CYANANTB.US LOBATUS. 161 



CYAN A NTH US LOBATUS. 



Lobed-JJowered Cyananthm. 

 Linnean Class — Pentandria. Order — Monogynia. Natural Order — Polemoniaceje. 



Few of the mountain ranges which diversify the surface of our globe have 

 contributed to European gardens a greater number of interesting plants than 

 the magnificent Alps of Northern India. From this seemingly inexhaustible 

 mine of floral riches have issued the colossal Himalayan Cedar, Ceclrus deodara, 

 which bids fair one day to replace the Oak and other timber -trees of these 

 latitudes ; an immense number of Pines, Firs, Hollies, Berberries, and evergreens 

 of all kinds ; the noble Rhododendron arboreum, to whose scarlet flowers our 

 Horticulturists are so much indebted for the brilliant tints of many recent 

 hybrids ; and, above all, the splendid Sikkim species, the discovery of which 

 might alone suffice to immortalise the fortunate Botanist to whose efforts we 

 owe these marvels of the vegetable world. The less elevated zones, where a higher 

 temperature prevails, contribute some of the most lovely of our stove plants, 

 among which the Orchideous epiphytes are especially conspicuous for their 

 beauty; whilst their summits teem with interesting forms of a less gorgeous 

 character, it may be, but better calculated to enlist the sympathies of the lover 

 of hardy plants. Here occur the noble Lilies, giganteum and Wallichianum ; 

 some of the most charming of the species of Primula, with Gentians, Saxifrages, 

 Labiate plants, Ranunculaceas — in a word, types of most of the Orders peculiar 

 to temperate climes. The recent discoveries of Dr. Madden, referred to in 

 another part of the present number, invest with additional interest the vegetation 

 of this favoured spot, and justify the hope, that, at no very distant period, plants 

 hitherto supposed to constitute the pecidiar features of tropical scenery, will be 

 seen side by side with the ' familiar faces ' of more northerly regions. 



The example of the Himalayan Flora we now offer our readers in the 

 Cyananthus hiatus — though of a somewhat modest character compared with many 

 of the plants just cited — is likely to prove an acceptable addition to our hardy 

 border flowers. It must, however, rank with the dwarfest of herbaceous plants, 

 its slender twiggy stems seldom exceeding five or six inches in length. i They 

 are clothed with small alternate bright green leaves, toothed at their edges, 

 and hairy on both surfaces. The stems are occasionally simple, but usually 

 more or less branched, and bear at their extremity a single flower, of a purplish 

 blue colour, with an inflated calyx, and a deeply five-lobcd corolla. The 

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