OF ORNAMENTAL EXOTIC PLANTS. 
157 
finally become of a brick red. The sepals have a very broad keel or deep wing at the back. The general 
appearance of the plant closely resembles that of the common Passion Flower, from which when out of blossom 
it can scai’cely be distinguished. The flowers are produced in great abundance, and they are very ornamental, 
particularly in their latter state. 
There ai'e two other species, both natives of Australia, one of which has oval blood-red fruit, and the other 
scarlet flowers. 
GENUS III. 
TACSONIA Juss. THE TACSONIA. 
Lin. Syst. MONADELPHIA PENTANDRIA. 
Generic Character. — Tube of the calyx very long, with a ten-cleft limb, the five inner lobes probably petals; throat furnished with a 
scaly membrane. {O. Don.) 
Descbiption, &c. — A genus of very ornamental climbing plants, with the habit of the Passion Flowers, but 
easily distinguished from them by the immense length of the tube of the calyx. The name of Tacsonia is 
derived from that applied to one of the species in Peru. There are numerous species in the genus, but 
only two have as yet been introduced. 
1.— TACSONIA PINNATISTIPULA Juss. THE FEATHER-STIPULED TACSONIA. 
Synonymes. — Passiflora pinnatistipula Cav. ; P. pennipes Smith. I Specific Character. — Leaves white from a velvet-like down on 
Engravings. — Bot. Mag., t. 4062 ; Bot. Reg., t. 1536 ; Sweet’s the under surface, trifid beyond the middle ; lobes serrated. Stipules 
Brit. Flow. Gard., 2nd. series, t. 156 ; The Botanist, t. 171 ; and our | pinnatifid and sometimes parted into slender lobes. 
3, in PL 31. 1 
Description, &c. — A very ornamental plant, which was first raised in Great Britain in the garden of 
Mrs. Mariyat, of Wimbledon, by whom its seeds were procured from Chili. Some of the plants produced by 
these seeds were placed “ in the open air, and the remainder in a conservatory. The former perished ; but the 
latter have grown luxuriantly, covering the rafters with their long climbing shoots, and flowering in abundance in 
the spring and summer months. The blossoms are very large and pendent, of a clear bright pale flesh-colour, 
beautifully contrasted with a single row of bright blue thread-shaped rays. They are succeeded by yellow, round, 
downy fruit, about the size of a hen’s egg.” The Tacsonia strikes freely from cuttings, and it is also easily raised 
from seeds. It was introduced in 1828. 
2.— TACSONIA MOLLISSIMA H. B. et K. 
Synonyme. — Murucuja mollissima Spreng. 
Engravings. Bot. Mag., t. 4187 ; Bot. Reg. for 1846, t. 11 ; and 
Paxt. Mag. of Bot,, vol. xiii., p. 25. 
Specific Character. — Leaves three-parted, pubescently tomentose 
on the underside ; segments cordate at the base, ovate-lanceolate, 
THE DOWNY-LEAVED TACSONIA. 
serrated. Petioles with many glands. Stipules semi-ovate, cuspidately 
acuminate, dentate. Peduncle one-flowered. Flowers very smooth. 
Segments of the calyx of the same colour as the petals ; a glandular 
nectary at the mouth of th^ube. 
Description, &c. — This species, though not so ornamental as T. pinnatistipula, has a similar habit of growth. 
and like it thrives best in a conservatory. Though a native of the tropics of New Grenada, yet, as it grows at a 
height of from nine to eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea, it is evident that a temperate climate suits 
it best. In fact, it is found that when the plant is grown in a stove, the blossoms drop off without expanding. 
“ The most singular part of the structure of this plant,” says Dr. Lindley, “ is the row of green glands or warts 
which stud the purple petiole, and which furnish the best means of recognising the species.” There are twelve 
