149 
CHELONE OB LI QUA. 
(OBLIQUE-LEAVED CHELONE.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
DIDYNAMTA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
natural order. 
SCROPHULARIACEjE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx five-parted, tribracteate. Corolla ringent, ventricose : upper lip emarginate, 
lower one trifid, sterile. Stamens didynamous, with a sterile filament, which is shorter than the 
rest; anthers woolly. Capsule two-celled, two-valved. Seeds surrounded by a membranous 
margin. Don's Gard. and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant perennial, herbaceous. Stems jointed, hollow, about two feet high, with 
distant leaves, and occasionally branching from the axils of the upper ones. Leaves opposite, decus- 
sated, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, rather oblique, strongly nerved, with numerous serratures, and 
having small hairs at the nerves and teeth. Spikes terminal, dense. Bracts in threes, ovate, 
pointed, middle one the largest. Calyx five-parted, with oval, pointed segments. Corolla half- 
ringent, reddish -purple ; tube short, narrow; throat spacious; limb contracted; upper lip obtuse, 
emarginate ; lower one curved downwards, trifid, bearded within. Fertile filaments four, white, 
hairy : the fifth red. Style the length of the stamens ; stigma obtuse. Capsule nearly globular, 
smooth. Seeds numerous, imbricated downwards. 
Synonymes. — Chelone purpurea. Digitalis mariana. 
Had our Magazine been influential solely in bringing old and valuable plants 
into fresh repute, and imparting a stimulus to their cultivation, we should have 
great reason to be satisfied with our exertions, and to continue them with the same 
spirit. None of our contemporaries, that we are aware, admit figures of species 
that have been long known in Britain, and cast aside simply for that reason ; their 
purpose being rather to give new botanical information than to attempt to induce 
floral taste, or to lead cultivators to select worthy objects for the exercise of their 
skill. The two latter ends are decidedly those which we always keep in view, and 
consequently, novelty in a subject is never, unless accompanied with more durable 
characteristics, sufficient to gain its admission to our pages ; while many of those 
plants which the fastidious hunters after variety would only despise, are frequently 
both recorded and faithfully figured. 
It is alone for its very ornamental character, and not because it is either of 
recent introduction or exceedingly scarce, that we have here supplied a plate of 
