TROP^OLUM SPECIOSUM. 
(Showy Indian Cress.) 
Class. 
OCTANDRIA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
TROPiEOLACEiE. 
Generic Character.— Calyx five-parted ; upper 
lobe spurred. Petals five, unequal ; three lower ones 
smaller, and evanescent. Stamens eight, free from 
each other at the base. Carpels 'three, sub-erose, 
kidney-shaped, indehiseent, furrowed, roundish. Seeds 
large, without albumen, attached to the cell, and con- 
forming to it in shape. Embryo large. Cotyledons 
two, straight and thick. 
Specific Character.— Plant an herbaceous perennial. 
Root a tuber. Stem slender, twining, smooth. Leaves 
on long flexuose footstalks, peltately cut into leaflets 
to the base. Leaflets five or six, ovate-lanceolate, 
cuneate, diverging pretty regularly from the centre, 
bright green, closely reticulated with purple veins. 
Peduncles axillary, long, flexuose, dull purple. Calyx 
deeply five-cleft, prolonged at the base into a broadly 
subulate spur, nearly straight, and three times the 
length of the segments of the calyx ; segments ovate- 
acute, erect. Petals five ; two upper ones narrow, 
sessile, fixed in the mouth of the spur ; three lower 
ones on long claws, broad, all the most vivid crimson. 
This very beautiful species of Tropceolum is another of the valuable introduc- 
tions of Messrs. Veitch aud Son of Exeter. It was discovered by their collector, 
Mr. William Lobb, in Patagonia, south of the island of Chiloe, who sent home 
living plants of it in a glass case. It was found growing in elevated situations very 
near the line of snow, so that there is little doubt but it will prove hardy. Messrs. 
Veitch had two plants turned out under a wall last September, both of which 
survived the last severe and protracted winter without shelter. 
It is now blooming in the nursery of those gentlemen, in the open air, and has 
continued doing so for the last three months. 
In habit, foliage, and seeds, it resembles the T. pentaphyllum, to which section 
it belongs ; but in point of beauty it is superior, perhaps, to any species previously 
introduced. The flowers are about an inch-and-a-half in diameter, the same size as 
those of T. Lobbianum (figured vol. xi., t. 271), and of the same brilliant crimson- 
scarlet colour as that species ; but from its slender growth, and the smallness of its 
leaves, it has when in flower a very superior effect. 
It was exhibited at the Chiswick and Regent's Park Horticultural Exhibitions, 
and met with universal admiration ; indeed it is one of those plants which are 
indispensable in a choice collection ; no person ought to be without it. It is alone in 
the possession of Messrs. Veitch and Son, who kindly furnished us with the above 
particulars, and allowed us to make a drawing of the plant 
