27 
HARDENBERGIA COMPTONIANA. 
(lady Northampton's hardenbergia.) 
CLASS. 
DIADELPHIA. 
ORDER. 
DECANDRIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
LEGUMINOSiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx campanulate, shortly five-toothed, usually two-lipped. Standard of the 
corolla roundish, nearly entire, narrow at the base, without appendages, scarcely clawed, longer than 
the wings. Wings obliquely oblong-obovate. Keel adhering to the wings below the middle, and 
somewhat shorter, incurved, obtuse. Stamens distinctly diadelphous. Filaments clearly inarticu- 
lated to the base of the standard. Ovary composed of many ovules. Style short, ascending, awl- 
shaped. Stigma capitate, slightly lined. Legume linear, compressed. Seeds strophiolate. 
Specific Character. — Plant a climbing evergreen shrub. Stems branched ; branches round, slightly 
four-cornered. Leaves ternate, petiolate, distant ; leaflets oblong-ovate, rounded at the end, mucronate, 
nettedly veined, very long, middle one a little the largest. Stipules minute, reddish. Racemes 
axillary, many-flowered. Flowers in alternate pairs. Standard bluish purple, with a white fringed 
spot in the middle. Wings and keel of a similar colour. 
Synonymes. — Kennedy a Comptoniana. Glycine Comptoniana. 
• 
W hen this charming climbing plant was first made known in British botanical 
works, it received, provisionally, the name of Glycine Comptoniana ; not that it 
was thought to bear a sufficient relation to that genus to establish it as an un- 
questionable species, but because its affinity to Glycine was considered greater than 
to any other genus that had then been defined. 
In the nurseries and gardens of this country, however, it for a long time bore 
the title of Kennedya Comptoniana ; and, indeed, it is still known by that appella- 
tion in many establishments. From Kennedya it was always deemed distinct by 
Mr. Brown, and it has at length been ranked with one or two other supposed 
Kennedyas and some new species, as a separate genus, under the designation of 
Hardenbergia. 
From its habit, and inflorescence, and the treatment it demands, it may yet be 
popularly classed with Kennedya for the purposes of cultivation. In common with 
the delightful species of that group, it is an elegant climber, of a not very rambling 
