PHARBITIS LEARII. 177 



pharbItis learii. 



Mr. Lear's Pharlitis. 

 TJnnean Class — Pentandria. Order — Monoqynia. Natural Order— Convolvulacete. 



We have, on more than one occasion, called the attention of our readers to 

 the claims of this noble twiner as a summer plant for the borders; but a 

 pictorial recommendation will, probably, prove far more effective than any 

 verbal eulogium we could pen. 



It is usually supposed to be too tender for out-door culture, being generally 

 grown either in the stove, conservatory, or green-house, where it makes a splendid 

 appearance, and, as might naturally be supposed, attains a larger size than in 

 the open ground; but, like many other plants formerly grown exclusively 

 under glass, it proves of so tractable a habit, adapting itself to a higher or 

 lower temperature, within certain limits, as circumstances may require, that 

 it may be fairly claimed by Horticulturists of all classes. "We do not, of course, 

 affirm that its appearance will be the same whatever may be its mode of 

 treatment ; but we have no hesitation in asserting that, with but a small amount 

 of care, it will succeed admirably in the open air, and, if its growth be then a 

 little less luxuriant than under glass, its blossoms are yet so large, and abundant, 

 and of such an unrivalled tint, that it may be justly regarded as one of the 

 most important conquests from the class of tender plants. 



The Pharbitis Learii is a perennial species, with somewhat fleshy, but not 

 tuberous, roots ; in the green-house or conservatory, it will not unfrequently produce 

 shoots thirty feet, or more, long, in a single season; but out-doors they rarely 

 exceed ten or twelve feet, unless in very warm, sheltered localities ; besides these 

 principal shoots, which are strictly of a twining habit, others of a trailing or 

 creeping character, and much more restricted in growth, are produced near the 

 ground. The foliage is both elegant and ample; throughout a considerable 

 length of the shoots it is of a trilobate form, as represented in our figure ; but 

 near the extremities it assumes a heart-shaped character, resembling that of the 

 Major Convolvulus : both leaves and petioles are clothed with a short pubescence 

 amounting almost to hispidity. The flowers are produced in clusters of three 

 to five each, in the axils of the foliage, and often measure, even on specimens 

 growing in the open borders, two-and-a-half to three inches across : they are of 

 a most beautiful rich violet-blue, a tint not easily represented on paper, the 

 sinuses which divide the corolla into five portions being of a pinkish lilac. 

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