ALONA CCELESTIS. 
(Coerulean-flowered Alona.) 
Class. 
PExNTANDRIA. 
Natural Order. 
NOLANACE^. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Character. — Corolla campanulate. Ovaria 
numerous, one to six-celled. Nuts or Drupes one to 
six celled, with fewer seeds ; opening at the base. 
Specific Character.' — Plant a somewhat succulent, 
branching, evergreen shrub. Leaves sessile, curving 
slightly upwards, almost teretiform, channelled be- 
neath, fascicled. Peduncles nearly twice the length 
of the calyx, hairy. Calyx five-cleft, segments nearly 
equal, and terete at the point. Corolla with pilose 
plaits. Nuts sometimes many-celled. 
Repeated attempts have been made to introduce some of the fine shrubby 
plants — till very recently referred to the genus Nolana — which have been known 
to exist on the shores of the Pacific about Coquimbo and Valparaiso ; all these, 
however, failed in their object, till in the spring of 1843, Mr. Best, gardener to 
Alexander Park, Esq., of Merton Grove, Surrey, (now of the Abbey Nursery, 
Reading, Berks,) having procured a packet of seeds collected by Mr. Bridges, was 
fortunate enough to rear the plant from wliich we were obligingly furnished with 
the opportunity of preparing the annexed coloured figure. 
Besides the present, Dr. Bindley has enumerated in the new genus, Alona, five 
other species of a shrubby character from the same neighbourhood, together with 
two annual and one herbaceous perennial species. It is worthy of remark, that 
all the shrubby kinds grow erect and have terete leaves, whilst the remainder are 
prostrate with plain foliage. 
The habit of A. coelestis is that of a bushy evergreen shrub, emitting numerous 
lateral shoots, and capable of being kept densely compact. The flowers are large, 
and always produced near the tip of the shoots, and continue for eight or nine 
days after expanding before they begin to fade. From the numerous flower-buds 
in various stages of development which we observed on Mr. Best’s plants, it is 
evidently a free-flowering species ; and a large plant in full bloom must be a 
magnificent object. Mr. B.’s largest specimen is already about two feet high, and 
proportionately bushy, and having flowered when little more than twelve months 
from seed, favours the opinion that as it acquires age it will be as prodigal of its 
