Plate 10 G. 
MAUVE-COLOURED SWAIN SONIA. 
Swainsonia violacea. 
During a hurried visit we lately paid to Messrs. E. G. Hen¬ 
derson and Son’s Nursery, St. John’s Wood, we came upon a 
new and remarkable pea-shaped flower, growing in the same 
span-roofed pit which has been already made famous by the 
successful treatment of two of the most beautiful climbers 
known, Lapageria rosea and Cliantlius Dampierii , and on in¬ 
quiry found it to be the plant of which blooms had been re¬ 
cently before the Floral Committee, where it had excited a 
good deal of attention as a new species of Swainsonia. 
According to the account given to us by Mr. Andrew Hen¬ 
derson, the seeds of it had been forwarded to them from the 
interior of Australia as those of a new scarlet Clianthus. This 
plant was raised by them, and planted last year in its present 
situation in the border of tlie pit. From the difficulty of keep¬ 
ing it free from red spider, and from its general aspect, they 
were led to believe that it was a hardy plant, and they had in¬ 
tended placing it out of doors; but as it started for growth 
early this season, they allowed it to remain in its present po¬ 
sition, and have been rewarded by a display of beautiful spikes 
of mauve-coloured flowers, a shade of colour, we believe, hi¬ 
therto unknown amongst pea-shaped dowers. Mr. Henderson 
himself thought that it was likely to prove hardy; but whe¬ 
ther it be so or not, it will be a most desirable acquisition to 
any collection. 
Swainsonia violacea (so named by Dr. Lindley) is an herba¬ 
ceous plant, somewhat similar in its appearance to others of the 
same genus, though if looked almost as if it were u halfway 
between it and Clianthus.” Its habit may be described as 
that of a half-climber, reaching about five feet in height. The 
