Tas. 73828. 
ABUTILON VITIFOLIUM. 
Native of Chili. 
Nat. Ord. Matvacez.—Tribe Matvem, 
Genus AButiton, Gertn.; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 204.) 
AsutTiton vitifolium; arbuscula, ramulis crassiusculis petiolis foliis subtus 
pedunculis calycibusque pube floccoso niveo tomentosis, foliis amplis 
orbiculari-ovatis profunde cordatis breviter 5-lobis et multi-lobulatis 
supra rugosis, lobis ovatis subacutis crenatis, nervis subtus elevatis, 
floribus 2-3} poll.-diam. albidis in pedunculos axillares subcorymbosis, 
calycibus herbaceis irregulariter figgis, petalis late cuneato-orbiculatis 
striatis, staminum phalangibus petalis multo brevioribus, antheris parvis 
croceis, ovario hirsuto, stylis ad 10 stigmatibus oblongis. 
A. vitifolium, Presl. Rel. Henk. vol. ii. p. 116. Lindl. Bot. Reg. vol. xxvi. (1840), 
Mise. p. 52, n. 114; et vol. xxx. (1844), t. 57. O. Gay, Fl. Chil. vol. i. 
p. 332. Masters, Gard. Chron. 1889, vol. ii. p. 156, f. 21. 
Spa vitrroma, Cavan. Ic. vol. v. t. 428. DO. Prodr. vol. i. p 471. Hook. 
& Arn. Bot. Beech, Voy. p. 12. 
The earliest notice of this strikingly handsome plant as 
being in cultivation in Europe was in 1848, by Dr. Lindley, 
in the Botanical Register cited above. It is there stated to 
have been introduced by Captain Cottingham, a zealous 
Irish horticulturist, who raised it in 1836, and sent a plant 
to Mr. Mackay, Curator of the College Botanic Gardens, 
Dublin. Mr. Mackay informed Dr. Lindley that it had 
stood for three years in the College Gardens, in a south 
border, without protection of any kind, and flowered pro- 
fusely ; adding that it formed a handsome small tree, about 
six feet high, and that it probably grows to a much greater 
size in Chili, which is its native country. In 1844 Lindley 
published a magnificent plate of it from a drawing by Miss 
Drake, and says of it that with us (alluding no doubt to the 
Gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society) it does not 
prove fit for the open ground, and that it should be planted 
in a large tub, or in the ground in a_ conservatory. 
Nothing further seems to have been heard of it as a garden 
plant till Mr. Gumbleton, in 1889, sent a specimen from 
Dercemper Ist, 1893. 
