first appeared in our gardens in 1831, having been raised 
from seeds sent to the Glasgow Botanic Garden by John 
(by some writers erroneously called James) Tweedie, who 
was at that time residing in Buenos Aires. The genus, 
now comprising twenty-nine species, was established in 
1803 by Jussieu who, at the same date, described two 
species, P. parviflora and P. nyctaginiflora. There was.an 
interval of nearly thirty years before the third species, 
the subject of this note, was discovered. P. nyctaginiflora, 
which appears to have been in cultivation in the Jardin 
des Plantes, Paris, in 1820, was figured at t. 2552 of this 
Magazine in 1825, yet it seems to have been so far over- 
looked when Sir William Hooker described Tweedie’s 
new introduction six years later that the latter was not 
recognised as belonging to the same genus, and was 
published at t. 3113 as Salpiglossis integrifolia, the figure 
then given being scarcely a faithful representation of the 
species. The plant immediately became a favourite. 
Pretty and graceful as it was in itself its possibilities as a 
subject for crossing with P. nyctaginiflora were quickly 
-Tealised. Florists took it up with remarkable success ; 
artists repeatedly made drawings of it, and often poor 
ones, and botanists repeatedly described it, giving it at 
least nine names under five different genera. A hybrid 
was first obtained in 1834 by a nurseryman named 
Atkins of Northampton, and this was figured and 
described in Sweet’s Brit. Fl. Gard. ser. 2, vol. iii. t. 268 
as Nierembergia Atkinsiana. Many forms of the hybrid 
soon appeared in gardens, and three were figured at 
t. 3556 of the Botanical Magazine. Details as to the 
evolution and history of the Petunia have been given by 
L. H. Bailey (Survival of the Unlike, p. 465), Le Texnier 
(Rev. Hort. 1908, p. 377) and Lotsy (Archives Néerlan- 
daises, ser. 3 B, vol. ii. p. 221). The true P. integrifolia 
disappeared from cultivation, though plants passing 
under the name of /. vivlacea were still met with in 
collections. The P. violacea which has been cultivated 
in the Chelsea Physic Garden for many years—it was 
found there when Mr. Hales became Curator in 1899—is 
quite distinct from the true plant. It has an erect habit 
of growth, rather like that of P. nyctaginiflora, and bright 
rose-coloured flowers, with a whitish throat and a pallid 
