IONOPSID'IUM ACAU'LE. 
STEMLESS VIOLET CRESS. 
Class. 
TETRADYNAMIA. 
Order. 
SIHCULOSA 
Natural Order. 
BRASSICACE.E. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Cultivated 
Portugal. 
4 inches. 
July. 
Annual. 
in 1845. 
No. 1150. 
This generic name has been derived from the 
Greek ion, a violet; and opsis likeness. It is not 
so happy an allusion to the character of the plant 
as we sometimes find invented. 
With adrawing of this plant we were favoured from 
the Birmingham Horticultural Society’s Garden, 
and we are assured that notwithstanding its anom- 
alous appearance with a stem, it is really the iden- 
tical plant received from Portugal, under the name 
acaulis. The habit of plants, we w T ell know, is 
greatly influenced by cultivation, and even in the 
wild state, their forms are subject to changes ; even 
the common Primrose is not always stemless. Im- 
mutability belongs to nothing on earth. 
In the Botanical Register we are told that this 
plant was received by the London Horticultural 
Society, from the garden of the Due de Palmella, 
near Lisbon, in 1845. It is found wild on the 
Basaltic Hills, near Lisbon, and occasionally on 
the limestone formation of Estremadura. 
For rockwork this small plant is very suitable; 
it prefers a shady situation ; otherwise it requires 
no peculiar attention. 
