Dr Graliam's Description of' New or Rare Plants. 1 67 



Bolivaria. — Diandria, Monogynia. Jasmm^cB. — Calyx 5-10- 

 partitus, persistens. Corolla inferior, infundibuliformis, 5- 

 fida, staminifera. Capsula gemina, circumcissa. 



B. trijida ; foliis linearibus, trisecto-pinnatifidis, integrisve — Schlechtendah 

 Bolivaria trifida, Schlecht. in Linncea, 1826, p. 209. 



Descriptiok. — Stem erect, slender, woody, with long, lax, slender, strag- 

 gling, green, subglabrous, furrowed branches, which are opposite below, 

 but dichotomous at the extremities. Leaves lanceolato-linear, glabrous, 

 mucronate, entire or tri(id at the apex, opposite, sessile, semiain])lexicaul 

 and subdecurrent, deep green, and, as well as the branches, sprinkled 

 with minute, white, sliglitly elevated scales. Flowers solitary, terminal, 

 or solitary in the terminal cleft of the branches. Cal^x 6-7-parted, per- 

 sisting, green, segments erect, subulate, ciliated at the base. Corolla 

 (6 lines long, above S lines across when fully expanded) yellow, funnel- 

 shaped, shining and rather paler on the outside, tube cylindrical, scarcely 

 so long as the calyx, limb 5-7-parted, longer than the tube, segments el- 

 liptical, imbricated, roticulato-nerved, naked, but not shining on the in- 

 ner surface, throat and inside of the tube hairy. Stamens 2, adhering to 

 the inside of the tube, free above the throat, and projecting in the centre 

 of the flower, shorter than the corolla; filaments yellow, glabrous ; an- 

 thers yellow, incumbent, oblong, attenuated at both extremities, slight- 

 ly notched at both, especially the lower, attached to the filaments to- 

 wards one end, lobes bursting along the edges, rather distant from each 

 other, the intervening space being green ; pollen globular, yellow. Pistil 

 single ; style as long as the stamens, compressed laterally, slightly cla- 

 vate, nearly colourless, glabrous ; stigma green, capitate, large, grooved 

 in the form of a cross on its upper surface ; germen superior, smooth, 

 cbovate, channelled on both sides. Capsule didymous, large, membra- 

 nous, thin and dry, smooth and shining, lobes obovate, circumcised, uni- 

 locular, each 4-sided. Seeds erect, 3-gonous, rounded on the back, flat by 

 mutual impression on the two sides, covered with a thick cellular arillus, 

 nucleus white, compressed, obovate, exalbuminous, covered with a thick 

 colourless testa, radicle inferior, projecting, straight, blunt. 



Mr Cruckshanks obligingly communicated seeds of this plant several years 

 ago from the neighbourhood of Mendoza. It flowered for the first time 

 in the greenhouse in July last, and has continued to flower almost con- 

 stantly ever since. 



The genus was named by Schlechtendal, with the following observation : 

 " Genus in honorem Liberatoris, qui scientiis omnibus, scientiaeque nos- 

 trae amabili American! aperuit, diximus." He describes two sj)ecies, 

 Bolivaria integrifdia and B. trijida. Dr Gillies has among his specimens 

 what he considers a third. The flowers are much larger than either 

 in B. integrifolia or our plant ; but it seems tu me doubtful whether it is 

 really specifically distinct from this last. Dr Gillies has distributed 

 specimens under the name of 5. decemjida. From what I have observed 

 in B. trijida^ and in Dr G-illies's specimens of B. decemjida, I suspect the 

 divisions of the calyx and corolla vary considerably. I fear we are all 

 apt to erect varieties into new species, in genera in which we have not 

 long had many species in cultivation, and with the tendencies of which, 

 therefore, we are but imperfectly acquainted. Calceolaria bicolor has ei- 

 ther an erect nearly simple stem, with narrow pointed leaves, or a procum- 

 bent greatly branched stem with broad blunt leaves, according to the po- 

 verty or richness of the soil in which it is made to grow. These two 

 forms are exhibited in the Botanical Magazine and Botanical Register 

 of this month, and may be seen in twenty examples at the Botanic Gar- 

 den ; but ray acute friend Professor Lindley, not adverting to this cir- 

 cumstance, nor to the fact that the specimens of Ruiz and Pavon grew 

 in dry stony ground, in the very spot from whence the plants now in 

 cultivation were obtained, has unfortunately described the latter form 

 as a new species, under the name of C. diffusa. 



