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TROP^OLUM TRICOLOIIUM. 
(three-coloured INDIAN CRESS.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
OCTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
TROP^OLE^. 
(teneric Character. — Ca/^<r five-parted, spurred at the base. Corolla five petals. Germen smooth 
three-lobed. 
Specific Character Root perennial. Stem, climbing, slender, much branched, branches usually- 
entangled, of a greenish purple. Leaves alternate, six-lobed, pale green, soft and slightly downy. 
Leaf-stalk from half an inch to an inch long, and slender like the branches. Flower- stalks from 
an inch and a half to two inches long. Calyx bright orange red, five-cleft, segments blunt. Petals 
five, bright yellow, inserted on the calyx, just below the incisions of the segments, spatulate. 
Stamens eight. Style shorter than the stamens. Germen three-lobed. 
This elegant plant is a native of Valparaiso ; from whence it was introduced 
in 1828. The striking distinction and unrivalled brilliancy in the colours of the 
flowers, render this one of the most desirable climbing plants in this country. It 
will grow twelve or fourteen feet high, if trained up a trellis, for which it is well 
adapted ; but, from its slender habit of growth, it is scarcely calculated for training 
to hide any unsightly object. The plant, from which our drawing was taken, was 
a perfect picture of flowers. 
It requires to be planted or potted in peat and loam ; and, although it will grow 
in a warm situation out of doors, yet its delicate growth renders it more properly 
an inmate of the greenhouse, where it will continue to flower all the summer. It 
is easily propagated by cuttings, planted in sand under a bell-glass, and plunged in 
a little heat. 
The generic name is derived from the Greek word, Tropceum, a warlike 
trophy ; and the specific name from the three colours of the flowers. 
For the figure of this fine plant we are indebted to the kindness of Mr. 
Scirving, Liverpool. 
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