65 



TROPJ^OLUM azureum. 

 Blue Nasturtium. 



OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA, 

 Nat. ord. BalSAMINACE/E, § TROP^EOLEiE. 



TROPjEOLUM. Supra vol. 9./oI. 718. 



T. azureum ; foliis quinquepartitis : laciniis linearibus subsequalibus, petalis 

 aequalibus bilobis intcgerrimis calyce multo longioribus, calcare conico 

 sepalis breviore. 



Tr. azureum. Miers's Travels in Chile, Appendix. Lindl. in Bot. Register, 

 sub t. 1547. 



Here is at last produced the blue Nasturtium, first men- 

 tioned by Mr. Miers, in his travels in Chili, the existence of 

 which has been doubted, but which was met with many years 

 ago by Mr. Bridges on the mountain range, called the Cam- 

 pana de Quillota, at a height of 4,U00 feet, and has now been 

 obtained alive by Messrs. Veitch and Son of Exeter, who have 

 received for it the large silver medal of the Horticultural 

 Society. 



It is a most remarkable plant, much deeper coloured in a 

 wild state than it has yet been in cultivation, and a very valu- 

 able acquisition for Gardens. 



A few years since a Blue Nasturtium was classed in the 

 same class of impossibilities as a Hippogriff or a Unicorn, for 

 men's minds were warped and their vision distorted by the 

 theory of cyanic and xanthic series in flowers, which could 

 not, as it was said, interfere with each other. It w^as asserted 

 that in those cases where a pure yellow is observable in a par- 

 ticular genus, no blue could possibly be produced, and that, 

 on the contrary, where a blue colour exists in a genus, yellow 

 was expelled. It is true that the Hyacinth and Aconite 

 seemed to off'er some difficulty in the way of these proposi- 

 tions, but it was alleged that the so-called yellow of the Hya- 



Decemher, 184'2. 2 b 



