



OF ORNAMENTAL EXOTIC PLANTS. 187 
erect branched stem, with broad deep green leaves as much as six inches long. It grows three or four feet high, 
and is covered with gay yellow and brown flowers all the summer.” This plant was introduced in 1840 by 
Captain Mangles, to whom the floricultural world is indebted for the introduction of so many new and beautiful 
Australian plants. 1t grows well in any rich free soil, and strikes readily from cuttings. It may be planted out 
during the summer months and will flower freely in the open ground, but it is killed by the first approach of frost. 
It should be observed that these plants when kept in pots should be well drained, as they are apt to damp off when 
they have too much water. 
GENUS II. 
LESCHENAULTIA R. Br. THE LESCHENAULTIA. 
Lin, Syst. PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Generic Cuaracter.—Calyx superior. Corolla with the tube cleft on the upper side. | Anthers at first cohering. Stigma obsolete, bilabiate, 
in the bottom of the indusium. Capsule prismatic, two-celled, four-valyed. Seeds cubical or nucumentaceous. (G Don.) 
Description, &c.—The species in this genus are small heath-like shrubs, generally with bright scarlet flowers. 
One species, however, has lately been discovered, the flowers of which are of a beautiful clear blue; thus forming a 
complete contradiction to the hypothesis of De Candolle, who supposed that clear blue flowers were never found in 
the same genus with plants bearing flowers of a bright scarlet or yellowish red. The name of the genus was given 
in honour of M. Leschenault, a French botanist and traveller. It may be interesting to botanical students to 
know that the pollen in all the species of Leschenaultia is composed of four combined sporules. 
1.—LESCHENAULTIA FORMOSA &. Br. THE BEAUTIFUL LESCHENAULTIA. 
Synonymes.—L. Baxterii G. Don; L. oblata Sweet. Speciric Cusracter.—Flowers axillary, solitary, without bracts, 
Eneravines.—Bot. Mag., t. 2600; Bot. Reg., t. 916; and our fig. | somewhat drooping. Corolla bilabiate, glabrous. 
3, in Pl. 37. 
Description, &c.—This plant is so well known that it seems unnecessary to give any detailed account of it, . 
and yet its botanical construction is so curious that it well deserves to be described at length. The indusium 
which covers the stigma is a compressed two-lipped purple cup, lined with soft down on the outside, and which 
appears to serve the purpose of scooping the pollen out of the cells of the anthers, and collecting and retaining it 
till'it is wanted for the stigma, which lies at the very bottom of it. This species was introduced in 1824 from the 
south coast of New Holland, of which it is a native. There are two kinds so nearly allied that it is very difficult 
to discern any difference between them, excepting that the flowers of one kind are somewhat larger, brighter, and 
more abundant than those of the other. 
2.—LESCHENAULTIA BILOBA Lindl. THE TW0O-LOBED LESCHENAULTIA. 
Synonymr.—L. grandiflora Dec. flowered lax corymbs. 
Encravines.—Bot. Reg. for 1842, t. 2; Paxton’s Mag. of Bot., 
vol. viii., p. 151; and our jig. 2, in Pl. 37. 
Speciric CHaractrr.—Leayes linear, obtuse. Flowers in few- 
Tube of the corolla equal in length to the 
sepals, smooth on the outer surface, hairy within; segments wedge- 
shaped, two-lobed, points crowned with a mucro. Filaments glabrous. 
Description, &c.—When this plant was first introduced, it created an extraordinary sensation. The old 
kinds of Leschenaultia were so well known, and so universally admired, that every one who heard of a blue- 
flowered plant in the same genus was desirous of possessing it. It was found, however, that the blue-flowered 
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