PHARBiTIS OSTRINA. 
(Royal purple Gaybine.) 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
CONVOLVULACEiE. 
Generic^Character. — Calyx of five sepals. Corolla 
campanulate, or campanulately funnel-shaped. Style 
one. Stigma capitately granulate. Ovary three or 
rarely four-celled ; cells two-seeded.— Bon's Gard. and 
Botany. 
Specific Character — Plant a climbing herbaceous 
perennial. Roots tuberous. Leaves" hastate, three- 
parted, smooth, glaucescent beneath ; lobes ovate, 
obtusely acuminate. Peduncles three, four, or more 
flowered. Calyx with smooth and very obtuse segments. 
Corolla funnel-shaped ; limb obsoletely ten-lobed ; lobes 
roundish ; deep purple- 
The genus Pharbitis is one of the many sections into which the old group 
Convolvulus has been divided ; and though these separations have tended materially 
to confuse and annoy cultivators, they are now generally adopted by botanists. It 
is the genus Ipomcea, however, which has chiefly contributed to the establishment 
of the present race ; and we may here mention that Ipomoea Learii has been 
determined a genuine Pharbitis. 
Dr. Lindley has referred the handsome plant now figured to Pharbitis, in 
consequence of its having a three-celled ovary, with two ovules in each cell ; though, 
he says, the habit is more like that of Batatas, which is another division of the 
same class. 
It was imported from Cuba, about three years ago, by Messrs. Loddiges, in 
one of whose stoves it blossomed profusely during the summer months of 1841. 
At that time our artist prepared the figures here given. Commencing to bloom 
towards the end of May, it continued in great beauty for a lengthened period ; 
indeed, till the decline of the season. 
Its character is that of a tuberous-rooted perennial, with climbing stems, 
which ramble fifteen or twenty feet each year, and decay, for the most part, every 
autumn. The leaves are very distinctly divided into three ovate-lobes, which are 
quite smooth, deep green, and almost shining on the upper surface, and pale with 
a whitish glaucous appearance beneath. The clusters of flowers spring from a 
point opposite or near the base of the leaf-stalks, and are composed of three, four, 
or an indefinite number of showy blossoms. The latter are rather small, with a 
