NEMOPHILA MACULATA. 
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NEMOPHILA MACULATA. 
Nemopiitla MACULATA, Sentham (spotted- 
flowered Nemophila). — Hydrophyllacege. 
This is said to be the best of the annual 
plants collected by Mr. Hartweg, during his 
recent mission to California in search of new 
plants for the Horticultural Society. Mr. 
Hartweg gave it the name of iV. speciosa, a title 
which has been rejected on account of its "in- 
appropriateness," and Mr. Bentham has given 
it that which stands at the head of this article, 
but which is not, by the way, a very distinc- 
tive one, inasmuch as one of the commonly 
cultivated species JV. atomaria has its flowers 
spotted all over with little dark-coloured 
dots. 
Nemophila maculata is an annual plant, of 
a procumbent habit, like that of the well- 
known N. insignis, and the whole plant is 
clothed with short spreading hairs. The lower 
leaves are lyrately-pinnatifid, the lobes being 
short, obtuse, and somewhat falcate, and the 
upper ones wedge-shaped and three-lobed. 
The flowers grow from the axils singly, on 
stalks longer than the leaves, and are about 
the size of those of the large variety of N. 
insignis, whitsih in their ground colour, and 
each lobe of the corolla tipped with a large 
deep-violet botch, which, when perfect, gives 
the flower a showy and rather peculiar ap- 
49. 
pearance. This plant attains about the same 
size as does its congener just mentioned, and 
produces its blossoms freely, so that it will 
prove both useful and ornamental under culti- 
vation. 
There is one circumstance which has been ob- 
served respecting it, that maybe regarded as an 
objection ; the colours are liable to sport and 
vary. Sometimes the flowers are veined, the 
veins being of a pale blue colour, thus spoil- 
ing their purity ; at other times the spots are 
ill- defined, pale, and even sometimes run, by 
which the flowers lose their distinctness. To 
retain the species, thei'efore, in its beauty, the 
seeds must be savedfrom the more perfect only 
of the blossoms, or those in which the colours 
are pure and distinct ; and from among these, 
those with indistinct, pale, or run colours, 
should as far as possible be removed as soon 
as they show themselves. It is the clear and 
deep-coloured well-defined spotting which 
gives to the true kind its beauty ; the indis- 
tinctly marked plants being in every way 
inferior. 
No difficulty occurs in its cultivation, which 
should be made to accord Avith that of thfc 
other species, which are by this time familiar 
objects in most gardens. As an annual it will 
rank in the hardy class, growing well in any 
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