26 Floricultural and Botanical Notices 



Napoleonia. imperialis. — This is the name of a new and 

 remarkable plant, of which hving specimens have lately- 

 been brought from Sierra Leone, by Mr. Whitfield, an inde- 

 fatigable collector. A dried specimen and seeds having been 

 placed in the hands of Dr. Lindley, with a bottle containing 

 the flowers in different states, an opportunity has been offered 

 for clearing up the history of one of the most obscure genera 

 in the records of systematic botany. 



Napoleonia was so named by M. Palisot de Beauvois, who 

 found it in the kingdom of Oware, in Western Africa, where 

 it was common, especially in the woods behind the King of 

 O ware's residence. The flowers were represented as being 

 sky blue, with a sort of five rayed star, of a pink color, in 

 the middle ; and upon the whole, the account that botanists 

 gave was so unsatisfactory, the very existence of the plant 

 was doubted. 



The plant forms a bnsh about as large as a camellia accor- 

 ding to Mr. Whitfield. The loood is soft and whiteish, with 

 large medullary rays, an abundance of dotted vessels, &c. 

 No hairs are to be found on any part of the plant. The 

 leaves are alternate, leathery, between three and six inches 

 long, obovate lanceolate, tapering to an obtuse point, and nar- 

 rowed at the base, into a thick channelled petiole about one 

 fourth of an inch long ; there is no trace of stipules. The 

 flowers grow in threes, sessile in the axil of the leaves, and 

 are surrounded at the base by several round imbricated 

 scales as in camellias, when expanded they measure about 

 two inches in diameter. Mr. Whitfield states that when de- 

 caying, they assume a blueish tint, which has probably led 

 to De Beauvois' s error in representing them as almost wholly 

 blue in their perfect state. The calyx is a thick leathery 

 cup, divided into five ovate segments, having a perfectly val- 

 vate aestivation. Within this is placed the corolla^ which 

 consists of three distinct rings, each of which is monopeta- 

 lous. The first ring is apricot color, divided into five 

 lobes, each of which has seven stiff ribs, between which the 

 texture is membraneous ; the lobes have seven broad teeth 

 corresponding with the points of the ribs and much curled 

 and crumpled ; by means of the ribs and intervening mem- 

 brane, this part of the corolla is strongly plaited both before 



