TROPi:OLUM LOBBIANUM. 
(Mr. Lobb's Indian-Cress.) 
OCTANDRIA. 
Order, 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
TROPiEOLACE^. 
Generic Character Calyx five-parted ; upper 
lobe spurred. Petals five, unequal ; three lower ones 
smaller, and evanescent. Stamens eight, free from 
each other at the base. Carxjels three, sub-erose, kid- 
ney-shaped, indehiscent, furrowed, roundish. Seeds 
large, without albumen, attached to the cell, and con- 
forming to it in shape. Emb7-yo large. Cotyledons two, 
straight and thick. 
Specific Character. — PZani a twining, herbaceous 
perennial. Stems hairy. Leaves on long flexuose foot- 
stalks, orbicular, obscurely lobed, peltate ; lobes with a 
soft mucro at their apex,. Peduncles axillary, very 
long, flexuose, apparently climbing. Calyx deeply 
five-cleft, prolonged at the base into a broadly 
subulate spur, nearly straight, and thrice the length 
of the calyx ; segments ovate-oblong, erect. Petals 
five ; two upper ones large, broadly obovate, obscurely 
three-lobed at apex ; lower ones nearly similar in 
form, smaller, but upon long claws. Lamince deeply 
and coarsely toothed, lower part fringed at the margin. 
Synonyme. — T. peltophorum. — 
Messrs. Yeitch and Sons, of Exeter, who have been instrumental in obtaining 
so many beautiful plants from South America, through their collectors, have also 
had the pleasure of introducing the charming species of TropcEolum portrayed on 
the opposite page. 
In the *' Plantae Hartwegianse " we find Mr. Bentham has given the name 
T. peltophorum to a species found by Mr. Hartweg in fields near Loxa, the de- 
scription of which, with the single exception of being called an annual, is perfectly 
applicable to T. LohMamnn. This species is decidedly a perennial, but it seems 
likely, nevertheless, that the same plant is intended ; and if so, his name, being 
prior to this, — -which has been published in the Botanical Magazine by Sir 
W. Hooker — ought to take precedence of it. 
Seeds gathered by Mr. Lobb, in Colombia, and forwarded to Messrs. Yeitch 
and Sons early in 1843, were sown immediately after their arrival, and soon pro- 
duced healthy plants, which grew vigorously and flowered in the following 
November. The same plants produced blossoms again early last June, and have 
continued to flower during the remainder of the summer. The drawing was taken 
from a well-flowered specimen obligingly furnished to us by those gentlemen in 
August. 
It bears considerable resemblance to T. Moritzianum, both in habit, foliage. 
