TROPilOLUM AZUREUM. 
(Blue-flowered Indian Cress. I 
Class. 
OCTANDRIA. 
Ofder. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
TROPiEOLACE^. 
Generic Character.— CaZ?/*- five-parted ; upper lobe 
furnished with a spur. Petals five, unequal; three 
lower ones smallest, or vanished altogether. Stamens 
eight, free from the base. Carpels three, somewhat 
erose, kidney-shaped, indehiscent, furrowed, roundish. 
Seed large, filling the cell.— Don's Gard. and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant an herbaceous perennial. 
Root tuberous. Stems slender, climbing, spotted. Leaves 
five-parted, segments equal, linear-lanceolate, obtuse or 
slightly acute, smooth, pale beneath Calyx with a 
short spur; segments nearly ovate, acute, subequal. 
Petals five, obovate, violet-blue, white at the base, 
almost equal, deeply indented in the centre at the 
margin. 
For a long time past there has been a considerable eagerness manifested in the 
floricultural world to possess a blue-flowered Tropmolum^ which had been described 
by travellers, but of which many even questioned the existence. Expectations 
were repeatedly raised by individuals who imagined they had received it ; but 
these were as frequently foiled ; and it was, at length, with some surprise that an 
authentic flowering specimen was regarded in the present autumn. 
Messrs. Veitch and Son, of Mount Radford Nursery, near Exeter, have the 
credit of introducing this most delightful novelty. It was gathered by 
Mr. William Lobb, a collector in the employ of these gentlemen, at a place 
called Cuesta Dormeda, about sixteen leagues from Valparaiso. It appears to 
have been found by him in the beginning of February, and arrived at Exeter in 
June last, opening its flowers in the end of September. Specimens at Mr. Low's, 
Clapton, and Messrs. RoUisson s, Tooting, are yet beautifully in blossom. 
In its habit, it is very slender, not much unlike T. hrachyceras, and appears 
easily known by its leaves. These are small, and almost equally separated into 
five segments, which are extremely narrow, inclining to a linear form, with a trifling 
tendency to become lanceolate, and of a markedly pale green tint. The stems are, 
in addition, a little spotted. The flowers are altogether peculiar in form as well as 
colour. Their five petals scarcely difi'er in size, radiating almost as regularly from 
the centre as those of a common Primrose, and precisely similar in their exterior 
shape. They are, originally, of a deep violet hue, passing to whitish in the middle, 
