TROP^OLUM WAGNERIANUM. 



FOR an account of tliis exceedingly elegant Spanish cress, lately 

 introduced from mountains in the province of Trujillo, in Vene- 

 zuela, we are indebted to the following communication by Dr. S. F. 

 Klotzsch : — 



" Of the TropcEolum species this is the third kind which has come 

 to our knowledge since the year 1842 possessing the peculiarity of 

 having its blossoms borne upon long tliiti stalks, spirally wound at the 

 middle. Tlie air of lightness and elegance thus given to the plant is 

 more easily to be imagined than described. The first of tlie kinds 

 having these spiral flower-stalks was discovered by Mr. Mathews at 

 Chacapayas, in the Andes of Peru, ranged in his collection No. 3177, 

 and described, with an illustration, by Sir Wi J. Hooker, in his Icones 

 plaiitarum, Plate 411, as T. cirrhipes. The present kind is, like the 

 two otiiers, tuberless, smooth, and with long, three-cornered, blunt, 

 sliield-like leaves; the spur of the chalice is orange-colouredj and the 

 point of the same, as well as the petals, are said to be green. 



" The second sort, discovered by Mr. Moritz in the colony of Tovar, 

 in Columbia, but first introduced here by Dr. H. Karsten, by means of 

 seed, was illustrated and described by these gentlemen in Karsten's 

 *' Selection of New and Splendid Flowering Plants," Plate 12, as 

 T. Uecherianum. It is distinguished from 7'. cirrhipes, Hook., with 

 which it has the greatest affinity in the form of its leaves, by all its 

 parts, except the petals, stamens, and pistils, being covered with siiort 

 and sparing hair, and by its azure petals. 



" The third sort, which Dr. Karsten only lately discovered in some 

 damp woods on the mountains of Trujillo, and also introduced here by 

 means of fresh seed, was dedicated by him, as a mark of friendsiiip, to 

 his present companion, Mr. Wagner, the horticult\irist. It is distin- 

 guished from T. Deckerianum by its want of hair, its dark violet jjetals, 



Vol. XYUi. No. 39.— iV.^. F 



