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TRADESCANTIA SPICATA. 



appears to have been hardy enough to have survived the winter of last year, at 

 Mr. Barker's residence at Springfield ; but it may be as well to treat it as a hardy 

 Trarae plant, and to place it out in the open ground in May, where it will flower 

 freely from September to October. 



It requires no particular soil or attention. It may be increased by cutting 

 off the young offsets at the root in the autumn. 



The generic name, Tradescantia, is given in honour of Mr. John Tradescant, 

 a distinguished traveller and naturalist in the reign of Charles the First, and to 

 whom he was appointed gardener. Through the liberality of the nobility of that 

 period he was enabled to form an extensive museum, an account of which he 

 published under the name of Museum Tradescantium. At his death he bequeathed 

 it to the University of- Oxford. 



The specific name spicata is given in reference to the disposition of the 

 inflorescence. 



Fig. 1, a stamen with its hairy filament ; 2, magnified view of a grain of 

 pollen ; 3, The ovarium, style, and stigma ; 4, Transverse section of the capsule ; 

 5, magnified view of an articulated hair. 



