This is a high-resolution digital download of Plate 4256 from Curtis's Botanical Magazine. The original illustration was hand-colored in the 1800s. This listing includes both the botanical image and its accompanying description tab.

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4256.

LESCHENAULTIA SPLENDENS. Splendid scarlet-flowered Leschenaultia.

Nat. Ord. GoODENOVIEÆ.-PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Generic Character.

The splendid colour of the flowers of this plant is only to be compared with that of the Verbena Melindres. Seeds of it were sent to Messrs. Lucombe, Pince, and Co., by Mr. James Drum- mond, and those excellent cultivators have succeeded in rearing flowering plants in their Nursery at Exeter, and of two varieties: one which we consider the type of the species, with broader segments to the corolla, and flowers in a corymb; the other with nearly, but by no means constantly, solitary flowers, and broader segments to the corolla, which, moreover, is of a deeper, but not so bright a scarlet. In the colour of the blossoms this species approaches the well-known L. formosa; but that has an orange hue, and the two anterior segments of the corolla are small and acute, and the larger segments are bent back on the short tube. In the foliage, and in the general structure and size of the corolla, indeed, our plants resemble the L. biloba, but the bright blue flowers of the latter, the shorter tube, and much more hairy corolla will distinguish it from that; while from L. laricina of Dr. Lindley, it may be recognized by the leaves by no means SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1846. Thrifty Whiskers " closely imbricated ", and by the relative length of the segments of the corolla with the tube. If I am not greatly deceived, it is the present Leschenaultia which is spoken of by Mr. James Drummond at p. 369 of vol. iii. of Hook. Journal of Botany, as found on the banks of the Salt Hill River, and near Mr. Hall's residence on the Avon, Swan River Colony, "with bright scarlet flowers, about two feet high, and yellowish-green leaves": and then he speaks of the same species, at p. 371 of the same volume, as varying much in the colour of its flowers "producing rich dark purple inflorescence, also light purple, lilac, white, blood-red, bright scarlet, pink, rose-coloured, and through every possible interme- diate shade of purple and scarlet." "It is curious," continues this indefatigable botanist, "to observe the great variety that prevails in the colour of the flowers of the same species, in many plants of this country." Handsome as is the var. stricta, it is far exceeded by the true splendens, which is of a more bushy character and the whole surface is literally covered with its brilliant blossoms, continuing a long time in perfection. The two kinds were exhi- bited at the Exeter Horticultural Show in August of this year, and we are much mistaken if anything more brilliant or more deserving of attention could be seen at that or any other recent exhibition of the kind. There is a tenderness and delicacy, too, in the foliage, which contrast admirably with the rich colour of the blossoms, of which there were, on the 2nd of August, more than three hundred expanded on one plant!

Botanical Description A shrub from one to two feet high, copiously branched,

bushy and spreading in a, erect and with somewhat virgate branches in B. Leaves numerous, scattered, rather distant, patent and generally reflexed, filiform, slightly grooved on the upper side, apiculate. Flowers in terminal corymbs, each of from three to five or six flowers, on all the numerous branches. Calyx without bracts: the segments linear-subulate, almost as long as the tube of the corolla. Corolla of the richest scarlet (without and the tube pale), the segments nearly equal, about the length of the tube, broadly cuneate, bifid with a recurved mucro in the sinus within, towards the base of the tube, is a hairy ring. Stamens, with the filaments, glabrous. Style glabrous: stigma two-lipped, oblique with a short pencil of hairs at the bend. :

Figures

Fig. 1. Flower. 2. Portion of the tube of the corolla. 3. Flower with the corolla removed:-magnified.