The botanist's repository for new and rare plants; vol. 09 [of 10]

Comprising Colour’d Engravings of New and Rare Plants ONLY With Botanical Descriptions &c. —— in —— Latin and English , after the Linnæan System. by H. Andrews Botanical Painter Engraver, &c.
CLASS V. ORDER I.
PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Five Chives. One Pointal.
GENERIC CHARACTER.
Calyx quinquefidus, Corolla monopetala, irregularis. Antheræ cohærentes. Capsula infera, 2-seu 3-locularis.
Empalement five-cleft. Blossom of one petal, irregular. Anthers cohering. Seed-vessel below, with 2 or 3 partitions.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Lobelia foliis lanceolatis serratis, infernè denticulatis decurrentibus, racemis compositis terminalibus.
Lobelia with leaves lance-shaped, serrate, toothed towards the base, and running down the stem; the racemes compound and terminal.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A blossom spread open. 2. The chives spread open. 3. The seed-bud and pointal.
This curious species of Lobelia is a native of high mountains in Jamaica, where Brown informs us it grows to the height of 5 or 6 feet. The plant is at present so scarce as not to be enumerated in the Catalogue of the Cambridge Garden; nor has any figure of it, to our knowledge, been before published. Specimens were communicated by A. B. Lambert, esq. from his stove at Boyton, where he informs us that the plant is now about five feet high, with some of the lower leaves a foot and a half long; that it began to blossom in the middle of July, and continued to the end of November; four or five racemes flowering at the same time, and nodding in the manner of ostrich plumes; the blossoms gradually opening in succession towards the top, and the racemes continuing to lengthen until more than a foot long. The flowers have withered without producing any seed. The plant appears to be perennial.