Lessertia
(named after Benjamin de Lessert, of Paris, 1773-1847, author of "Icones Plantarum"). ORD. Leguminosae. This genus comprises about thirty species of greenhouse herbs or sub-shrubs, natives of the Cape of Good Hope. Flowers pink or red, rarely white, in axillary pedunculate racemes; vexillum sub-orbiculate, spreading or reflexed, naked within; claw short; wings oblong; keel upright or incurved, obtuse, often shorter than the vexillum. Leaves impari-pinnate; leaflets entire, exstipellate. Probably the species here described is the only one now in cultivation. It thrives in a loam and peat compost. Propagated by seeds, or by divisions, in spring. L. perennans (enduring). fl. with a pale base and red or purple apex, numerous, drooping; racemes longer than the leaves, loose, elongated, pedunculate. August. l., leaflets oval, silky beneath, pubescent above. h. 1ft. 1776. Herbaceous perennial. (B. M. 6106.)