HOVEA PUNGENS; var. MAJOR. 
(Pointed -leaved Hovea; large variety.) 
Class. 
DIADELPHIA. 
Order. 
DECANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
LEGUMINOSJE. 
Generic Character.— Ca^s/.^ two-lipped ; upper lip 
half-cleft, retuse, lower one three-parted. Keel blunt. 
Stamens all connected. Legume sessile, rounded, in- 
flated, two-seeded. Seeds covered with small protube- 
rances. 
Specific Character. — Plant shrubby, growing from 
eighteen inches to two feet high. Stem roundish, erect, 
branching, covered with long brown hairs. Leaves 
linear, pungent, sessile, convolute at the margins, in- 
distinctly reticulated, smooth. Flowers solitary, axil- 
lary. Corolla papilionaceous ; wings bright blue, keel 
purple. 
Var. Major.— PZani stronger and larger in all its 
parts. 
On account of the showiness of their pretty blue flowers, — which probably 
attract more universal admiration than those of any other colour, — the species of 
Hovea are commonly favourites, and make a very acceptable feature in the gaiety 
of the greenhouse throughout the late spring months ; more especially as the hues 
of the several species vary from pale azure to deep purple. //. Celsii is, on the 
whole, we conceive, the most generally grown, since its foliage is larger than that 
of the majority, though it is a little more straggling. 
But for brilliancy of tint in its flowers, and for the greatest susceptibility of 
compactness in habit, H, pungens^ a species made known to this country only a 
few years back, and figured in the sixth volume of this magazine, is certainly 
deserving of pre-eminence. The rich ultramarine colour of its flowers is, in fact, 
quite inimitable. 
Very closely related to the last-named species, and difl'ering from it only in the 
superior size of its leaves and flowers, and the greater robustness of its growth, is 
the variety of which we here produce a plate. It w^as reared by Mr. Low, 
Nurseryman, of Clapton, from seeds collected in the Swan River Colony, and 
flowered for the first time at the Clapton Nursery, in May and June, 1841 . 
When it is thus stated that the plant before us is like H. pungens, yet larger 
and finer, it seems needless to tell any who are familiar with that plant that the 
present is a particularly handsome object when in flower, and that it merits most 
