796 
JUSTICIA pectoralis. 
Forked Justicia. Jamaica Garden Balsam. 
—— 
DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
Nat. ord. ACANTHI. Jussieu gen. 102. Div. II. 
ACANTHACEZ. Brown prod. 1. 472. 
JUSTICIA. Supra vol. 4. fol. 309. 
Div. Calyce simplici, corollis bilabiatis: labiis divisis. 
J. pectoralis, panicula terminali dichotoma, floribus spicatis remotis. Vahl 
enumer. 1. 144. 
Justicia pectoralis. Vahl symb. 2. 15. Jacq. amer. 3. tab. 3. Willd. sp. 
pl. 1. 92. Swartz fl. ind. occident. Hort. Kew. ed. 2. 1. 40. 
Caulis adscendens, bi- v. tripedalis, tenuis, teretiusculus, linea pilosa 
decurrente, supernè dichotomè divisus. Folia breviter petiolata, bipollicaria, 
lanceolata, attenuata, integerrima, glabra. Pedunculi terminales, fili- 
formes. Flores alterni, solitarii, basi bractea tres, et alia flori opposita, 
cum rudimento floris in axilla subulati, longitudine calycis. Vahl enum. 
1. 145. 
—— = e 
Introduced by Mr. William Anderson, in 1787, from 
the West Indies; where it is sometimes called “ Jamaica 
Garden Balsam." 
Vahl describes the species with an ascending slender 
roundish stem, from two to three feet high, marked with a 
hairy decurrent line, and dichotomously divided at the 
upper part. Leaves short-petioled, about two inches long, 
lanceolate, taper-pointed, quite entire, smooth. Peduncles 
terminal, filiform. Flowers alternate, solitary, with the 
bractes at the base, and another opposite to the flower, 
containing the rudiment of a subulate flower in the axilla, 
the length of the calyx. 
There is no figure of this species in any of the periodi- 
cal publications ; and yet it is an old inhabitant of our 
hothouses. 
The drawing from whence the annexed engraving is 
taken, was made in the garden of the Horticultural Society, 
where the plant had been raised from seed sent to the So- 
ciety from Maranham, by Robert Hesketh, Esq. in 1825. 
