This name, however, being untenable, Cuorsy proposed 
the present one, in allusion to the beauty and variety of 
colours * displayed in the greater number of the species;— 
and, certainly, which shine pre-eminently in this. 
At Mr. Knieur’s, Nursery, King’s Road, Chelsea, a fine 
plant of this, forty feet in length, produced no less than 
sixty thousand flowers, expanding successively, from three 
to eight hundred a day. 
The species of the Genus are mostly of American origin. 
Puarsitis Nil (see our Tab. 188.) ‘is, indeed, universally 
distributed throughout the tropics; P. hispida and hede- 
racea are equally found in the old and in the new world ; 
and P. insularis is a native of the Polynesian islands. 
Descr. Stems long, climbing, hairy, but the hairs decid- 
uous. Leaves alternate, varying extremely in size and in 
shape :—from three to four or five inches long, all of them 
cordate, acute ; some entire, others more or less deeply cut 
into three, broad lobes, hairy on both sides, especially be- 
neath, where they are paler. Peduncles axillary, longer 
than the leaves, hairy, bearing a cyme of several flowers 
accompanied by linear-lanceolate bracteas. Calyx hairy, 
or almost silky, of five unequal, erect, linear-lanceolate 
sepals. Corolla large, very beautiful; the whole, when in 
bud, lilac; when expanded, the tube, which is long, nearly 
straight, and angular, is lilac; the limb, which spreads 
rather suddenly and horizontally, is four to five inches 
across, and of a rich violet blue, with five purple rays. Sta- 
‘mens unequal, inserted near the base of the tube, and quite 
included within it. Ovary surrounded by a five-lobed disk 
orcup. Style as long as the tube. Stigma capitate, gra- 
nulated. 
© From Qag@n, colour. 
ig. 1. Calyx. 2. Pistil and lower part of the Tube of the Corolla, with 
the Stamens: slightly magnified. part of the Lube of the Vorola, Wi 
