37fi 
T0REN1A ASIATICA. 
TORENIA ASIATICA. 
(Linn/Bvs.) 
ASIATIC, OR LARGE FLOWERED TOEENIA. 
To this pretty genus of plants we have ' 
recently Lad some accessions, which will be- 
come valuable ornaments of our gardens. 
The best, in every respect, is that of which 
an engraving is here introduced : nothing can 
exceed it in the richness and the softness of 
its colouring. 
In noticing this plant on a former occasion, 
(Annals of Horticulture, ii. 553,) we took 
the oppm-tunity of expressing a doubt whe- 
ther the statement that the plant was an 
annual was strictly correct. The statement 
was made in the Botanical Jfagazine, where 
a beautiful figure of it was published last 
year. Nothing in the appearance of the plant, 
at the time our notice above referred to was 
written, would seem to warrant the belief 
that the plant was annual, and our further 
experience of it does but confirm our former 
supposition : hundreds of plants raised from 
cuttings last year, along with calceolarias, 
cupheas. and similar sub-shrubby plants, have 
been preserved through the winter, and 
planted out into the flower garden; and the 
old plants which blossomed last season are 
now vigorous, and blossoming freely again. 
It was. moreover, said to be a stove plant, 
but this, too, is incorrect; for it has been 
preserved during winter in the temperature 
of a greenhouse, and has been grown and 
flowered well in such a situation. Moreover, 
experience has shown it to be a plant suitable 
for bedding out in flower gardens, though 
here, we presume, it will always be found to 
do best in the warmest situations, all other 
conditions being equal. 
The plant is of diffuse branching habit, 
with quadrangular, flexuose stems, bearing 
I opposite ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, coarsely 
serrated leaves, from the axils of which other 
branches, and towards the tips of the shoots 
numerous flowers, are produced ; the flowers 
grow on separate stalks, but sometimes seve- 
ral — three or four — together, from the same 
axil; they are shaped something like the 
! flowers of a mimulus, only they are divided 
into four instead of five lobes, the lower of 
; which, and the two side ones, each bear a 
. large deep purple blotch, and the throat, or 
centre, is of the same colour ; down the cen- 
: tre of the lower segment is a pale streak; 
the rest of the flower is a clear, soft, porce- 
