Plate 42. 
PUKPLE STANDARD LOBELIA. 
Lobelia fulgens , var. 
The tall perennial Lobelias, of which our Plate represents a 
very beautiful form, were once more generally cultivated than 
they now are. And yet among hardy herbaceous plants there 
are few more brilliant and attractive families—very few indeed 
that can yield a match for the vivid scarlet of Lobelia fulgens 
and many of its varieties. 
The subject of the accompanying figure is one of the best 
and most novel of the forms bred from this species. It was 
raised by Mr. Kinghorn, of the Sheen Nursery, Richmond, from 
the scarlet variety called St. Clair, crossed by the dwarf blue- 
flowered L. Erinus speciosa , and possesses the large flowers and 
vigorous habit of the first; but though the progeny yielded 
flowers of various colours from lilac to crimson, the plants have 
neither in habit nor in the colour of their flowers any resem¬ 
blance to the latter, though we are assured the cross was very 
carefully effected. The flowers in the present variety are re¬ 
markably fine in form, and gained for it a first-class certificate 
when exhibited last August before the Floral Committee of 
the Royal Horticultural Society. 
The plant is a perennial of robust character, requiring in 
winter protection rather against damp than cold. The stems, 
which under liberal culture grow about four feet high, are erect, 
branched, furrowed, and of a green colour, the upper part 
forming a long leafy raceme. The leaves are green, lanceolate, 
attenuated at the point, and obscurely toothed, the upper ones, 
in the axils of which the flowers are produced, being shorter 
Plate 42. —Lobelia eulgens, var. Purple Standard : flowers large, 
deep reddish-purple, with white eye. 
