Marianthus
(from Maria, Mary, and anthos, a flower; dedicated to the Virgin Mary). ORD. Pittosporeae. A genus comprising about fourteen species of greenhouse under-shrubs, with procumbent, flexuous, or, more frequently, twining branches, limited to Australia. Flowers blue, white, or reddish, in terminal compact panicles, usually corymbose or almost umbellate, rarely solitary; petals connivent at base or above the middle, spreading at top. Leaves entire, toothed, or the lower ones occasionally lobed. This genus is sometimes confused with Billardiera, from which it differs in its capsular, not baccate, fruit. The species thrive in a compost of sandy loam and fibry peat, and are admirable plants for training on cylindrical trellises. Propagated, in April or May, by cuttings of half-ripened shoots, inserted in sand, under a bell glass, in gentle bottom heat.
M. caeruleo-punctatus (blue-spotted). fl. greyish-blue, each petal with a black spot, in terminal heads. April. l., first ones occasionally toothed or lobed; all the others quite entire; lower ones 3in. to 4in. long, upper ones 2in. to 3in. long. h. 4ft. 1840. (B. M. 3893.) M. Drummondianus (Drummond's). fl. lilac; petals 1/2in. long; sepals hairy; pedicels terminal, one to three together. l. from obovate to oblong-lanceolate, mostly acute, or with a small recurved point, toothed or entire, sessile or narrowed into a short petiole; lowest ones sometimes deeply cut. 1865. Young shoots and leaves hairy, or rarely glabrous. (B. M. 5521.)