356 
Ipomcea  Horsfallice. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\     August,  1910. 
to,  Mr.  Holmes  had  obtained  from  Jamaica,  through  the  kindness 
of  Col.  Barlow,  specimens  of  the  flowering  plant  which  produced 
it,  and  these  were  found  to  agree  completely  with  the  Ipomcea  Hors- 
f allies,  as  described  by  Sir  W.  J.  Hooker,  who  established  the  species 
(compare  Botanical  Magazine,  N.  S.,  Vol.  viii,  tab.  3315.  Ind.  or.). 
Although  the  Ipomcea  Horsf allies  is  described  as  an  East  Indian  spe- 
cies, there  would  appear  to  be  no  doubt  respecting  the  botanical  iden- 
tity of  the  plant  received  from  Jamaica,  where  it  must  have  been 
introduced.  The  remarks  of  Sir  W.  J.  Hooker  (loc.  cit.)  concerning 
the  plant  to  which  he  had  given  the  above-mentioned  name  may  be 
deemed  of  sufficient  interest  to  record  in  this  connection. 
In  so  extensive  a  genus  as  the  present,  and  where  many  of  the  species 
are  necessarily  very  imperfectly  described,  it  behooves  us  to  constitute  new 
ones  with  great  caution;  and  it  is  not  until  a  careful  comparison  of  the 
present  individual,  unquestionably  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  with  all  the 
descriptions  to  which  I  have  had  access,  and  with  a  most  extensive  collection 
of  the  genus  in  my  herbarium,  that  I  have  considered  it  to  be  new,  and 
have  given  it  the  name  of  the  lady  to  whose  kindness  I  am  indebted  for 
the  drawing.  The  seeds  were  received  by  Charles  Horsfall,  Esq.,  either 
from  Africa  or  from  the  East  Indies,  and  raised  by  his  very  skilful  gardener, 
Mr.  Henry  Evans,  at  Everton,  where  the  plants  produced  their  lovely  blos- 
soms in  great  profusion  during  the  months  of  December  and  January 
(1833-4),  a  season  when  so  gay  a  visitor  is  particularly  welcome  to  the 
stove.  Mr.  Evans  informs  me  that  he  has  it  under  the  name  of  I.  pen- 
taphylla;  but  the  species  so  called  by  Jaquin  has  hairy  leaves,  and  is  in 
other  respects  quite  a  different  plant,  while  the  /. " pentaphylla  of  Cavanilles 
(/.  Cavanillesii,  Roemer  et  Schultes)  is  still  more  at  variance  with  our 
species.  /.  H or sf allies,  in  its  inflorescence  and  blossoms,  bears  the  closest 
affinity  with  /.  paniculata,  Br.  {Convolvulus,  L.),  but  their  foliage  is  so 
'  different  that  the  two  plants  can  never  be  confounded  :  the  former  having 
compound  and  quinate  leaves,  while  those  of  the  latter  are  simply  lobed. 
EXPERIMENTAL. 
The  tuberous  root  of  Ipomcea  Horsfallice,  Hooker,  which  formed 
the  subject  of  the  brief  investigation  here  described,  is  represented 
in  the  plate  accompanying  this  paper.  It  was  light  brown  in  color, 
with  darker  colored  spots,  and  showed  in  places  an  exudation  of 
fclack  resin.  The  length  of  the  root  was  0.38  metre,  its  circumfer- 
ence at  the  largest  part  0.37  metre,  and  it  weighed  2395  grammes. 
The  presence  of  an  abundance  of  starch  was  evident  when  a  section 
of  the  root,  moistened  with  iodine,  was  observed  under  the  micro- 
scope. 
