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The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 10 / Or, Flower-Garden Displayed cover

The Botanical Magazine, Vol. 10 / Or, Flower-Garden Displayed

Chapter 30: 352—Oenothera Purpurea
By William Curtis
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Nature/Gardening/AnimalsScience - Biology

About This Book

A sequence of coloured botanical plates is paired with concise Linnaean names and diagnostic characters, followed by descriptions of form, flowering time, native or introduced range, and recommended methods of cultivation and propagation. Individual entries emphasize morphological detail useful for identification and note practical growing habits observed in collections. The volume supplies systematic indexes that organize species by Latin and English names, hardiness, and whether they suit open ground, greenhouse, or stove culture. The result serves as a combined visual reference and hands-on guide for recognizing and cultivating a wide range of ornamental plants.

[352]

Oenothera Purpurea. Purple Oenothera.

Class and Order.

Octandria Monogynia.

Generic Character.

Cal. 4-fidus. Petala 4. Caps. cylindrica infera. Sem. nuda.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

OENOTHERA purpurea foliis ovato-lanceolatis glaucescentibus integerrimis, capsulis sessilibus, stigmate atro-purpureo.

No. 352

The species of Oenothera here figured is the one we mentioned in treating of the rosea, a very ornamental species, introduced to the Royal Garden at Kew, from the western coast of North-America, in 1791.[4] We have given to it the name of purpurea, it being the only one in our gardens with purple flowers.

It is distinguished by three principal characters, the glaucous appearance of its foliage, the purple hue of its blossoms, and the dark colour of its stigma.

It flowers during the months of July and August, and ripens its seeds in September; is an annual of ready growth, and worthy of being more generally introduced to the flower-garden; its seeds should be sown in the spring, with other tender annuals, and the seedlings when of a proper age planted out singly in the open border, where they will acquire the height of two feet, and produce abundance of blossoms which, like those of the rosea, open during the day as well as in the evening.