JUNE. 



73 



MIMULUS MACULOSUS. 



WITH AN ILLUSTRATION-. 



The yellow Monkey-Flower, Mimulus luteus, had already made us familiar 

 *• with a race of spotted garden varieties, ere, a year or two since, Mr. Veitch 

 introduced from Chili a dwarfer-habited plant of the same family, bearing 

 bright coppery red flowers, to which the name of Mimulus cupreus was given. 

 The spotted varieties we allude to, though varying in the size, colour, and dis- 

 position of their markings, yet agreed in this, that either on each of the 

 five segments of the corolla, or on the lower segment only, there was a large 

 blood-coloured blotch, often, indeed, occupying the whole of its surface. 

 Various irregular blotchings were sometimes superadded ; and, as is the case 

 usually with flowers taken in hand for improvement by our energetic cultivators, 

 the size of the blossoms was very much increased. 



When Mimulus <mpreus was let out by its introducers, and came into the 

 hands of other growers, the happy thought occurred to Mr. Bull of trying the 

 effect of a cross between it and some of the large garden varieties. One called 

 Gaiety was selected for the purpose ; the two were intercrossed, and during 

 the present spring a great number of these cross-bred seedlings have been 

 blossoming in Mr. Bull's Nursery, Chelsea, whence our illustration has been 

 derived. Some, and these were the earliest to flower, are represented by those 

 we have selected for figuring, and are of somewhat stronger habit, though 

 less vigorous than the common Monkey-Flowers, whose stature has been 

 reduced by admixture with the smaller cupreus. Others, crossed in the opposite 

 direction, are dwarfer, more like cupreus itself in this respect, and they are 

 later in blossoming, being only just coming into flower. So far as they have 

 yet produced flowers, these appear to have their colours less affected by the 

 cross than in those of the larger-growing series. 



What the general peculiarities of the marking and colouring of these new 

 varieties are, will be best seen from our figure, in which they are very faithfully 

 transcribed, though from being sketched from plants which had been drawn up in 

 a greenhouse, they are shown longer-jointed than is natural to them under ordi- 

 nary conditions. It will be seen that instead of large solid blotches of colour, 

 the markings are either broken up into irregular spots scattered over the sur- 

 face, or into finer dots, which are so arranged as to form a more or less distinct 

 belt. In some of the plants, as in the variety called Charm, represented at 

 fig. 1, this dotting is very distinct and beautiful ; while others, as in Marvel, 

 shown at fig. 2, have the spotting heavier and more confluent, the result being 

 a darker but not less showy flower. This variety, the only one of which a 

 plant has been exhibited before the Floral Committee up to the date at which 

 we write, has had a First-class Certificate awarded to it by that body, the 

 award being not intended, as we understand, to distinguish this as the most 

 meritorious of the series, so much as to mark with approval the successful 

 essay which had been made by the raiser in breaking up new ground, so to 

 speak, and by means thereof decorating our gardens with a new race of flowers, 

 which are veritable Spotted Monkey-Flowers. The variety shown at fig. 3, 

 called Sparkler, is one with the spotting still more coalescent, the spots being 

 run together into irregular-shaped blotches. In all cases the markings are of 

 some shade of the coppery red of the parent cupreus on a clear yellow ground. 



There are, besides, many other variations in respect to the size, and number, 

 and position, and colour of the spots ; but the sorts we figure give a good 

 general notion of their leading features of the whole series. The plants, as 

 hardy free-growing perennials, will be welcome everywhere, and may be 

 managed in the same way as other garden Mimuli. M. 



VOL. II. g 



