THUNBERGIA ALATA.— WIN GED THUNBERGIA. 
Class XIV. DIDYNAMIA.— Order II. AN GIOSPERMI A. 
Natural Order, ACANTHACE^E. THE JUSTICIA TRIBE. 
Character of the Genus, Thunbergia. Calyx short, cupola-shaped, truncated or many toothed. 
Bract® two, at the base of the calyx, larger than and including it. Corolla campanulato-funnel-shaped, 
throat inflated, limb five-cleft, spreading, subequal. Stamens four, didynamous, anthers erect, adnate, 
bilocular, the lobes parallel, coarsely ciliated, unequal at the base, the shorter having a bristle-like spur. 
Stigma funnel-shaped, sub-biliabiate ; a thick nectariferous lobed ring embracing the base of the germen. 
Capsule globular at the base, bilocular, two-four seeded, attenuated into a beak. Dissepiment membrana- 
ceous, cohering in the centre, separable from the valves. Retinacula wanting, and the place supplied by a 
cartilaginous ring, embracing the base of the seed. Seeds globular, perforated at the base where the po- 
dosperm enters. Flowers axillary, pedunculate, solitary, or in racemes. Scandent plant, with handsome 
flowers, which are blue or yellow, the throat being generally darker. 
Description of the Variety, Thunbergia alata-clorantha. Stem twining, branched, 
hairy, compressed, hairs loosely reflexed. Leaves (two-and-half inches long, one-and-half broad) smaller 
upwards, petiolate, sagittato-deltoid, sinuated, pubescent on both sides, wrinkled, dark green above, paler 
below, midrib and veins channelled above, prominent below ; petiole as long as the leaf, bordered with a 
narrow waved wing. Peduncles solitary, axillary, opposite, single flowered. Bracts coherent to about a 
quarter of their length on the lower side, rather more above, waved and pubescent. Calyx a small many- 
toothed cup, pale green, and pubescent. Corolla small, outside slightly glanduloso-pubescent ; tube narrow, 
sub-cylindrical, and dark purple for about three times the length of the calyx, above this enlarged, com- 
pressed, paler and more leaden coloured, slightly falcate ; limb orange-coloured, of five sub-linear emargi- 
nate lobes, concave, and tipped on the outer surface with green ; faux deep purple, and, as well as the upper 
part of the inside of the tube, clothed with short purple hairs; two broad hairy lines extend from this along 
the inner side of the back of the tube, to the top of the narrow portion of the tube where the hairs are 
numerous, around the origin of the stamens ; hairs jointed. Stamens subequal, filaments glabrous, green. 
Anthers yellow, cells unequal, the shorter cells in all the four stamens, spurred at the base, bursting along 
the front, and there ciliated. Stigma bilabiate, concave, the lower lip the shortest and broadest. Style 
straight, glabrous, much longer than the stamens. Germen bilocular, seated on a yellow disk, dark green, 
glabrous, compressed, sand-glass-shaped, the lower portion the largest, the upper nearly solid, each cell of 
the lower portion containing two ovules. 
Popular and Geographical Notice. Nees von Esenbeck sub-divides this genus, and describes 
several species not before published. He doubts whether this should not, Thunbergia angulata, Hooker, 
and Thunbergia tomentosa. Wall, be removed from Thunbergia. The varieties of this species in point of 
colour, are now very numerous in our stoves. The one now figured, differs materially from any of them, 
but I doubt whether it will be permanent. 
Introduction; where Grown ; Culture. I have only seen this form in the nursery garden of 
Mr. Cunningham, Comely Bank, Edinburgh. It succeeds best in the stove, but I have seen it in flower in 
the open air, though of much smaller beauty. — Grah. 
Derivation of the Name. Thunbergia, in commemoration of the Swedish Botanist and Traveller, 
Thunberg. 
Synonyme. Thunbergia Alata. Hooker ; Exotic Flora, t. 177* Spreng.; Syst. vegt. ceer. post. 237 - 
Nees.; 1. c. 3 , 78.* 
* For this description of the Thunbergia, as well as those of the Portulaca, Lophospermum, and Siphocampylus, in our preceding 
numbers, we are indebted to Mr. Maund’s excellent publication, “ The Botanist.” 
