CLITORIA TERNATEA MAJOR. GREATER CLITORIA. 
Class XVII. 
Natural Order, 
DIADELPHIA.— Order III. DECANDRIA. 
LEGUMINOSiE. THE PEA TRIBE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx furnished with two large bracts at the base, five-cleft. Vexillum large. 
Stamens diadelphous, inserted along with the petals above the base of the calyx. Style rather dilated at 
the apex. Legume linear, compressed, straight, two-valved, acuminated by the base of the style, one-celled, 
many-seeded. Seeds usually separated by cellular substance. — Don’s Gardening and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant sub-shrubby, evergreen. Stems twining, pubescent, branching at the 
axil of each leaf. Leaves with from two to four pairs of ovate mucronate leaflets, and a terminal odd one, 
nearly smooth, but sometimes having a few minute hairs. Stipules very small, awl-shaped. Bracts large, 
roundish. Calyx tubular, with five lanceolate segments, remaining in a dry state around the base of the 
Flowers of a considerable size, bright-blue. Legumes long, slightly downy. 
Var. Major. — A plant raised from seeds, received from New South Wales having large deep blue 
flowers. 
Few gardens, we imagine, in which plants receive the commonest share of attention, will not at some 
period have possessed the singular and beautiful Clitoria ternatea, which is a native of India. Our present 
subject is from Sydney, New South Wales, whence seeds of it were received by the Lady of B. Harrison, 
Esq., a gentleman, neighbour of J. Cook, Esq., of Brooklands, Blackheath, Kent, and to whose successful 
gardener, Mr. W. P. Ayres, they were presented; and being raised, and flowering, proved to be a distinct and 
very superior variety, well deserving to be distinguished by the name now given it. 
“The Clitorias” Mr. Ayres says, “do not root freely from cuttings, but they produce abundance of seed. 5 ’ 
In saying, “The Clitorias do not root freely from cuttings,” Mr. Ayres doubtless alludes to C. ternatea , 
its varieties, and the annual species in general, as we have not found such others as have come under our 
notice subject to the difficulty he mentions. 
A soil consisting of loam, peat, and leaf-mould, so proportioned as to constitute it light, with good 
drainage secured to the pots in which the plants are grown, will be found very favourable to their welfare. 
Clitoria is from Clitoris, an anatomical term; to the subject of which the flowers are thought to bear 
some resemblance.* 
M. de Mirbel, in his very excellent treatise “On the Anatomy and Physiology of Plants,” has en- 
deavoured to lay down a distinction between the animal and the vegetable world in the following terms, and 
it is a distinction which seems to be approved by Sir Edward Smith: — Plants alone have a power of drawing 
nourishment from inorganic matter, mere earths, salts, or airs; substances incapable of nourishing animals, 
which only feed on what is or has been organized matter, either of a vegetable or animal nature. So that 
it should seem to be the office of vegetable life alone to transform dead matter into organized living bodies.” 
Dr. John Mason Good objects to this distinction between vegetable life and animal life, and observes, 
that in laying down a distinctive character for animals and plants we are compelled to derive it from the 
more perfect of each kind, leaving the extreme cases to be determined by the chemical components eluci- 
dated on their decomposition. Under this broad view of the subject he proceeds to observe, that while 
they agree in an origin by generation, a growth by nutrition, and a termination by death; in an organized 
structure, and an internal living principle; they differ in the powers with which the living principle is 
endowed, and the effects it is capable of exerting. In the plant it is limited, so far as we are capable of 
tracing it, to the properties of irritability, contractility, and simple instincts. 
The structure of vegetables is truly wonderful, and demands our admiring attention. How excellently 
adapted are the roots for taking hold of their parent earth, as well as for drawing nourishment for the 
support of the plant, and imbibing moisture from the neighbouring soil! How commodiously are the 
various tubes and fibres composing the trunk or stalk arranged for the motion of the sap upwards, to all 
the extremities of the leaves and branches! How nicely are the leaves formed for the important services 
they are made to yield in the economy of vegetation! What an excellent clothing does the bark afford, 
not only for protecting the stem and branches from external injury, but from the hurtful extremes of heat 
and cold! What evident marks of wisdom and design do the flowers evince in their beautiful and delicate 
Paxton’s Magazine of Botany. 
