Monsonia
(named after Lady Ann Monson, a correspondent of Linnaeus). ORD. Geraniaceae. A genus comprising about a dozen species of ornamental greenhouse herbs or sub-shrubs, of which four are natives of North-eastern Africa and tropical Western Asia, and the rest South African. Flowers regular; sepals and petals five, imbricated; peduncles axillary, one-flowered or umbellately many-flowered. Leaves alternate or opposite, stipulate, toothed or dissected. The species thrive in a sandy-loam soil, with a small quantity of peat and leaf mould added. Propagated by seeds, sown in a slight hotbed, in spring; or by cuttings, inserted in sandy soil, under a handlight, in spring or autumn. The species here described are probably the only ones yet introduced. M. lobata (lobed). fl. variegated with purple, red, white, and greenish on the outside, but pale bluish, with a darker base, inside; peduncles long, one-flowered, furnished with six or eight whorled bracts in the middle. Spring. l. cordate, five to seven-lobed; lobes blunt, serrated, pilose beneath. h. 1ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1774. Sub-shrub. (B. M. 385.) M. speciosa (showy).* fl. rose-coloured, with a purple eye, greenish outside, large. Spring. l. palmately five-parted, with the segments finely bipinnatifid. h. 6in. Cape of Good Hope, 1774. Sub-shrub. (B. M. 73.)