TKOPiEOUJM PECKEUTANUM. 
193 
TROP^EOLUM DECKERIANUM. 
Tropceolum Deckerianum, Karsten (Decker's 
Indian Cress). — Tropaeolaceae § Tropseolege. 
This very singular species of Indian cress 
has been introduced to the gardens of Berlin, 
by Dr. Karsten, and is one of the subjects 
recently published in his elegant work on the 
plants of Venezuela, met with during his 
travels. We have not seen the plant, but 
from Dr. Karsten's figure, executed in a way 
which would lead us to put faith in its details, 
it appears to be a very distinct species ; its 
flowers very singularly compounded of the 
colours red, blue, and green. 
The slender, compressed, two-furrowed 
stems and branches of this elegant plant, 
creep along the surface of the ground, or 
climb over the bushes and herbaceous plants 
of a shrubby kind which are found at the 
outskirts of the woods, and on the banks of 
streams and rivers, throwing out roots where- 
50. 
ever a damp soil is favourable to their nourish- 
ment. They are also frequently found with 
their long white roots floating in the water. 
The young branches are of a green colour, 
hairy at the extremities, and somewhat erect. 
The leaves, which grow on long foot-stalks, 
are roundish-triangular, peltate, and from five 
to seven lobed ; these lobes are pointed, entire 
at the margins, the veins at the under surface 
have few hairs ; the colour of this under-sur- 
face is a bluish-green, which is also the 
colour of the upper surface near the veins, 
becoming a lively emerald-green at the apex. 
The flowers are solitary, and issue from the 
axils of the leaves on a peduncle of about five 
inches long ; slender, or thread-like at the 
base, twisted and twining near the middle, 
gradually becoming thicker towards the 
blossom, where it assumes a reddish colour, 
and is nearly half a line broad. The calyx 
is somewhat two-lipped, and consists of five 
sepals ; both the sepals of the under lip are 
somewhat smaller thai* the three of the upper 
lip ; they are all lance-shaped, three to four 
lines long, and two to three lines broad, hairy 
and of a green colour. The base of the upper 
lip is extended in the form of a hairy spur, 
about an inch and a half long, and a quarter 
of an inch broad at the base, tapering to a 
blunt point, bright scarlet at the lower part, 
merging to green towards the apex. Alter- 
nating with the sepals of the calyx are five 
small spatula-shaped petals of unequal size, 
the two uppermost being larger, nearly three 
lines long and about one line and a half broad, 
five-nerved, and at the upper margin seven- 
toothed, the teeth terminating in short hairs ; 
the under and smaller petals are three-nerved, 
the upper margin five-toothed, these teeth 
also ending in a similar manner to the others; 
they are all of a dark blue colour, becoming 
somewhat brighter at the margin. Eight 
