolvtjlace^:. — Pentatjdbia Mcwogynia. 

 Gen. Char. (Vide tupra, Tab. 5330.) 



Ipomcea Gerrardi ; caule laevi volubili, petiolis pedunculis sepalis foliisque 

 subtus adnervos laxe albo-lanatis v. araneosis, foliis rotundato-cordatis 

 obtusis acuminatisve obscure sinuatis integerrimis supra glabris, pe- 

 dunculis axillaribus solitariis 1-floris 2-bracteolatis, bracteolis brevibus 

 obtusis persistentibus, sepalis mediocribus oblongis obtusis concavis, 

 floribus amplis albis suaveolentibus, seminibus dense et copiose fusco- 



lanatis. 



Of this very fine plant the seeds have several times been 

 sent to Kew from Natal, where it seems to be known as 

 "wild cotton;" the first were received in 1857, from our ex- 

 cellent correspondent Dr. Sutherland, Surveyor-General of 

 the colony ; and from a plant reared from these the drawing 

 here published was made. It forms a tuberous stock above 

 the earth as large as the fist, from which annual stems shoot, 

 attain a length of ten to fifteen feet, and flower copiously. 

 It succeeds well in the moderate heat of the Palm stove, 

 flowering about August. The seeds wore exhibited as " wild 

 cotton " in the Great Exhibition of 1862, and attracted some 

 attention as a possible substitute for cotton, the cotton famine 

 at that time raging. 



As a species, I. Oerrardi is closely allied to /. albivenia, 

 Don, of Zanzibar (Convolvulus albivenius, Lindl. IJnt. Keg. t. 

 1116), but that plant is more woolly, the stems are tubercled, 

 the bracts are long and linear, and the inside of the (much 

 smaller) corolla tube is purple. I have named it after a 

 most indefatigable collector. Mr. Gerrard, of Natal, who 

 sent dried specimens to Sir W. Hooker, and who, after ex- 

 ploring the countries to the nortrnvard of Natal, proceeded 

 with impaired health as a naturalist to Madagascar, where 

 he soon succumbed to that pestilential climate. 

 jui.y 1st, 1867. 



