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HELIOTROPIUM PERUVIANUM. 
HELIOTEOPITJM PEETJYIAMM— Yah. : SALTER'S GEM. 
Nat. Order. — Boragln-ace^, 
Generic Character. — Heliotropium, Lhmrvtis. — Calyx five- 
partetl. Corolla hypogynous, salver - shaped, without teeth, 
naked or bearded in the throat, the limb five-toothed, with the 
indentations simple or containing a smalt tooth. Stamens five, 
inserted on the tube of the corolla, included. Ocary four- 
celled ; ovules solitary in the cells, pendulous ; stifle terminal, 
very short ; stigma peltate. Fruit dry, composed of four separ- 
able cocciy which are one-celled, one-seeded, three-sided, and 
keeled at the central angle. Embryo exalbuniinous, straight or 
homotropously arcuate ; cotyledons fleshy ; radicle terete, 
superior. — Herbs or under shrubs, luxuriant in a large number 
of species in tropical and sub-tropical regions all over the 
world, more rare in temperate climates; leaves alternate or 
sometimes sub-opposite or ternate, most frequently hispid, 
entire ; spikes terminal and lateral, solitary or conjugate, gene- 
rally spirally curled in the young condition. — {Endlichcr Gen. 
Plant. 3751). 
HELioTROpruM Peruvia^st™, Linnains. — Stem shrubby; 
leaves petiolate, ovate or oblong lanceolate, wrinkled ; spikes 
terminal branched, the tube of the corolla hardly the length of 
the calyx. 
Var. : Salter's Gem. — Flowers large, deep purple with a 
white eye. 
TlESCRIPTIGN'. — A shrub, growing from one to two feet high, robust, and of a branching 
<** bushy habit. The leaves are hairy, ovate-lanceolate, in size and form resembling those on 
vigorous branches of the common Heliotrope, but of a deeper green, and they do not become 
blackened or discoloured from the effects of slight cold, as is the case with the garden variety 
from which this was raised. The flowers grow in large clustered recurved spikes, on which 
they are very closely arranged ; the corollas are larger than in the parent species, of a very deep 
blue purple colour, with a broad white centre. Erom the size and compactness of the clusters 
themselves, and the large size and strongly-contrasted colour of the flowers, this is assuredly 
the most striking and distinct variety of Heliotrope which has yet been obtained. 
History, ike. — We saw this seedling Heliotrope when first coming into bloom, during the 
past summer, in the nursery of Mr. Salter of Hammersmith, where, at a later period of the 
season, the drawing from which our plate has been prepared was made. Its history is thus 
stated to us by Mr. Salter, whose remarks on its peculiarities quite agree with our own observa- 
tions : — " The Heliotrope 'Gem' is a garden variety, raised by myself in 1849 from Yoltairea- 
num ; it, however, differs from it in several essential particulars, not having either the rambling 
habit of its parent, or being subject to the great disadvantage of the leaves changing colour in 
autumn. The Gem is of a very robust and bushy habit, bearing a profusion of exceedingly compact 
trusses of flowers of a deep blue purple, with a large white centre ; the odour is quite as fra- 
grant as in any of the other kinds. This variety will be found a great acquisition for bedding 
and pot culture." 
Culture. — The culture of Heliotropes is so well understood, that we need only observe, that 
the variety now figured is adapted for all the purposes to which the Peruvian Heliotrope is 
usually applied. — M. 
THEOEY AND PEACT1CE OE PRUNING. 
By Mr. HENRY BAILEY, Nu.nekam Pakk, Oxford. 
).(T is, indeed, a wise dispensation of an All-bountiful Providence, that man should not find the 
iv fruits and flowers of the earth in their natural state, in their fullest perfection, without exercising 
his reasoning powers, or exerting his physical capacities. If such were the case, he would lose an in- 
valuable boon in the calm and pure gratification which he enjoys when studying the causes and tracing 
the effects which are to be observed in vegetable life, and taking that exercise which is SO Conducive to 
health. There is, perhaps, no greater gratification than is experienced by those who cultivate a 
garden, when a shrub which they planted with their own hands becomes a fine specimen, or a long- 
cherished fruit-tree yields its produce. 'Who can tell the beauty of the one, or describe in terms suffi- 
ciently mellifluous, the lusciousness of the other! 
In seeking to obtain the desired results from trees and fruit-hearing shrubs, the art of pruning 
C 'judiciously exercised) is of much consequence; but, unfortunately for those who wish to obtain infor- 
mation on the subject, there is little to be found in a sufficiently condensed state to suit the generality 
of persons. Much has been written in old books in a quaint and dogmatical stj le, but little exists iu 
a popular form, unless in isolated papers in the Gardeners' Chronicle. In some measure, to supply this 
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