2i9 
GLOXINIA MAXIMA. 
(largest-flowered gloxinia.) 
class. order. 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
NATURAL ORDER, 
GESNERIACE^. 
Generic Character. — Calyx superior, five-leaved. Corolla campanulatc ; limb oblique. Filaments 
with their rudiments inserted in the tube of the corolla. Capsule one-celled. Receptacle with 
two lobes. 
Specific Character. — He7'b stemless, deciduous. Leaves radical, ovately oblong, slightly serrated, 
bluutish, thickly clothed with short white haiis. Calyx green, consisting of five sepals; lobes 
expansive, oblong, blunt. Corolla large, bluish-white ; throat bright azure colour, hairy internally. 
Considering the imboimded extent to vv'liicli the cross-fertilization of many 
kinds of plants is capable of being carried, and that some of the most shoAvy orna- 
ments of our gardens and plant-houses have been obtained in this manner, it is 
surprising that the practice is not more generally adopted by cultivators than it 
has hitherto been. The very trifling trouble it occasions, and the more than 
adequate compensation it occasionally affords, in the gratification of having been 
the means of imparting an additional charm to the study of floriculture, by raising 
a new and beautiful variety, or even a species of any kind of plant, would appear 
sufficient to incite greater attention to the practice, and make every cultivator 
emulous of attaining some distinction in so interesting and commendable a 
pursuit. 
As an illustration of the advantages which ma,y be expected to result from such 
a process, we have to introduce a new species of Gloxinia, which has been raised in 
the Epsom nursery from impregnation between a purple species and a white one, 
G. speciosa and G. Candida ; but, though the colour of its flowers participates in 
some slight and modified degree of that of both its parents, it is evidently suf- 
ficiently distinct from all other known species to warrant the application of a 
specific name expressive of the large size of its flowers. 
