11)9 
PETREA STAPELSI^. 
(STAPELIA-FLOWER PETREA.) 
CLASS. ORDER, 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
VERBENACE^. 
Generic Character Calyx five-parted, large, and coloured. Corolla rotate (limb flat and tube short). 
Capsule two-celled, two-seeded in the bottom of the calyx. Seeds solitary. 
Specific Character A twining stove shrub. Stem brown, rough. Leaves oblong, rather acute, veins 
on the under surface, especially the principal, very prominent, rough on both sides, and of a yellowish 
green colour. Calyx five-parted, each part twice the length of the segments of the corolla, and pret- 
tily marked, pale blue. Corolla rotate, divided into five parts, pale purple. A pretty yellow eye is 
formed round the orifice of the tube, at the base of each division of the corolla, which is very striking. 
We are not aware that this species of Petrea has been before noticed in any- 
botanical publication whatever, although plants have long existed in our collections 
under the specific name here adopted. The plant from which our drawing was 
made, was originally bought at Colville's under this name, by the Messrs. Loddiges, 
in whose stove at Hackney it flowered in the manner here represented, about June 
last. We cannot learn through whom it came to this country, or where it came 
from. It has indeed very much the habit of P, volubilis, but is decidedly distinct 
from that species, not only in the colour of the flowers, but more particularly in the 
parts of the corolla, which are something longer, much narrower, and altogether 
different in appearance ; besides, the eye is yellow, while that of the former is repre- 
sented very nearly white. Two varieties are spoken of in the Bot. Mag. page 628, 
one with white, the other with violet-coloured corollas; neither of these can refer 
to the plant now before us, as nothing can be more clear than that it is a distinct 
species. 
When trained to the back wall of a stove, trellis, or up a rafter, it is very 
ornamental, even though not in flower ; but in a state of flowering, although the 
corolla is rather fugitive, it is, in consequence of the less fugacious nature of the 
calyx and the pendent habit of the racemes from the extremities of the branches, 
very graceful and beautiful for a long time. 
