HELIOTROPIUM PERUVIANUM VOLT AIRE ANUM. 
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The seeds, however, which are the ox-eye beans of our Colonies, are cooked and 
esteemed as good as kidney-beans. 
Only a few species of Mucuna are deserving of cultivation, where only a selection of 
plants is grown ; amongst these M. macrocarpa must take the precedence. It will grow 
in any light rich soil, and must have plenty of pot-room, a good supply of water at the 
roots, and sufficient Space for its tops to spread. Propagation is effected by cuttings 
planted in sand, and placed under a glass in heat. It is a hardy stove plant, and will no 
doubt thrive in a warm greenhouse. 
The generic name is derived from Mucuna-guaca , the Brazilian name of Mucuna 
urens. 
HELIOTROPIUM PERUVIANUM VOLTAIRE ANUM. ( M. Voltaire’s Turnsole.) 
Class, Pentandria. Order, Monogynia.- Nat. Order , Ehiietjace.® (Ehretiads, Veg. King.) 
Generic Character. — Corolla salver-shaped ; throat 
usually naked, but in some bearded ; segments of the limb 
furnished with a simple plicature, or a tooth between each. 
Stigma sub-conical. Carpels four, one-celled, combined, 
closed at the base, without any manifest receptacle. 
Heliotropium Volta ireanum. — A garden hybrid, with 
the habit and appearance of H. Peruvianum. — Plant 
shrubby. Leaves petiolate, oblong-lanceolate, wrinkled, 
repand, clothed with soft hairs above, and somewhat 
canescent beneath. Flower-spikes terminal , branching into 
three or four, rarely compound. Flowers sweet-scented, 
smelling like Vanilla. Corolla intersected by five plicatures 
of a deep purple-blue colour, with a greenish-throat, rather 
larger than that of H. Peruvianum. 
Authorities and Synonymbs. — Heliotropium, Tournef 
Inst. ; Lin. Gen. Heliotropium Voltaireanum, Continental 
and British Nurseries. 
Of about ninety species of Heliotropium described by Botanists, not more than twenty 
have been introduced to Britain, and of these only three are what may be termed popular 
flowers, the H , Peruvianum , H. corymbosum ( grandiflorum ) and II. europceum. Each 
possesses a grateful fragrance, not unlike that of the Vanilla, on which account chiefly, they 
have always been highly esteemed. The H. Peruvianum is a well-known greenhouse 
shrub, a native of Peru, becoming during the season of its torpidity in winter, partially 
denuded of its leaves ; hence it may be considered deciduous. It was introduced in 1757, 
and has long been extensively cultivated. H. corymbosum is also a native of Peru, but 
was not introduced until about the year 1800 ; it forms a dwarf shrub like the last, 
which it greatly resembles in habit, but its foliage is coarser, and the leaves are retained 
during the winter; hence it may be denominated an evergreen. The flowers of both the 
above are purple-lilac, and bear a considerable resemblance to each other, so much so 
that they might at first sight be easily confounded with each other, but the H. corymbosum 
is inferior in beauty to the H. Peruvianum. H. europceum is an annual, with white 
flowers, a native of various parts of the South of Europe, whence it was introduced to 
England in 1562 ; it is much less grown than either of the others. 
Our present subject is an excellent variety of H. peruvianum raised on the continent, 
and was introduced from Paris to this country a few years ago, but with whom it originated 
we are quite unable to say. It differs from the species in the size of the individual 
flowers, their deep purple colour, and their large spreading corymbs ; in other respects it 
exactly agrees. 
The cultivation is of the easiest kind ; the ordinary treatment of greenhouse plants is 
all that it requires. A light soil, composed of equal parts of light rich sandy loam and 
heath-mould, with a little sand to keep it open, form the best compost ; and young cuttings 
separated from the plants in spring as soon as they have grown a sufficient length, and 
planted in pots of soil in a gentle moist heat, will strike root with the greatest freedom. 
The name is derived from Tnelios , the sun, and trope, a turning, because the flowers 
are supposed to turn towards the sun. The genus was called Verrucaria by the Latins, 
because the juice of the leaves, mixed with salt, was supposed to be a cure for warts 
{verrucas). 
