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IPOMCEA TYRIANTHINA. 
(deep purple-flowered IPOMtEA.) * 
CLASS. ORDER. 
PENTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
CONVOLVULACE^. 
Generic Character. — Calyx of five sepals. Corolla campanulate. Stamens inclosed. Style one. 
Stigma two-lobed ; lobes capitate. Ovary two-celled; cells two-seeded. Capsule two-celled; 
cells two-seeded. 
Specific Character. — Plant suffruticose. Root tuberous. Stem twiniug, mostly herbaceous, but 
inclining to be shrubby at the base, having small wart-like tubercles on its surface. Leaves entire, 
nearly round, cordate, acuminate, slightly villous, especially on the veins, and round the margins. 
Peduncles many-flowered, longer than the leaf-stalks. Corolla funnel-shaped, deep purple. 
So superior is this splendid plant to most of its allies, that Dr. Lindley, who 
had ample means for observing it, says, in the miscellaneous matter of the Botanical 
Register for 1838, that "neither I. ruhro-ccEvulea nor /. Horsfalliw, nor any other 
of the noble species which have found their way to Europe of late years, excel it in 
the richness of its colour, which is of a peculiar tint, resembling nothing so much as 
the deepest purple ever seen in the finest varieties of Petmiia violacea" 
More recent investigation enables us to state that the above description is not 
too highly coloured, and that the species deserves to be ranked with the almost 
inimitable /. Learii, as well for the profusion as for the brilliant hue of its blossoms; 
which, were they equal in size, might perhaps surpass even those of that most 
valuable climber. 
For its first introduction to Britain, Dr. Lindley, in the work before cited, 
mentions that our cultivators are indebted to George Frederick Dickson, Esq., 
by whom the seeds were received from Mexico, and given to the Horticultural 
Society ; in whose garden it shortly afterwards flowered. But the specimen from 
which our drawing was executed was imported by Mr. John Henchman, nursery- 
man, of Edmonton, among some Cacti, in June 1840. Mr. Henchman having 
obligingly favoured us with its history and culture, we shall here detail them. 
VOL. VIII. NO. LXXXVIII. L 
