818 EEPOET ON ANNUALS GEOWN AT CHISWICK. 



and the flowers large and deep blue ; but being raised from seed, 

 it presented a slight amount of variation. Like other plants 

 employed for special purposes, however, the best forms of these 

 Lobelias, when required for artistic gardening, should be perpetu- 

 ated by means of cuttings, so as to secure thorough uniformity of 

 character. The best of those grown on this occasion was that 

 known as the Crystal Palace Lobelia, the plants of which, having 

 been raised from seeds, showed some diversity of habit. This 

 form had the deepest blue flowers, with a smaller white spot or 

 eye ; the upper part of the stems had a dark brownish tinge, and 

 the plants formed compact open-branched tufts, with the lower 

 leaves oblong-obovate, deeply and irregularly toothed, and the 

 upper ones fewer, lanceolate, toothed. The others, contributed 

 under the name of speciosa (seeds), quite agreed with the foregoing 

 in habit, but differed in having the tips of the branches green 

 instead of brownish, and the flowers of a rather lighter shade of 

 deep blue ; the stems were hairy, the lower leaves obovate, 

 dentate, the upper ones lanceolate, less toothed, and the flowers 

 marked with a white spot or eye at the base of the lower lip, 

 this spot being sometimes large and rather conspicuous. 



Lobelia ramosa Veitch. 



Stn : L. formosa ..... Cartke & Co. 

 A very handsome species, better adapted for pot-culture for the 

 decoration of the greenhouse and conservatory than for the open 

 air. It was of erect, openly-branched habit, with the lower 

 leaves pinnatisected, and the upper ones linear lanceolate ; the 

 flowers were bright deep blue, larger than in any of the foregoing 

 species, and remarkable for the dimidiate or halved appearance 

 of the lateral lobes of the lower lip, as well as for its large size 

 as compared with the minute divisions of the upper lip. It is very 

 nearly related to the true L. gracilis of botanists. 



lobelia triquetra Thompson. 



A slender erect thinly-branched plant, with narrow lanceolate 

 toothed leaves, and small pale " - - 



Lupinus Dunnettii snperbns . . . . Veitch. 

 A very showy and effective plant, with the habit of L. hybridus 

 insignis, but having light-coloured stems, and nearly smooth 

 branches. The flowers in the young state were white, becoming 

 lilac with age, the standard deep purple. The plant was dwarfish 

 in habit, and produced its parti-coloured flower-spikes very freely. 



