OF ORNAMENTAL ANNUALS. 
103 
as the flowers of Calandrinia discolor are more than twice as large. C. grandiflora makes a bushy, glaucous 
plant, with round, thick stems, and very succulent leaves, which arc broad, but terminate in a sharp point, and 
are so much elongated and tapering at the base as to seem petiolated. The flowers are produced on long racemes, 
on which they are disposed at considerable distances from each other, and each on a long footstalk. When the 
flowers are in the bud, and again after the petals have fallen, these footstalks droop ; but when the flowers 
expand, which they do only one at a time, each pedicel in turn stands erect. The flowers are of a faded rose- 
colour, and not large, notwithstanding the name. The calyxes are spotted; and they do not drop off when the 
petals of the flower fade, but close, in a very peculiar manner, over the gcrmen. Though generally treated as 
an annual, this species is properly a perennial, and if preserved through the winter it will in time become 
shrubby. The flowers remain open only during sunshine. This species is a native of Chili, from which country 
seeds of it were brought to the London Horticultural Society by Mr. M‘Rae, in 1826. It requires a warm, dry, 
calcareous soil, and not too much water, as if over watered it will soon damp off, or, in other words, become 
rotten just at the collar of the plant. When treated as an annual, it is generally raised on a hotbed, and 
planted out in May, when it will begin to flower in June, continuing to produce a succession of flowers the 
whole summer. When treated as a greenhouse plant, it is propagated by cuttings, and kept very dry during 
winter. 
5.—CALANDRINIA DISCOLOR, Lindl. THE DISCOLOURED CALANDRINIA. 
Engravings. —Bot. Reg. t. 1838, 4 ; ? Bot. Mag. t. 3357 ; and 
our fig. 2, in Plate 18. 
Specific Character. —Leaves fleshy, ohovate-obtuse, elongated into 
a petiole. Raceme bending, the pedicel drooping after the falling of 
the petals. Petals much longer than the calyx. Nearly allied to C. 
grandiflora ; but differing in the leaves being larger and obtuse, in 
their under side being somewhat discoloured, and in the flowers being 
much larger_ (Lind.) 
Description, &c. —One of the most splendid flowers grown in British gardens, and certainly by far the 
handsomest species of Calandrinia. The flowers are rose-coloured, with a tinge of purple on the under side ; 
they are very large, and extremely ornamental from the rich mass of golden-coloured anthers in the centre. 
The flowers are produced in the same manner as those of C. grandiflora, on similar long racemes, at the same, 
or even greater distances from each other, and the flower-stalks droop in the same remarkable manner when the 
flowers fade, the spotted calyx closing over the remaining petals of the faded flower and the swelling germen. 
The leaves are very thick and fleshy, and they are of a strangely mottled colour, from which the species is said to 
take its name of discolor. The numerous and vigorous-growing stems, the thick leaves, and the long racemes 
of flowers, give this plant a very peculiar appearance; and no one who sees it for the first time could suppose 
it possible for so massive-looking a bush to spring from the little shining black seed, in the course of a single 
summer. Though like C. grandiflora , it is said to be properly a perennial, or rather, half shrubby, it succeeds 
perfectly well as an annual. It is not known of what country it is a native, but from the great similitude 
between it and C. grandiflora , it is probably also from Chili. Its seeds were sent to the London Horti¬ 
cultural Society from the Berlin Botanic Garden, in 1835 ; and, as it seeds freely, they are now common 
in every seed-shop. The plant figured in the Bot. Mag. t. 3359, appears to be a different species. The flowers 
are shaped like those of C. grandiflora; the leaves are very long, rather narrow, and of a bright pink on the 
under side. The seeds were received at the Glasgow Botanic Garden, from the late Mr. Fischer, of the Botanic 
Garden, Gottingen, in 1824, under the name of C. discolor, but the native country of the plant, or any other 
particulars, were not mentioned. 
