DIELYTRA SPECTABILIS. 
(UemaTkable Dielytra.) 
Class. 
DIADELPHIA. 
Natural Order. 
FUMARIACEiE. 
CFume-Worts, Veg, King.) 
Order. 
HEXANDRIA. 
Generic Character. — Petals four, the two exterior 
ones equally spurred or gibbous at the base. Stamens 
six, altogether free, or approximating into two bundles, 
or joined at the top, and free at the base. Capsules 
two-valved, many-seeded. 
Specific Character. — Plant an herbaceous perennial. 
Stems growing from a foot to a foot and a half high, 
leafy. Leaves palmately trifid ; segments obovate- 
cuneate, cut. Pedicels moderately long, fleshy, tinged 
with purple. Racemes axillary, four to six inches 
long, each containing about twenty flowers. Petals 
four ; two outer ones crimson purple ; each with a very 
blunt, ventricose, short, sheath-like spur at the base ; 
two inner ones narrower and projecting far beyond the 
revolute points of the outer ones ; white with a purple 
tip. 
Authorities and Synonymes. — Dielytra spectabilis, 
De Cand. Prod., i, 126 ; Fumaria spectabilis, Linti. 
Amcenitates ,\iiA57 , t. 7 ; Capnorchis spectabilis, Rorcft. 
in Rom. Arch., i. 2,46; Corydalis spectabilis, Pers. 
Our drawing of this very desirable herbaceous plant was made from a specimen 
which flowered in the nursery of Messrs. Knight and Perry, King’s Koad, Chelsea, 
in February last. It was first introduced from the north of China to the London 
Horticultural Society, by Mr. Fortune, in 1846, who found it growing in the 
gardens of the Mandarins, and by them highly esteemed. It fully bears out the 
character given of it in the “ Journal of the Horticultural Society,” where it is stated 
to be “ beyond all comparison the handsomest of the natural order of Fumeworts.” 
“ It was first made known to Europeans by the Husso-Siberian, De Karamyschew, 
who, studying at Upsal, communicated it to Linnaeus. It does not, however, appear 
to have been seen alive until Mr. Fortune found it cultivated by the Chinese, and 
brought it home with him.” 
“It is one of those plants of which the Chinese Mandarins in the north of 
China are so fond, and which they cultivate with so much pride in their little fairy 
gardens. Mr. Fortune found it first in the grotto garden on the Island of Chusan 
growing amongst the artificial rocks, near the beautiful Weigela rosea. Its Chinese 
name is Hong-pak Moutan Wha, or the Red and White Moutan Flower. 
“ As a pot-plant for rooms it is extremely graceful, and remains for a long time 
in flower. Its habits are the same as the well-known Dielytra (Fumaria) formosa, a 
plant common in all gardens where showy herbaceous plants are grown. The stems 
