Report on some remarkable Hardy Ornamental Plants, fyc. 477 



well as the dried specimens are decidedly different from those of 

 R. sanguineum, by the leaves, which are very rough and hispid on 

 the upper side, and clothed underneath with a whitish cottony down. 

 The bunches of flowers are shorter and closer than in R. sangui- 

 neum, and each flower is nearly sessile on the common stalk. As 

 far as we can at present judge from the plants in the Garden, it is 

 as hardy as R. sanguineum, and quite as easily propagated. 



Leptosiphon androsaceus. (Plate 18. fig. 1.) 



L. androsaceus. Benth. in Bot. Reg. ad. calc. n. 1622. 



This is a bushy annual, growing to the height of eight or ten 

 inches, smooth in the lower part, with the upper leaves and 

 extremities of the branches slightly downy. The leaves are 

 opposite and sessile, but divided nearly to the base into a number of 

 linear segments, so as to appear to be whorled. The flowers are 

 collected into terminal heads surrounded at their base by a number 

 of floral leaves, divided, like the stem-leaves, into linear segments. 

 The long slender tube of the corolla projects beyond these leaves 

 and bears at the top five spreading oval divisions varying in colour 

 from white to pale blue and pink. The multitude of these flowers 

 gives the plant a very gay appearance, and as it is perfectly hardy 

 and promises to seed well, there is no doubt but that in a short 

 time it will be found an important addition to our flower-beds. 



Leptosiphon densiflorus. (Plate 18. fig. 2.) 

 L. densiflorus. Benth. in Bot. Reg. I. c. 

 In general appearance and mode of growth this plant is very 

 similar to the preceding species. The leaves are, however, some- 

 what longer and finer, and the flowers, with a shorter and thicker 

 tube, have the border more than twice as large and less spreading. 

 The colour of the flower varies in the same degree. 



Both these plants thrive in a poor sandy soil and an exposed 



