501 



and have a grayish bark: the leaves for the most part opposite upon 

 pretty long footstalks; they are composed of five, six, or seven leaf- 

 lets, spreading out like the fingers of a hand; the lower ones small, 

 and the middle largest; they are smooth and entire; the largest are 

 about three inches long, and half an inch broad in the middle, 

 ending in blunt points, of a dark green on their upper side, but hoary 

 on their under: the flowers are produced in spikes at the extremity 

 of the branches, from seven to fifteen inches in length, composed of 

 distant whorls; in some plants they are white, in others blue. They 

 are generally late before they appear. They have an agreeable 

 odour when they open fair, and make a good appearance in autumn, 

 when the flowers of most other shrubs are gone. It is a native of 

 Sicily. 



There are varieties with narrow leaves, with broad leaves, with 

 blue flowers, and with white flowers. 



The second species has the stature of the preceding, but smaller 

 in all its parts, with quinate acuminate pinnatifid leaves, pubescent 

 underneath. It is a shrub seldom rising more than three feet high, 

 sending out on every side spreading branches, which are slender and 

 angular: the leaves opposite upon prelty long footstalks; some com- 

 posed of three, others of five leaflets, which are deeply and regularly 

 cut on their sides, like pinnatifid leaves, and end in acute points: 

 the largest of these leaflets is about an inch and half long, and three 

 quarters of an inch broad in the middle; they are of a dull green 

 colour on their upper side, and gray on their under: the branches 

 are terminated by spikes of flowers three or four inches long, dis- 

 posed in whorls; in some plants they are white, in others blue, and 

 some have bright red flowers: they are in beauty from the middle of 

 July to the beginning of September. It is a native of China. 



The third has the leaflets ovate, acute, quite entire, lomentose 

 underneath, the two nearest to the petiole smaller: the slem is 

 shrubby, branched, round, eight feet high, the thickness of a finger, 

 procumbent, sometimes creeping: the leaves ternate, seldom qui- 

 nate: leaflets waved, dusky, green above, cinereous-hoary beneath, 

 soft: common petioles long, opposite: the flowers violet in dichoto- 



