Vegetab. ed.
14._ _Murr. p. 401._ _Ait. Kew. v. 1. p. 62._

TRIFOLIUM spinosum Creticum. _Clus. Hist. 2. p. 242. f._ _Bauh. Pin. p.
330._

FAGONIA cretica spinosa. _Tourn. Inst. p. 265._

CLUSIUS is the first author who has described and figured this plant, he
is very minute in his description of it, noticing the exact number of
its stamina; it is the more surprising, therefore, that he should have
so little idea of generic character, as to rank it with the trefoils
merely from the form of its leaves: TOURNEFORT, born to illustrate the
genera of plants, named it _Fagonia_ in honour of his friend and patron,
Mons. FAGON, privy counsellor and consulting physician to LEWIS XIV.

This species is a native of the island of Candia, and was cultivated
here by Mr. MILLER, in 1739; it is an annual, and as it does not perfect
its seeds with us in the open air, unless in very favourable seasons, it
is usually treated as a green-house plant, its seeds should be sown in
the autumn, as it thereby flowers earlier, and ripe seeds are with more
certainty obtained.

It blossoms from June to August.

The plant from which our drawing was made, flowered this season in the
very rich collection of Messrs. LEE and KENNEDY, Hammersmith.

Its branches are usually procumbent, about a foot in length, and
require, if the plant be kept in a pot, to be tied up to a stick.

[Illustration: _No 241_]

[Illustration: _No 242_]

[242]

VERONICA DECUSSATA. CROSS-LEAV'D SPEEDWELL.

_Class and Order._

DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

_Generic Character._

_Cor._ limbo 4-partito: lacinia infima angustiore. _Caps._ 2-locularis
apice emarginata.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

VERONICA _decussata_ spicis terminalibus paniculatis, foliis oblongis
integerrimis laevigatis coriaceis, caule fruticoso. _Ait. Kew. v. 1.
p. 20._

VERONICA _decussata_ floribus racemosis axillaribus, foliis ovalibus
decussatis integerrimis. _Moench. Weissenstein. p. 137._ _Linn.
Syst. Nat. tom. 2. ed. 13._ _Gmel. p. 30._

The plant here represented, is a native of Falkland's Island, and was
introduced to this country by Dr. FOTHERGILL, about the year 1776; if
permitted to grow, it will become a bushy shrub of a considerable size:
it has been chiefly admired for the unusual and regular growth of its
leaves, which are ever-green, and grow thickly on the branches,
cross-wise, affording an excellent example of the _folia decussata_;