LOPHOSPERMUM ERUBESCENTE-SCANDENS, 
HYBRID CLIMBING LOPHOSPERMUM. 
Class XIV. DIDYNAMIA. Order II. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
Natural Order, SCROPHULARIACEA5. — THE FIG-WORT TRIBE. 
Character of the Genus, Lophospermum . Calyx five-parted. Corolla campanulate; limb five-lobed, 
nearly equal. Capsule two-celled, dehiscing irregularly. Seeds imbricated with a membranous wing. 
Description of the Hybrid, Lophospermum Erubescente-scandens. Stems or branches herbaceous, 
long, terete, slender, pale green, more or less tinged with red; and covered with fine, short, patent, glan- 
dular pubescence. Leaves alternate, petiolated, from cordate and sub-acute, to cordato-hastate and acumi- 
nated; broadly and unequally toothed, with the teeth shortly mucronate. The largest are about three inches 
long by three broad, of a dull yellowish green, and covered with the same pubescence as the stems. The 
petioles are about two inches, grooved above, and serve the purpose of tendrils, by twisting round objects. 
About seven primary sub-digitate nerves, prominent below, with corresponding depressions above; the 
secondaries few and little conspicuous. Peduncles about an inch long, axillary, solitary, flexuose, one- 
flowered. Calyx five-partite, with the segments above an inch in length, sub-cordato-lanceolate, connivent, 
and a little pinched in the middle at the base, so that their margins (which are slightly undulated) form 
prominent angles; the uppermost segment rather larger than the other four. Corolla twice as long as the 
calyx, labiately-funnel-shaped, of a purplish rose-colour, with the base dilated and white, slightly pubescent 
outside, except along the sides, flattish above, with two depressed lines below, which, on the inside of the 
tube, form two elevated ridges, covered with bright yellow, glandular, pubescence; the throat is mottled 
inside; the limb five-lobed, and sub-bilabiate; the two upper lobes somewhat larger, rounded, slightly re- 
flected, and slightly pubescent within; the three lowermost lobes patent, the middle one rather the smallest. 
Stamens four, didynamous, two as long and two rather longer than the tube, to which they are attached 
immediately above the dilated base: filaments hairy below, glandular towards the top, and smooth in the 
middle. Anthers cream-coloured, incumbent, two-lobed, lobes free below, oblong, bursting longitudinally, 
the connective projecting backwards in the form of a small white gland. There is a minute tuft of hair 
between the two shorter stamens, which may be considered as a fifth rudimentary stamen. Pistil length of 
the shorter stamens. Ovarium conical, depressed, two-celled, hairy above, seated on a pale, smooth, fleshy 
disk; style subulately-filiform, and (together with the stamens) inclined to the upper side of the corolla, 
glabrous, but with a few glandular hairs near the base. Stigma small, forming a mere glandular apex, 
curved at right angles to the style, obscurely lobed, though one lobe is evidently longer than the other. 
Ovules in each cell numerous, attached to a central placenta. 
Popular and Geographical Notice. This plant is a hybrid, raised in the year 1840, by 
Mr. Turner, of the Bury Botanic Garden, from seeds of the Lophospermum scandens, fertilized by 
pollen of the Lophospermum erubescens; and it may be considered a decided improvement (if we may 
use such an expression,) on the general appearance and beauty of either parent. We are entirely opposed 
in sentiment to those persons who regret the introduction of hybrid plants, merely because it is troublesome 
to assign to them a place in our systematic arrangements. We would request the systematist to remember 
that the botanist has a higher object than merely describing and arranging specific forms. Such a branch 
of our science must ever be looked upon as a means to an end. The ultimate aim of true science is to 
ascertain the laws by which nature is governed ; and the more we multiply our experiments, and the more 
care we take in noting the results, the more likely are we to arrive at definite notions of those laws. At 
present no one knows with certainty what are the true limits to the variations in form which any one 
species may assume; and it is impossible to foresee whether multiplied observations on hybridizing may 
not lead us to some law of vegetation by which a botanist may be able to pre-determine the possible limits 
of every species, as accurately as a mineralogist can now define the limits within which all those forms of 
crystallization must necessarily lie, which belong to any particular simple mineral. 
Introduction; Where Grown; Culture. It has already been mentioned that this hybrid plant 
was raised in the Botanic Garden of Bury St. Edinund^s, by Mr. Turner, the curator of that establishment. 
We are informed that for the more convenient and extensive disposal of it to all who desire to possess the 
plant, the stock of it has been disposed of to the Messrs. Henderson, Nurserymen, of Pine Apple Place, 
Edgeware Road, London. Under the care of these extensive and superior cultivators we doubt not but it 
will meet every attention which may tend to develope its superiority. They have called the plant Lophos- 
permum Hendersonii. Diogenes would, we fancy, have almost smiled, had he witnessed our present system 
