Clitoria
(from clitoris, an anatomical term, a resemblance to the object denoted by which has been fancied to exist in the flower). Including Ternatea. ORD. Leguminosoe. Very handsome stove evergreen climbers. Flowers axillary, pedicellate, large, elegant. Leaves impari-pinnate, having two to numerous pairs of leaflets; but usually the leaves are pinnately-trifoliolate, and the leaflets stipellate. They thrive in a compost of peat, loam, and sand. Cuttings of stubby side shoots will root in sandy soil, if placed in heat, and covered with a bell glass; but the best method of increasing them is by seeds, which occasionally ripen in this country.
C. braziliana (Brazilian). fl. pink, large; pedicels twin, one-flowered; bracts ovate, longer than, and hiding, the calyx. July. l. pinnately trifoliate; leaflets ovate-oblong, glabrous. Brazil, 1759. C. heterophylla (various-leaved).* fl. blue; pedicels solitary, one-flowered; bracteoles small, acute. July. l. impari-pinnate, with two to four pairs of roundish, ovate, or linear leaflets. Tropics everywhere, 1812. (B. M. 2111.) C. mariana (Maryland). fl. pale and flesh-coloured; pedicels solitary, one to three-flowered; bracteoles lanceolate, smooth. August. l. pinnately trifoliate; leaflets ovate-lanceolate. United States, &c., 1759. C. ternatea (three-leafleted).* fl. very curious and beautiful, being of a clear azure, set off by a horseshoe-shaped ring of pure white; pedicels solitary, one-flowered; bracteoles large, roundish. July. l. impari-pinnate, with two to four pairs of oval or ovate leaflets. India, 1739. SYN. Ternatea vulgaris. (B. M. 1542.) There are varieties of this species with blue and white flowers, and also variegated with those colours.