PLATE LVII. 



TROP^OLUM MAJUS. 



GREATER NASTURTIUM. 



THIS genus furnishes plants of the herbaceous, annual, and 

 perennial, trailing and climbing kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Octandria Monogynia, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Trihilata. 



The characters are: that the calyx is a one-leafed perianth, five- 

 cleft, from upright spreading, acute, coloured, deciduous; the two 

 lower segments narrower; horned at the back with aa awl-shaped, 

 straight, longer nectary : the corolla has five petals, roundish, in- 

 serted into the divisions of the calyx; two upper sessile; the others 

 lower, with oblong ciliate claws: the stamina have eight awl-shaped 

 filaments, short, declining, unequal: anthers erect, oblong, rising: 

 the pislillum is a roundish germ, three-lobed, striated: style simple, 

 erect, length of the stamens: stigma trifid, acute: the pericarpium 

 berries (or nuts) somewhat solid, three, on one side convex, grooved 

 and striated; on the other angular: the seeds three, gibbous on one 

 side, angular on the other, roundish, grooved and striated. 



The species cultivated are: 1. T. minus, Small Indian Cress, or 

 Nasturtium; 2. T. majus, Great Indian Cress, or Nasturtium. 



The first has an herbaceous, trailing stem: the leaves almost 

 circular, smooth, grayish: the flowers axillary, on very long pedun- 

 cles; composed of five acute-pointed petals, the two upper large and 

 rounded, the three under narrow, jointed together at bottom, and 

 lengthened out into a tail two inches long. 



There are varieties with deep orange-coloured flowers inclining 

 to red, with pale yellow flowers, and with double flowers. 



