ERANTHEMUM PULCHELLUM. 
{Pretty Eranthemum.) 
Class. 
DIANDRIA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
ACANTHACE^. 
Generic Character. — Calyx five-cleft, tubular, 
erect, skinny, persistent. Corolla monopetalous, fun- 
nel-shaped; tube slender, very long ; limb five-parted, 
flat, lobes obovate and equal. Stamens two ; filaments 
spiral at the base ; anthers nearly ovate,, compressed 
and protruding beyond the orifice. Style ovate. Stigma 
erect, unequal. Ovarium spatulate, compressed, two- 
valved. Ovules solitary, lentlform. 
SPECiFro Character.— PZan^ an evergreen shrub. 
Leaves lanceolate, ovate, strongly nerved. Flowers 
spiked. Bracts lanceolate, imbricated. 
To secure a gay appearance in the stoves and greenhouses during the winter 
and spring months, when every thing in the open ground exhibits tlie most unin- 
viting aspect, has long been a desideratum with cultivators. Much has undoubtedly 
been done towards effecting this desirable object, by modern skill in forcing and 
retarding the natural period of blooming, and by the increase of species with a 
tendency to winter flowering. But with all this, there is yet a want of variety ; 
and this deficiency is more especially felt with regard to blue-coloured flowers. 
White, and red in all its shades, are more prevalent, and these are produced in 
tolerable abundance ; but other colours are needed to give that idea of perfection in 
winter, which is so delightfully experienced in the summer season. 
To look back and select from those plants which have been in the country some 
years, and, through the rage after novelty, have been thrown aside and disre- 
garded, has long been a peculiar feature of our Magazine, and it is with pleasure 
that we now give a plate of the present much neglected plant. 
Combined with the disposition for winter flowering, this species has an erect 
bushy habit, without any tendency to become straggling, or naked in the lower 
part of the stem. On the contrary, it is clothed with leaves of a full deep green, 
and of considerable breadth, down to the very edge of the pot, if any attention at 
all is paid to its culture. The intense brightness of its sky-tinctured blossoms lends 
a showiness during the first three or four months of the year, which is the more 
•acceptable from having fewer competitors than if tliey were produced at a more 
advanced period. 
