SCUTELLARIA MACRANTHA. 



89 



with scarlet flowers, from St Martha, New Grenada. They are all strictly speaking 

 greenhouse plants ; but, like many others of that class, succeed in the open air 

 durin°- the summer months ; splcndem and incamata only require to be kept from 

 frost in a frame or cool greenhouse. 



Apart from the interest which the Scutellarias 

 possess as ornamental plants, they are remarkable for 

 the peculiar form of the calyx, which has been sup- 

 posed to bear some resemblance to a helmet, or other 

 kind of head-dress ; and to this circumstance 

 allusion is made in the popular appellation of 

 the common S. galericulata in most of the 

 European dialects. Thus in English we have 

 Skull-cap ; in French la toque ; and in Dutch 

 fig. 2. helms kruid. A tolerably correct idea of this 

 peculiarity may be formed from the annexed wood cuts, 

 of which fig. 1 represents a single flower of the S. 

 macrantha, the calyx of which, it will be seen, is 

 vaulted, or inflated behind. When the corolla is fallen, 

 \\ the cap-like form of the upper lip of the 

 I calyx is more evident, as in fig. 2, which 



J represents a front view of the calyx of S. Columnos, with the four-lobed 

 1/ ovary within it. 



As the fruit increases in size, the calyx closes upon it and assumes a 

 globular form, thus completely preserving the seeds from dispersion ; so 

 that the precaution so often necessary with many other plants, of 

 gathering the seed as soon as ripe to prevent its falling to the ground, 

 will, in this genus, be altogether uncalled for. 



The curve or elbow at the lower part of the tube of the corolla is another charac- 

 teristic feature of this genus which deserves notice ; and the disk or gland upon 

 which the four lobed ovary is seated, as shown in fig. 3, although found in all the 

 plants of the order, is rarely so largely developed as in the S. macrantha. The 

 white throat and dark upper lip of the unexpanded flower is singularly suggestive 

 of the head of some of the serpent tribe ; or it may be compared, without much 

 stretch of the imagination, to that of the swallow. 



"We will only further add, that the present species of Scutellaria was introduced 

 by way of St. Petersburgh, through the medium of Dr. Eischer, and that it may be 

 obtained of most of the London and provincial nurserymen. 



fig- i. 



