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GESNERA longifolia 



Long -leaved Gesnera. 



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DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. 



Nat. ord. Gesnerace.e. 

 GESNERA. Supra 1841, tab. 63 



G. longifolia ; caule herbaceo crasso tereti tomentoso, foliis oppositis et sub- 

 alternis petiolatis lanceolatis crenato-serratis utrinque angustatis, pedi- 

 cellis ad axillas foborum summorum fasciculato-verticillatis umfloris pe- 

 tiolo paulo longioribus in racemum terminalem dispositis, corolla cylin- 

 draceo-ventricosa villosa : limbo regulari, glandulis 5 linearibus, stami- 

 nibus inclusis. Botanical Register, 1841, misc. 190. 



This is a remarkable species, with more the habit of 

 G. allag ophylla than of such species as G. faucialis, bulbosa, 

 and the others commonly cultivated. It grows about two 

 feet high, and is closely covered by a dense grey down. The 

 leaves grow in stems, and are sometimes eight or nine inches 

 long, of a lanceolate form, thick, petiolate, serrated towards the 

 upper end, and by no means wrinkled. The flowers are pro- 

 duced in long close cylindrical terminal whorled racemes, 

 three or four growing together from the axils of short floral 

 leaves. 



The corollas are brick red, about an inch long, some- 

 what cylindrical, but inflated above the middle, with a short 

 5-toothed spreading limb, whose divisions are all of the same 

 size and form. There is no trace of the obliquity which 

 occurs in G. bulbosa and its allies. The ovary is half supe- 

 rior, and surrounded by five yellow tooth-shaped glands 

 tipped with red. 



It is a native of Guatemala, whence it was sent to the 

 Horticultural Society by Mr. Hartweg. 



Nothing can be more easy than its cultivation ; for it 



