Addisonia 39 



(Plate 212) 



CLERODENDRON THOMSONAE 

 Mrs. Thomson's Clerodendron 



Native of the west coast of Africa 

 Family Verbenaceae Vervain Family 



Clerodendron Thomsonae Balf. Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb. 7: 265. pi. 7; 580. pi. 16. 

 1862. 



This showy vine has been grown at the New York Botanical 

 Garden since 1903 at the entrance to house four, on the west side 

 of the range, between the steam-pipes and the wall, and makes 

 showy masses of bloom both in winter and in summer. It evidently 

 likes plenty of light and heat and grows rapidly, for as often as it is 

 cut back it reappears the next season covered with large clusters of 

 conspicuous blossoms. It was discovered in western Africa, near the 

 Gulf of Guinea, in the delta of the Niger at Old Calabar, by the 

 Rev. W. C. Thomson in 1861, where it grew abundantly along the 

 banks of the river, climbing over shrubs. It was sent to Prof. 

 Balfour at the Botanical Gardens at Edinburgh in a Wardian case 

 and was described and figured by him from plants that bloomed 

 in December, 1861. A larger and more showy variety known as 

 Balfotirii was also first cultivated from seed at Edinburgh and the 

 names seem to have been used interchangeably. This was figured 

 on plate 255 of the Floral Magazine in 1865 and in 1869 a cross 

 between C. Balfourii and C. splendens was also figured as Clero- 

 dendron speciosum (plate 432) having still larger and more showy 

 flowers with the calyx tinged with pink. 



About one hundred species of Clerodendron are known in the 

 tropics, mostly natives of the Eastern Hemisphere, of which seventy 

 are natives of Africa and a few of these are grown either in green- 

 houses or as showy garden plants in tropical America. Clerodendron 

 fragrans has become naturalized in Florida and the West Indies 

 and escaped from cultivation in Bermuda, and its large, dense 

 clusters of fragrant pure white flowers would make it most attractive 

 were it not for the disagreeable odor of the leaves. The Japanese 

 Clerodendron, C. trichotomum, has been figured on plate 15 of 

 Addisonia and has been grown for twenty-one years in the fruti- 

 cetum. C. foetida is hardy in the middle and southern States, and 



