42 
ACHIMENES picta. 
Painted Achimenes. 
.DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMTA. 
Nat. ord. GusNeracem.—Gesneraps, Lindl. Veg. Kingdom, ined. 
ACHIMENES. Supra, vol. 1842. fol. 31. 
A. picta ; tota hirsuta, foliis oppositis ternisque cordato-ovatis grossé serratis 
velutino-hirsutis elegantissime albopictis, pedunculis solitariis v. binis 
axillaribus folio longioribus unifloris, calycis tubo turbinato laciniis 
ovatis patentibus, corollæ tubo infundibuliformi limbi lobis rotundatis 
patentibus subæqualibus 3 inferioribus minoribus, ovario hirsuto vix 
calyce adnato, glandulis hypogynis 5.— Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 4126. 
Achimenes picta, Bentham MSS. Hartweg in Hort. Trans. n. s. 3. 161. £. 3. 
This beautiful thing, which is already becoming familiar 
to the cultivators of stove plants, was introduced from New 
Grenada (not Mexico) by the Horticultural Society, who 
have largely distributed it. Mr. Hartweg, who found it, 
speaks thus of its discovery. 
Ascending the wooded heights on the east of Guaduas, 
I found in a forest of Wax Palms ( Cerozylon andicola) the 
Gustavia speciosa, Caliphruria Hartwegiana (a bulbous plant 
with white flowers), Peristeria elata, and Achimenes picta. 
In its native place this Achimenes prefers dry rocky ground, 
in places not much shaded, where it scarcely grows more than 
five inches in height, seldom producing more than two of its 
finely mottled bright orange flowers upon a stem. 
The blossoms are certainly very handsome; but the foliage 
is perhaps the most beautiful part, on account of the distinct 
bands of pale whitish blue upon a ground of velvet of the 
blackest green. 
It is a stove plant, and must be grown in sandy peat. 
Like all the other species of Achimenes, this succeeds best in 
a shallow pot or pan; but in whatever way it is grown, 
plenty of drainage 1s necessary. It will not survive long, if 
