JACARANDA TOMENTOSA. 
(Tomentose Jacaranda.) 
Class. Order. 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
Natural Order. 
BIGNONlACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx campanulate, five- 
toothed ; rarely tubular, truncate, entire. Corolla 
tubular at the base, very much dilated above, campa- 
nulate, ventricose beneath, limb bilabiate, five-lobed. 
Stamens four, didynamous, with a fifth longer sterile 
filament, which is villously bearded at top. Anthers 
one-lobed in most of the species, with an obsolete rudi- 
ment of another lobe, rarely two-lobed, with the lobes 
equal and diverging. Stigma bilamellate. Capsule 
broad, compressed, two-celled ; valves thick, ligneous, 
dissepiment contrary to the valves, placentiferous on 
both sides. Seeds flat, transverse, with foliaceously- 
winged edges, outer testa coriaceous, rugosely plicate. 
Specffic^Character.— Plant, a tree, sometimes grow- 
ing several feet in height. Bark grey. Leaves a span 
long, bipinnate, with three to five pairs of pinnae, and 
an odd one ; leaflets ovate or elliptic, acute or acumin- 
ated, unequal, tomentose in the young state, and 
beneath in the adult state. Panicles small, terminal, 
tomentose. Peduncles one to three-flowered. Calyx 
with ovate, acute teeth. Corolla silky, violaceous, 
with a widened throat. Anthers two-lobed, lobes equal. 
Capsule oval-orbicular. 
Synonyme. — J. pubescens. 
The genus Jacaranda is composed of a few species, valuable for their handsome 
foliage and splendid flowers. They all originate in South America, where they 
form trees, sometimes of large size— most of them occasionally acquiring an 
altitude of from twenty to forty feet. In our stoves they are more diminutive ; 
and, with a little extra attention and suitable course of treatment, specimens not 
exceeding the dimensions of an ordinary Pelargonium are induced to develope 
copious panicles of their trumpet-formed flowers. 
From the rest of the family the present is distinguished immediately by its very 
dissimilar leaves. Other species resemble the fine pinnate-leaved Mimosas in the 
form and elegance of their foliage ; but this approaches more nearly to some of the 
Tecomas (T. capensis). Beyond this, it is recognised by the botanist, when in 
flower, from the less prominent though not less important departure from the 
form of its associates, discovered in the anthers ; the rest having but one lobe and 
the rudiments of a second, whilst the present has two lobes equally perfect. 
It was imported a few years ago by Messrs. Knight and Perry, under the 
specific title of Bignonia Mauritiensis. This would indicate an African extraction ; 
but it is most evidently an inadvertent error, as the species had previously been 
received in this country from Brazil. We learn, moreover, from the " Botanical 
Register," that a specimen reared from seeds, gathered in Mexico by Sir Thomas 
Hardy, flowered at Messrs. Whitley and Osborne's nursery in the summer of 1827- 
VOL. XII. — NO. CXLII. 
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