nerved, the nerves warted with purple warts, and fasci-
culately hairy. Petals 5, nearly orbicular, very broad,
more or less crumpled, very much imbricate, of a
bright crimson inclining to orange, and a yellow spot
at the base. Stamens about 70, half the length of the
style: filaments slender, straw-coloured : pollen yellow.
Germen densely tomentose. Style long, slender, and
crooked at the base, and thickening upwards. Stigma
capitate, papillose.
This very pretty plant is now very common in the
collections about London, but we cannot find any description
agree with it in any of the works that we have
examined ; it is readily distinguished from H. rhodan-
thum by its warted stalks and calyces, and by its
smooth and shining stems ; its habit is also very different;
it is one of the most ornamental plants of the
genus for adorning rock-work, as it is quite hardy, and
continues to flower all the summer, and till late in
autumn ; it will also succeed well on a dry bank, or in
any common border of the flower garden where it does
not get too much moisture; in some of our collections
it is considered as a variety of H. vulgare, but it has
certainly nothing to do with that species, from which
it differs more than from any other species in the section;
we believe many species have been confused
together by the short descriptions that have been- given
of them, and those chiefly from dry specimens that
have dropt their petals. Specimens of this natural
order of plants should always be gathered in the morning,
as soon as the flowers expand, and before their
anthers are burst, for as soon as that takes place, the
stigma becomes fertilized by the pollen, and the petals
will not remain long after.
Our drawing was taken from a plant, at the Nursery
of Mr. Colvill, where it is cultivated in pots of light
sandy soil, and makes a splendid appearance all the
summer ; young cuttings root freely under handglasses
in the open ground, if planted in autumn.