Annales des Sciences above quoted. After a careful comparison 
of this plant with the plates and very imperfect specimens of 
P. de Beauvois, existing in the Herbarium of the late M. Delessert, 
M. de Jussieu, with no little hesitation, considers them dis- 
tinct, and gives the name of WV. Heudelotii to the Senegambia 
plant, a locality, indeed, considerably remote from Oware and 
Benin :—at the same time, the only specific difference which 
M. de Jussieu detects is “ . imperialis, flore cceruleo; et 
NV. Heudelotii, flore purpureo.” 
In 1843, Mr. Whitfield returned from one of his many voyages 
of Natural History research to Sierra Leone, a country, it will 
be observed, intermediate with Senegambia and Oware, and 
brought with him both living and dried specimens of Napoleona, 
the latter of which, after a most careful investigation, Dr. Lindley 
concludes to be identical with Beauvois’ plant, and I think with 
justice ; for though, when recent, these flowers are described by 
Mr. Whitfield to be “apricot-coloured and crimson ;” yet the 
Same traveller remarks that, when decaying, they assume a 
bluish tint: which will account for their colour, as described by 
Beauvois, “ d’ un beau bleu, avec un réflet violet.” 
The collection of plants formed by the unfortunate Dr. Vogel 
in the last voyage up the Niger, again contains specimens of a 
Napoleona, which Drs. Hooker and Planchon, who are mainly 
charged with the publication of that collection, pronounce dis- 
tinct. Of this, as accurate a figure and description as can be 
drawn up from dried specimens, both of flower and fruit, are 
given in the 8th vol. of Hooker’s Icones Plantarum, t. 800, and 
called WV. Vogelii, Hook. et Planch. 
At length, in 1848, one of the living plants, brought 
home by Mr. Whitfield and purchased by His Grace the 
late Duke of Northumberland, produced perfect flowers in 
the month of May. It was most obligingly and immediately 
sent to me, by Her Grace the Duchess Dowager, and from 
it our flowering specimen is taken. The representation of the 
fruit, it must be premised, is done from Vogel’s specimens, and 
consequently belongs to the WV. Vogelii. Between that plant 
and ours, however, I can point out no difference, save in the 
shape and relative size of the leaves. No correct opinion can 
be formed of the colour from the dried specimens, on which 
some stress is laid in the Icones Plantarum. In regard to the 
NV. Heudelotii of M. Adrien de Jussieu, being in possession of a 
Specimen gathered by M. Heudelot himself, I find the leaves 
and solitary flower so exactly to correspond with our plant, that 
I have no hesitation in pronouncing them specifically the same. 
The colour of the corolla, which the author calls purpurea, is the 
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