TACSONIA MOLLISSIMA 
(Very soft Tacsonia.) 
Class. Order. 
MONADELPIIIA. PENTANDRI A. 
Natural Order. 
PASSIFLORACEAE. 
Generic Character. — Tube of calyx long, with a 
ten-cleft limb, the five inner lobes probably petals ; 
throat furnished with a scaly membrane.— Ron’s Gar- 
dening and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant climbing. Branches 
rounded. Leaves deeply three-parted ; segments ovate- 
lanceolate, serrated, downy above, almost tomentose 
beneath, with strong reticulate veins. Tendrils simple. 
Stipules rather small, semi-ovate, toothed, acuminate 
Peduncles solitary, single- flowered, much shorter than 
the tube of the flower. Involucre three-cleft. Calyx- 
tube very long, stout, cylindrical, green, glabrous, the 
mouth glandular at the margin; segments five, oblong, 
obtuse, mucronate. Petals five, oblong-obtuse, rose- 
coloured. Column as long as the tube. — Bot. Mag. 
Synonyme. — Murucuja mollissima. 
The species we now write of has been very recently introduced to the country 
by Mr. W. Lobb, and Mr. Hartweg. The former sent it to Messrs. Veitch, of Exeter, 
gathered in woods near to Quito ; and the latter to the Horticultural Society, 
seeds, obtained in the gardens of the same place. From the last-mentioned source, 
a plant in the possession of Messrs. Mountjoy of the Ealing Nursery, — which was 
exhibited at a meeting of the Horticultural Society, in their rooms, Regent Street, 
— by the permission of those gentlemen, furnished the subject of our drawing. 
Humboldt discovered it at Santa Fe de Bogota ; and in the mountains of New 
Grenada it is found at an elevation of nine or ten thousand feet above the sea. It 
is remarkable for the great length of the tube of its flowers, their fine rich pink 
colour, and beautiful velvety green foliage. 
Dr. Findley, writing in the February number of the “Botanical Register,” states : 
— “ It is called soft-leaved, because its foliage is clothed with a fine soft down, which 
is sensible to the touch, though not visible to the naked eye. The most singular 
part of its structure is the row of green glands or warts which stud the purple petiole, 
and which furnish one of the best means of recognising the species. Botanists be- 
lieve these processes to be organs of secretion, and perhaps they are so ; but why 
this soft-leaved Tacsonia should require a dozen for each leaf, when another species 
very nearly allied to it, has none, is what physiologists fail to explain.” 
T. mollissima , in its main features, greatly resembles T pinnatistipula ; in some 
respects it is superior, is equally hardy, and possesses as great capabilities of 
VOL. XIII.— NO. CXLVI. E 
