CLITORIA 
TERNATEA MAJOR. 
Class. 
DIADELPHIA. 
(Greater Clitoria.) 
Natural Order. 
LEGUMINOS^E. 
Order. 
DECANDRIA, 
Generic Character.— Calyx furnished with two 
arge bracts at the base, five-cleft. Vexillum large. 
Stamens diadelphous, inserted along with the petals 
above the base of the calyx. Style rather dilated at 
the apex. Legume linear, compressed, straight, two- 
valved, acuminated by the base of the style, one-celled, 
many-seeded. Seeds usually separated by cellular sub- 
stance.— .Don’s Gardening and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant sub-shrubby, evergreen. 
Stems twining, pubescent, branching at the axil of 
each leaf. Leaves with from two to four pairs of ovat© 
mucronate leaflets, and a terminal odd one, nearly 
smooth, but sometimes having a few minute hairs. 
Stipules very small, awl-shaped. Bracts large, round- 
ish. Calyx tubular, with five lanceolate segments, re- 
maining in a dry state around the base of the seed-pod. 
Flowers of a considerable size, bright-blue. Legumes 
long, slightly downy. 
Var. Major.— A plant raised from seeds, received 
from New South Wales, having large deep blue flowers. 
Few gardens, we imagine, in which plants receive the commonest share of 
attention, will not at some period have possessed the singular and beautiful Clitoria 
ternatea , which is a native of India, and is figured in vol. vii. of this work. Our 
present subject is from Sydney, New South Wales, whence seeds of it were received 
by the lady of B. Harrison, Esq., a gentleman, neighbour to J. Cook, Esq., of Brook- 
lands, Blackheath, Kent, and to whose successful gardener, Mr. W. P. Ayres, they 
were presented ; and being raised, and flowering, proved to be a distinct and very 
superior variety, well deserving to be distinguished by the name now given it. 
“ The flowers,” states Mr. Ayres, in a communication he has favoured us with 
respecting the plant, “ are both larger and deeper in colour than C. ternatea , 
while the leaflets are more obtuse at the points, and are singularly marbled with 
yellowish-green, on a dark-green ground colour ; it also flowers much more freely 
than any of the varieties of C. ternatea which I have cultivated. It will doubtless 
prove a very easily cultivated stove, or warm greenhouse climber, requiring to be 
sown in the early part of March in a brisk moist heat of 66° or 70°, and grown 
freely at about the same temperature. It requires plenty of moisture in the growing 
season, both at the roots and over the foliage, as it is subject to the attack of Red 
Spider. 
“ The Clitorias do not root freely from cuttings, but as they produce abundance 
of seed I do not take the trouble of keeping the old plants over the winter ” 
