176 Dr Graham's Descriptiwi of New or Rare Plants. 



Description. — Root slerjder, creeping near the surface, perennial. Stem 

 herbaceous, erect, angulai*, shining, 3 or 4 inches high. Leaves collect- 

 ed near the top, petioled, ovate, acute at both ends, shining, nearly 

 naked, imperfectly ciliated, sparingly veined, green, red when young, 

 in the lower part of the stem degenerating into ovate, pointed, sessile 

 scales. Peduncle generally terminal, though in a few instances the stem 

 is extended beyond it, when it is opposite to the leaf, 1, 2, or 3-flow. 

 ered, very short ; pedicels loose, half as long as the flowers, angular, 

 red, naked, and shining. Calyx^ two lowest segments small, lanceolato- 

 ovate, upper segment tumid, ovato-concave ; wings spreading, obovate, 

 as long as the wings of the corolla. Corolla handsome, three-fourths of an 

 inch long, nectariferous at the base : petals 3, coalescing below for above 

 half of their length, compressed, wings overlapping above, slightly 

 arched towards their apices ; keel, after separating from the wings, in- 

 flated, rounded, edges in contact above, terminated by a purple-tipped 

 beard, forming a tuft nearly as large as the inflated portion of the keel : 

 whole flower of beautiful purple, indistinctly veined, pale, almost white, 

 on its lower side. Stamens six ; filaments united to the jnside of the 

 petals at the point where these separate from each other, after which 

 they project forwards in two equal opposite bundles, smooth, flattened, 

 colourless ; anthers terminal, obscurely bilobed, yellow. Stigma trunca- 

 ted, obscurely bordered, bilabiate, lips diverging, the upper largest and 

 pointed ; style clavate, bent, colourless towards the stigma, purple be - 

 low ; germen unequally obcordate, green, compressed. 



Nuttall quotes, though with doubt, the P. umflora of Michaux as a syno- 

 nyme of this species, but as it is beardless, which no imperfect spe- 

 cimen even of this ever is, and as the inflorescence is quite difterent, 

 they certainly are distinct, though P. paucifolia has often one flower on- 

 ly. The species is altogether overlooked by Michaux. De Candolle, 

 in his Prodromus, and Don, in Hortus Cantabrigiensis, 8th edit, quote 

 as a synonyme for P. paucifoliaj P. purpurea of Hortus Kewensis. 



Mr Lindley, in the 10th edition of Hort. Cantab, considers these dis- 

 tinct ; and if there is no mistake in P. purpurea being called a shrub in 

 Hort. Kew. they must be so, but by others it is described as herbaceous. 

 This doubt can' only be removed by a reference to the specimen, which 

 probably exists in the Banksian herbarium. Our plant is altogether dif- 

 ferent from P. purpurea of Nuttall, which is P. sanguinea of Michaux 

 and Pursh. 



This beautiful plant flowered sparingly last year in the nursery -garden of 

 Mr Cunninghame, at Comely Bank near Edinburgh, having been intro- 

 duced from Canada by Mr Blair. During the month of May 1828 it 

 has flowered abundantly, and formed one ot the pleasing objects in Mr 

 Cunninghame's extensive collection. It has spread itself widely among 

 loose vegetable soil, in a cold frame, under the shade of the garden-wall. 



Celestial Phenomena from July 1. to October 1. 1828, calcu- 

 lated for the Meridian of Edinburgh, Mean Time. By 

 Mr George Innes, Aberdeen. 



The times are inserted according to the Civil reckoning, the day beginning at midnight. 

 The Conjunctions of the Moon with the Stars are given in Right Ascension. 



JULY. 



