147 



LEPTOSITHON LTJTEUS. 



that name is but a synonyme or alias of the present plant. With the other 

 members of the genns we have but little acquaintance. 



EeliopUla is compounded of helios, the sun, and philo, to love ; in allusion to the 

 sunny spots in which the plants of this genus are naturally found. It may not be 

 amiss to observe that the o and i in araboides form two distinct syllables. 



LEPTOSIPHON LTJTEUS. 



Yellow -flowered Leptosiphon. 

 Linnean CtoM-pENTAKDBiA. Or^-MoHOGTMA. Natural Order- Pommoniaceje. 



Of the numerous Californian annuals discovered and introduced by the lamented 

 Douglass, few have so long retained their place in the public esteem, as the 

 interesting Leptosiplion androsaceus and densiflorus : their very neat compact habit, 

 complete hardiness, and the abundance of their starry blossoms, combine to render 

 them among the most desirable ornaments of the borders in spring and early 

 summer. These two species, with their varieties, have hitherto been the only 

 attainable representatives of the genus; for, although the names of others have 

 for years stood recorded in most of our botanical dictionaries, they served, m 

 common with many others, but to provoke the regret that they should still be 

 wanting in our collections. They appear to have been all detected by Douglass 

 about the same period, and we are therefore at a loss to explain why seeds of all 

 should not have been introduced by him, unless it be due to the circumstance of 

 their flowering at different seasons of the year. 



At length, however, by the enterprise of Messrs. Yeitch— to whom our gardens 

 are indebted for so many valuable exotics— the long-desired yeUow Leptosiphon is 

 placed within our reach ; and combining, as it does, all the qualifications already 

 referred to of the older species, with a more novel and brighter tint, it will 

 doubtless be one of the most eagerly sought for plants of the coming season. 

 Except in the colour of the blossom and length of its tube, it does not differ in 

 general appearance from the other species, being like them of low growth, not 

 usually exceeding, even when most luxuriant, ten or twelve inches in height, and 

 in poor soil often much less. Its stems are slender, and stained with purple, 

 branching, and clothed with short spreading hairs. The leaves are opposite, 

 sessile, and deeply cleft into five to eight narrow, pointed lobes, which are some- 

 what fleshy in substance, and fringed with short hairs. The flowers are produced 



