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CLITORIA TERNATEA. 
(ternatea.) 
class. order. 
DIADELPHIA. DECANDRIA. J 
NATURAL ORDER. 
LEGUMINOSiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx furnished with two large bracts at the base, five-cleft. Veocillum 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 substance. Don's Gard. 
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 ovate mucronulate leaflets, and a terminal odd 
one, nearly smooth, but sometimes having a few minute hairs. Stipules very small, awl-shaped. 
Bracts large, roundish. Calyx tubular, with five lanceolate segments, remaining in a dry state 
around the base of the seed-pod. Flowers of a considerable size, bright blue. Legumes long, 
slightly downy. 
Synonymes Clitoria spectabilis. Ijathyrus spectabilis. Ternatea vulgaris. 
This handsome plant was first brought beneath the notice of botanists and 
floriculturists as long ago as the year 1739. From that period down to the present, 
it has been erroneously considered by many as an annual species, and slighted 
accordingly. Such an opinion probably had its rise in the mode of culture which 
has occasionally been pursued. Instead of treating it as a stove plant, it was, 
from the facility with which it ripens seeds, raised anew each spring as a half-hardy 
annual, and transferred to the open flower-border ; where, being unprotected on the 
approach of winter, it was destroyed by cold. 
From circumstances similar to the above, this plant has not been an isolated 
example of false notions being imbibed respecting its habits. Notwithstanding the 
evident bent of cultivators rather to supply a plant with too high a temperature 
than to suffer it to be too much exposed, here is an instance, out of several others 
that we might mention, in which a contrary method has been practised. When, 
on the other hand, it is retained in a stove, to which a moderate amount of heat is 
furnished, it assumes quite another appearance. The stems, instead of perishing- 
yearly, become shrubby at the base, the lower leaves remain through the winter 
without withering, and it is the upper branches alone that exhibit any signs of 
decay. Its natural habit is, therefore, decidedly suffruticose, and that to which it 
has been reduced in our gardens is simply a constrained one. 
