the tube round and angular. Corolla of a pale azure blue,
thrice longer than the calyx, deeply parted into 5, linear]
acute, channelled, reflexed segments, clothed, but especially
towards the base, with papillary pubescence. Stamens
5, shorter than the corolla. Filaments compressed, of a deep
blue, stiff and callous, glossy, broad, spathulate, and papillose
at the base, with the edges connivent and closed. Anthers
linear, bluntly keeled, yellow, of two narrow, parallel
cells, opening lengthways. Ovarium inferior, of three cells,
crowned by a fleshy, glandular, depressed disk. Style stout]
cylindrical, longer than the stamens, glabrous. Stigma large,
capitate, of three broad, thick, connivent, blunt, papillose
lobes.
This remarkable plant is frequent on the rocky shores and
mountainous parts of Candia, and also on mount Baldo in
Italy. It appears to have been several times introduced to this
country, first in 1640, and more recently by Dr. Pitcairn, in
whose rich collection, at Islington, it flowered in 1791 ; but
from the great difficulty attending its culture in this moist
climate, it has always continued extremely rare in collections,
and we know of none other at present that contains the plant,
save that of Messrs. Young, at Epsom, where it blossomed
m September last. Mr. Penny, the intelligent foreman of
that establishment, informs us, that the plant from which
our drawing was obtained, was planted in the open ground
in May, in a rich loamy soil, where it grew vigorously,
throwing up from 40 to 50 stems, which began to blossom
towards the end of August. It requires the protection of a
frame or greenhouse in Winter, and is increased slowly by
division.
We have, in the mean time, adopted the genus Petromarula,
as proposed by Persoon and M. Alphonse De Candolle;
although it must be confessed, that we have been unable to
discover any valid characters whereby to distinguish it from
Phyteuma. The stigma is not simple, but composed of three
lobes, thicker than in the other species of Phyteuma, the
leaves are merely deeply lobed, and the inflorescence is precisely
the same with that of P. amplexicaule, but more developed.
The name is compounded of «rpa, a rock, and pagov, an
herb, from the plant growing on rocks. F). F)on.
^ ^
1. Calyx and Pistil, 2 . Stamen. 3. Segment o f the Corolla. 4 . Outline o f the plant
in immature. ^