INDIGOFERA DECOEA. 
291 
requires considerable space to run over ; but if not stopped, it flowers very freely, and 
becomes a fine object. 
The plant from which our artist prepared the plate bloomed in the greenhouse of 
Messrs. Henderson, Pine Apple Place, in August last. 
Any hght sandy well-drained soil will answer to grow it in, but it thrives best when 
planted out in a prepared border in the greenhouse or conservatory, where both its roots 
and tops can have full scope to grow. 
Cuttings strike root freely in pots of sand, placed under a glass in heat. 
The name was given by Dr. Lindley in honour of its discoverer and introducer Henry 
John H. Mandeville, Esq., Her Majesty's British Minister at Buenos Ayres, to whom this 
country is indebted for the introduction of many interesting plants. 
INDIGOFEEA DECOEA. (The comely indigo.) 
(7Zas*, DiADELPHiA Order, Decandria Nat. Order, Fabace^. (Leguminous plants, Veg. Kingd.) 
Generic Character. — Calyx &ve-c\eit ; lobes SLcnte. Vex- 
illum roundish, emarginate. Keel furnished with a subulate 
spur on both bides, at length usually bending back elas- 
tically. Stamens diadelphous. Style filiform, glabrous. 
Legume nearly terete, two-valved, many-seeded, rarely few- 
seeded or ovate, one-seeded at the base or sub-globose. Seeds 
ovate, truncate at both ends, and usually separated from 
each other by cellular substance. 
Specific Character. — Plant a shrub, smooth in every 
part of both stem and branches, and glaucous. Leaves pin- 
nated, consisting of from three to eight pairs and an odd one ; 
smooth on the upper side, but covered with fine hairs 
beneath ; leaflets ovate, of a deep bluish green when old, 
tinged with brown when young. Stipules two to every pair 
of leaflets, bristle-like. Flowers in racemes, axillary, of a 
light rose colour, tinged and spotted with purple. Calyx 
green, five-toothed, the two upper teeth far apart. Corolla 
standard oblong, rather keeled behind, pale-rose, spotted 
and pencilled near the base with delicate crimson lines ; 
wings linear-lanceolate, ciliated, bright rose colour ; keel 
pale, downy on the upper side. 
Authorities and SvNONYMES.—Indigofera decora, iindZ. 
in Bot. Reg., v. xxxiii., t. 22. 
This is a plant of first-rate interest ; it forms a very handsome, compact, and very graceful 
dwarf-growing shrub ; it also bears a profusion of bloom, which continue to be produced in 
succession for a long time ; and what renders it still more valuable is, that its flowering 
season is during the dark winter months, when blossoms much less beautiful are viewed 
with pleasure. 
The plant was orignially discovered by Mr. Fortune, in a cultivated form in the 
Nursery Gardens at Shanghai, in China, and through whom it was introduced by the 
London Horticultural Society in 1844. It has since found its way into most choice 
collections in the country, and is universally prized as a valuable acquisition. 
It forms a hardy greenhouse plant, and grows freely potted in either sandy peat, and 
with a small mixture of light loam, and strikes very freely from cuttings planted in sand, 
and placed under a glass in heat. 
Our drawing of this beautiful plant was made in September last, from one of our 
specimens then in bloom in the greenhouse at Chatsworth. 
The generic name is derived from indigo, a blue dye-stuff, a corruption of Indicum, 
Indian, and fero, to bear ; most of the species of this genus are handsome, and produce the 
well known dye called Indigo, which is especially obtained from /. tinctoria. 
