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Leschenaultia (Named after L T Leschenault)
(named after L. T. Leschenault, 1773-1826, a French botanist and traveller). Formerly spelt Lechenaultia. ORD. Goodenovieae. A genus comprising sixteen species of very ornamental greenhouse herbs, under-shrubs, or shrubs, confined to Australia. Flowers blue, white, yellow, red, or greenish, either solitary and terminal or leaf-opposed, or several in compact, leafy, terminal corymbs; corolla oblique, the tube slit open to the base, or rarely closed, the lobes all or partially erect, and connivent or spreading. Leschenaultias are amongst the most beautiful and effective of green-house hard-wooded plants. Their successful cultivation requires the most careful attention at all seasons, particularly in regard to watering. They are propagated from cuttings, which should be taken, in spring or summer, from the points of shoots that are moderately firm, and inserted in well-drained pots of very sandy peat, under a shaded bell glass, in a little heat. Established plants will sometimes require a little stopping, to insure a symmetrical habit. This should be seen to so soon as flowering is over; and, if it is necessary, a few small stakes may be used for training or supporting the branches left. The soil used in potting or re-potting should consist of fibry peat and silver sand. It is very important that the stem of the plant should not be buried, or placed so as to be lower than the surrounding soil. A rather close frame will be best for a time, after the roots have been disturbed; but a light, airy situation should be afforded at all other times. The plants should not be exposed in the open air to ripen their growth; this treatment is generally injurious, if not fatal to them; although it is beneficial to many other plants of a hard-wooded, but much stronger-growing nature. If a light, sunny position, under glass, is selected for their cultivation throughout the autumn and winter, ripening of the wood may fairly be expected, and the plants will be uninjured by alternate heavy rains and drying winds. Only soft water should be used for watering, and it should be judiciously administered at all times. L. biloba major is perhaps the finest blue-flowered hard-wooded shrub in cultivation, and L. formosa is an exceedingly handsome species. The species described below are those best known to cultivation. L. arcuata (arched). A synonym of L. linarioides.
L. Baxteri (Baxter's). A synonym of L. formosa.
L. biloba (two-lobed).* fl. blue; corymbs few-flowered; segments of corolla cuneated, deeply two-lobed, with a mucrone between them. June to August. l. linear-obtuse. Stem branched. h. 1ft. 1840. Shrub. SYNS. L. Drummondi, L. grandiflora. (B. R. 1841, 2.) The form major is a very desirable one, being somewhat larger, in all its parts, than the type.
L. chlorantha (greenish-flowered). fl. similar to those of L. formosa, but pale green in colour; the two upper connivent lobes of the corolla are acuminate, and more or less recurved. l. 1/4in. to 1/2in. long. A low, diffuse, much-branched shrub, with the habit of L. formosa, of which it is probably only a variety.
L. Drummondi (Drummond's). A synonym of L. biloba.
L. formosa (handsome).* fl. scarlet, axillary, solitary, bractless, drooping; upper lip of corolla rounded, entire; lower ones tripartite. June to September. l. linear. h. 1ft. 1824. Shrub. SYNS. L. Baxteri, L. multiflora (L. B. C. 1579), L. oblata. (B. M. 2600; B. R. 916.) L. grandiflora (large-flowered). A synonym of L. biloba. L. laricina (Larch-like). fl. scarlet; corymbs three to five-flowered; corolla having the tube hairy inside at the bottom; segments spreading, two-lobed. June to August. l. filiform, compressed, apiculate. Stem branched. h. 1ft. 1844. Shrub. SYN. L. splendens (under which name it is figured in B. M. 4256). L. linarioides (Toadflax-like). fl. yellow, terminal; corolla large, with three broad spreading bifid segments and two smaller entire ones. August. l. scattered, filiform. Stem branched. 1844. Shrub. SYNS. L. arcuata (B. M. 4265), Scaevola grandiflora.
L. multiflora (many-flowered). A synonym of L. formosa. L. oblata (oblate). A synonym of L. formosa.
L. splendens (splendid). A synonym of L. laricina.