the shorter stamens, in either the cultivated or wild 
specimens. 
I. variabilis was discovered by Mr. Potanin on the 
mountains of the Chinese provinces of Szechuen and 
Kansu. A _ yellow-flowered variety is described by Mr. 
Batalin as inhabiting the valley of the Po-ho river in 
Eastern Tibet. The Royal -Gardens received seeds of 
I. variabilis from Mr. W. Thompson of Haslemere, Ipswich, 
plants from which flowered in the Herbaceous ground in 
August, 1898. Its nearest ally is I. sinensis, Lamk., which 
has smaller flowers and a much larger pod. 
Descr.—A slender, perennial, glabrous, or faintly pubes- 
cent herb, twelve to eighteen inches high. Leaves all 
alternate, two to four inches long, shortly petioled, ovate 
in outline, pinnate; leaflets six to eight pairs, opposite, 
shortly petiolulate, ovate-lanceolate, pinnatifidly cut into 
obtusely toothed pinnules. Flowers in loose, erect racemes, 
shortly pedicelled, with a tripartite leafy bract at the base 
of each pedicel. Calyx small, tube obconic, five-angled, 
lobes setiform, as long as the tube, scabrid, seated on 
a globose tubercle, alternating with as many short, mem- 
branous teeth. Corolla bright rose-purple, tube an inch 
long, slightly curved, limb more than an inch across the 
orbicular spreading and recurved lobes. Follicle an inch 
long, narrowly fusiform, acuminate. Seeds surrounded 
with a hyaline wing.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Calyx, style, and stigma; 2, portion of calyx laid open, showing disk 
and ovary; 3, portion of corolla laid open and stamens; 4, anther :—A/Z 
enlarged. 
