filaments glabrous. The present species seems to be quite hardy, 
but, Mr. Leeds observes, is impatient of too much moisture, and 
it should be kept quite dry from November until February. It 
flowers in June, when the large sky-blue flowers render the plant 
a very beautifid object. 
Desce,. Plant varying from 8-10 inches to a foot or a foot 
and a half high under cultivation, glabrous. Stem erect, herba¬ 
ceous, terete, tinged with purple. Moot-leaves spathulate, entire, 
those of the stem broadly lanceolate, sessile, subamplexicaul, 
also entire, acuminate; the upper ones gradually becoming 
bracteas. The axils of the leaves of the upper half or more of 
the plant bear many-flowered peduncles, the whole forming a 
leafy elongated panicle. Flowers large, handsome, a rich ama- 
thystine blue. Calyx very small in proportion to the size of the 
flowers ; their segments ovate, subaristato-acuminate. Tube of 
the corolla infundibuhform, ventricose above : limb two-lipped; 
upper cut into two short, erect lobes; lower, into three reflexed, 
deeper ones, of which the middle is the smallest and most 
reflexed. Sterile filament bearded at the apex on the upper side. 
Fig. 1. Koot-leaf; and 2, lower stem and leaves ;—natural size. 3. Stamens. 
4. Pistil:— magnified. 
