supplementary to Encyc. of Plants and Hort. Brit. 525 



James Stirling had sent seeds of this species from the Swan 

 River colony. " It is easily propagated by cuttings." (Bot. 

 Beg., Sept.) 



2136. i A'THYRUS. [blue Brazil 1834. or earlier S s 1 

 192870 ArmitageawMS West Birm. Bot. and Hort. Soc. Mr. Armitage's St | ? or 6 ? my.jl Purple- 

 In Aris's Birmingham Gazette of May 18. 1835 is a descrip- 

 tion of some of the botanical characteristics of a species of O'xalis, 

 and a species of iathyrus, which had " lately been discovered " 

 in " the collection " of the Birmingham Botanical and Horticul- 

 tural Society, and had been deemed " two new species ; " that is, 

 two species whose existence had not been made known by the 

 publication of the characteristics of them. In the same place, 

 these species are denominated " Oxalis Darwalliana, West. 

 Birm. Bot. and Hort. Soc," and "Lathyrus Armitageanus, West. 

 Birm. Bot. and Hort. Soc." ..." They have been named after 

 the late lamented Secretary, Dr. Darwall, and the Treasurer, the 

 late Mr. Armitage, both of whom were devotedly attached to 

 the science of botany, and with whom the Society may be said 

 to have originated." The abbreviated words placed after the 

 specific epithets can only be understood to imply that the appli- 

 cation of these two specific epithets to these two kinds of plants 

 is by, or for, the West Birmingham Botanical and Horticultural 

 Society. The word " West " is, we have learned, used to dis- 

 tinguish this Society from another extant in Birmingham, which 

 pursues kindred objects. It is the West Society that has the 

 botanical and horticultural garden. 



iathyrus Armitageanws. We have collected that information 

 on the features and habits of this plant, which the tabular lines 

 above and what we have now to present include, from the de- 

 scription given in Aris's Gazette, where part of it is expressed 

 in Latin, and from a correspondent's incidental communication 

 to us on the subject. — A shrub. Stem triangular, not winged, 

 branched, glaucous. Leaf of a pair of leaflets and a three-cleft 

 tendril, glaucous ; leaflet ovate, mucronate, coriaceous, at the 

 edge cartilaginous. The shrub bears leaves through so long a 

 period as to be nearly evergreen. Stipule smaller than a leaflet, 

 broad, heart-arrow-shaped (cordate-sagittate). Inflorescence, a 

 peduncled raceme (cluster) of about three flowers. Corolla's 

 colour a purple-blue (flores " purpurec-caerulei "). L. Armi- 

 tagedtms is closely related to L. magellanicus, and some have 

 deemed it the same ; but its glaucous, not blackish, stem, its 

 broader stipule, and, above all, its being shrubby, render it quite 

 distinct. It is hardy : but the pai'ent plant of it, in the Bir- 

 mingham Botanic Garden, died in the winter of 1834-5, in 

 consequence of its inhabiting a springy soil that had a re- 

 tentive subsoil. L. Avmita.ged?it(s is well adapted for covering a 

 wall. 



