14S 
CLITORIA TERNATEA. 
We do not intend by this to reprehend the particular management specified. 
For, although we have not yet seen it in operation, — perhaps because the plant is 
far from being generally grown, — it is very likely a judicious plan of procedure, 
and may elicit more of the true beauty of the species, as well as occasion much less 
trouble and expense, than a more genial system. We merely desire to correct the 
prevailing belief that it is either annual or herbaceous, unless rendered so by 
circumstances. 
Miller, the celebrated author of some of our first works on gardening, states that 
the seeds were primarily introduced to Europe from Ternate, one of the Molucca 
Islands ; from which cause, it was originally established as a genus by Tournefort, 
under the name of Ternatea. Linnasus, however, thought it requisite to alter this, 
and apply the generic title it now bears. Miller again observes, that there are 
double-flowered varieties of C. Ternatea, some with blue, and others with white 
blossoms, which will not ripen seeds with us, and these must consequently be 
imported from the East Indies. He adds, that seeds which he received in three 
different years invariably produced plants which bore double blossoms ; and, as 
registered in the Botanical Magazine, " the same happened to Commelin in two 
succeeding seasons, which is difficult to account for, if they are only accidental 
varieties of the single-flowered kind. The leaves of the double sort, as figured in 
the Hortus Amstelodamensis, are sharp-pointed, so that, perhaps, what we have 
followed others in recording as only varieties, may be two distinct species." 
Our subject is, without question, the single-flowering kind ; and we have not 
observed it to vary. Specimens of it were transported from the East Indies to 
Chatsworth, by Mr. J. Gibson. From one of these, which was sent to His Grace 
the Duke of Devonshire's gardens at Chiswick, the drawing now submitted was 
executed. It is managed by Mr. Edmonds as a climbing stove plant, covering a 
trellis from five to six feet high, and blowing at various times during the summer. 
Not more than three or four flowers are expanded at once, and it is apt to become 
shabby if not freely watered and syringed. A mixture of loam, heath-soil, and 
sand, the former in the greatest proportion, is used in potting it, and it is kept 
continually in the stove. 
As cuttings do not root very speedily, and seeds are abundantly perfected, it is 
better to multiply it by the latter, sowing them in any light soil in the spring, and 
placing them in a moist temperature. 
Clitoria is derived from clitoris, an anatomical term, a resemblance to the subject 
of which has been fancied to exist in the flower. The application of the specific 
name has already been explained. 
