7 
PHILIBERTIA GRANDIFLORA. 
(large- FLOWERED PHILIBERTIA.) 
CLASS. ORDER, 
PENTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
ASCLEPIADACE^. 
Generic Character. — Calyx five-parted. Corolla urceolately -wlieel-shaped, unequally seven-lobed ; 
lobes acute, toothed between ; tube short, with a protuberant, fleshy centre, and usually a circular, 
undulated margin, adnate to the base of the gynostemiuin. Crown of stamens simple, of five leafits ; 
leafits inserted on the summit of the gynostemium. Anthers disposed in a terminal membrane. 
Pollen-masses cylindrically club-shaped, usually adhering by the top. Stigma beaked at the 
summit, with two pointlets. Twining shrubs, with opposite leaves, which are cordate at the base, 
and the umbels appearing from between the leaf-stalks. 
Specific Character. — Plant clothed with downy pubescence on all its parts. Corolla rotately cam- 
panulate. Crown of stamens leafy, roundly gibbose, beaked, depressed at the top. Stigma bifid. 
Few plants better exhibit the interesting habit of cHmbing shrubs than the 
Species of Philihertia. Their slender, flexible stems seem so admirably befitted for 
clasping the stronger and more arborescent forms of vegetation, that their natural 
character cannot possibly be mistaken. The very remarkable prodigality of their 
blossoms, is another quality which invests them with interest ; some idea of which 
may be formed when we state, that from the axil of every leaf a cluster of flowers 
similar to those exhibited in our drawing of the present species is produced, and 
that thus more than a hundred of them are frequently expanded at one and the 
same time. 
The species here noticed was primarily obtained from seeds sent to the Glasgow 
Botanic Garden, and to the Glasnevin Garden, Dublin, by Mr. Tweedie of Buenos 
Ayres. It flowered in these gardens in the summer of 1837, and has subsequently 
appeared in several of the principal nurseries of this country. It was discovered 
in Tucuman, an extensive and luxuriant district of South America ; from whence 
many other beautiful plants have likewise been received, which now adorn the 
plant-houses of Britain. 
Kept in a stove, P. grandiflora grows with great rapidity, and flowers freely ; 
but, from what we have seen of its nature, it appears to succeed best in a confined 
and somewhat shaded greenhouse, that is, one which has a western or north- 
western aspect, and to which the external air is cautiously and sparingly admitted, 
A Camellia-housej conducted upon the most approved principles, would be a very 
