TETRATHECA VERTICILLATA. 
(Verticillate Tetratlieca.) 
Class. Order. 
OCTANDRIA. DIGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
TREMANDRACEiE. 
Generic Character. — See page 53. I peduncles hairy. Calyx divided ; segments linear- 
Specific Character. — Plant a slender-branched lanceolate. Corolla polypetalous ; petals cordate-ovate, 
evergreen shrub ; branches pubescent. Lea ves linear, light purple or violet, reddish-crimson at their base. 
in whorls, acute, hairy. Flowers axillary, peduncled ; | 
We have seldom had the satisfaction of publishing a more charming greenhouse 
plant ; the prevailing colour of its flowers is of so delightful a description, and they 
are so freely produced in spring and early summer, its branches slender, and the 
habit of the plant elegant and quite in accordance, renders it particularly desirable. 
For our figure we are under obligation to the kindness of Mr. Low, of Upper Clapton ; 
it represents the plant rather more attenuate in growth than it naturally is, scarcely 
in full conveys an idea of how abundantly it blossoms, and does not exactly show the 
real colour of the flowers ; all in consequence of the plant from which it was taken 
having been accidentally grown and flowered in too warm a temperature. 
Of the history of the species we have not much intelligence ; it is new, in a flow- 
ering state, at least, to our collections this season. The plant previously spoken of 
was raised from seeds collected at the Swan Biver by Drummond, in Mr. Low's 
nursery, and flowered there in February, bearing the name of Tetratheca speciosa. 
Other establishments have bloomed the plant under the name of Tremandra 
verticillata, a title that has, we imagine, come with it from the collection of Baron 
Hugel, of Vienna. That it is a Tetratheca there can be no question, but as far as 
we are able to learn, it is an unfigured and an undescribed one. Of the origin of 
the specific appellation we are also ignorant, but nevertheless give the name it now 
universally and appropriately bears. A pleasing property distinguishing it from T. 
hirsuta, is, that its flowers remain expanded after once opening, and not like those 
of that species, close in the absence of sunshine. 
The stream of floral attention, so to speak, has of late years, and is strongly at 
present diverted from the class of plants of which this is an individual, by the splen- 
dour of the Orchid family, and the more gorgeous, more easily managed inmates of 
