8 
OF THE GENUS THUNBERGIA. 
When the Encyclopcedia of Plants was published in 1829, two species only 
were in its catalogue, viz : — 
Thunbergia fragrans, with sweet-scented white flowers; native of the East Indies; introduced 
in 1796, and figured in the Bot, Mug. iilate 1881 ; a climber, four feet high, with 
heart-shaped, pointed leaves. 
. gran diflora, great blue-flowering Th.; from the East Indies in 1820; a very fine 
high climber, somewhat shy of flower. BoU Mag. No. 2366. 
Subsequently the folloiving have been added to the List. 
Thunbergia cordata, heart-leaved ; from Trinidad in 1820 ; flowers white. 
— — - Capensis, Cape Thunbergia ; the only green-house species; yellow flowers, in 
May and to September. 
alata, winged-leaved Th. ; from East Indies in 1823 ; Bot. Cab. 1045. See also 
Mag. of Botany^ Vol. II. page 2. 
angulata, angular; from Madagascar; yellow. Bot, Cab. 1044. 
coccinea, scarlet; dingy red flowers in September ; from Nepal in 1823. 
Hawtayneana ; idem 1826; red. 
Among these the choice will fall upon fragrans, g-randiflordi and alata; but 
the two first are seldom seen. The last is a general fayourite, and is easily raised 
and cultivated, one objection, and one only, seriously attaching to it, this is found 
in its great liability to be permanently afl'ected with red spider {acarus). We 
know of no remedy for this pest, unless it be in plunging and immersing an entire 
plant in a vessel of water for many hours. Sulphur and sulphur washes are proved 
to be ineffectual, though hot-water syringed repeatedly upon the leaves, may do 
some good. 
Thunbergia alata is propagated by seeds and cuttings, also by layers at a joint 
if required ; the first method is superior, but few persons can procure them. With 
the best treatment, and in the most favourable situations, the plants appear to pro- 
duce no seeds till the summer be nearly over ; l^ut, about the middle of August, and 
thence through September, many capsules form ; and these ripen in October. The 
seed-vessels are almost globular, with a marked and strongly developed beak : the 
calyx is fixed closed under the bottom of the capsule, and is hidden by the t?ien 
permanent, two-leaved involucrum. The seeds are very curious, they are punctured 
or reticulated over the surface, and of a hemispherical figure, not very unlike the 
half of an orange. They are brown when ripe, and ought to be retained in the capsule 
till the end of January, when they may be sown in a pot of earth, composed of 
equal parts of soft loam from decayed couch-grass, black leaf-mould, and pure pit 
sand. The soil should be rendered moderately moist, and be pressed pretty firm 
into the pot over a drainage of half an inch of dry moss. Having laid the seeds 
evenly on the surface, an inch or more apart, cover them with the soil to the depth 
of one-third, or half an inch ; then either plunge the pot in a leaf-bed of the stove 
or pine-pit, or place it in a feeder pan filled with wetted moss, standing on a shelf 
not far remote from the flue ; keep the moss moist, and do not suflfer the soil to 
become dry. Our seeds were sown last January (12th); and the seed-lobes appeared 
bearing the testa or covering integument on them by the 16th of February. They 
i 
