But still we think their diversity is of that sort that cannot 
be presumed an effect of either age or seminal incon- 
stancy. And we haye no reason to think it has been proved 
by experiment, or even deduced from any analogous varia- 
tion in other species of the tribe. Our plant is undoubtedly 
that of Bergius, whose description is complete ; of Com- 
melin, of Thunberg, and of Miller as a specimen from the 
Chelsea garden proves. We have no reason to suspect its 
not being likewise that of Linnzus, who quotes Commelin’s 
figure; but we have not seen his specimen, and what he 
has said of it will not serve to decide so near a distinction. 
It comes very close to glabrum, but that is destitute of 
pubescence, and is glaucous. The colour of the corolla 
varies from nearly all blue to nearly all pearl-colour, and 
the plant has a very different appearance when the several 
spikelets are completely evolved, from that which it has 
when. these are only partially so. While the leaves are 
young and fresh, the appressed pubescence can scarcely be 
said to be hard, but when these are full grown or dry, this 
is as rigid nearly as if of metal; each hair stands upon a 
small tubercle or elevated callous point, which is sometimes 
white, like chalk. The bloom smells like honey. _ Bergius 
notices the pubescence in the orifice of the tube, but as an 
appendage to the bases of the stamens. Cultivated in 1759 
by Miller. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. A green- 
house plant; thriving in peat-earth with a mixture of hazel- 
loam; and if placed in a pan of water just before the bloom — 
expands, this will be larger and more purple than other- 
wise. Blooms in May and June. Multiplied by cuttings. 
The drawing was made from a plant in Mr. Creswell’s 
conservatory at Earl’s Court, Brompton. We saw one at 
Mr. Colville’s nursery, in the King’s Road, with larger 
flowers, some of which were of a peach-colour, and nearly” 
transparent; the young branches were also very red. And 
another at Mr. Knight’s exotic nursery, in which the 
flowers were smaller and bluer even than in the present, 
and the young branches entirely green, without any mix- 
ture of red whatever. 
a The calyx. 6 The tube of the flower deprived of its limb, and cut open 
to slow the insertion of the stamens and the villous orifice. ¢ The. pistil. 
