MASTACANTHUS sinensis. 
Chinese Beardwort. 
DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. 
Nat. ord. VERBENACEX. (VERBENES, Vegetable Kingdom, p. 663. 
ined.) 
MASTACANTHUS, Endl.—Calyz quinquefidus, laciniis acutis erectis, 
sequalibus, fructiferis conniventibus. Corolla ringens, tubo calycem zequante, 
limbo quinquefido, labii superioris laciniis quatuor ovatis, erectis, subzequa- 
libus, labio inferiore magno patente incurvo, fimbria longa capillari terminato. 
Stamina 4, didynama, duo longiora exserta; anthere subrotundae. Ovarium 
subglobosum, quadrisulcum. Stylus bifidus, staminibus brevior; stigmata 
simplicia. Achenia (?) 4, subrotunda.— — Frutex cantoniensis, pedalis, lig- 
nosus, graveolens ; ramis adscendentibus, paucis, foliis oppositis, ovato-oblongis, 
obtusis, serratis, basi integerrimis, lineatis, tomentosis, petiolis brevibus, flori- 
bus axillaribus, verticillis fastigiatis, corollis albis (azureis).—Endl. gen.3720. 
M. sinensis, Endlicher in Walpers’ Repert. iv. 3. 
Barbula sinensis, Loureiro Fl. Cochinch. 444. 
This is an autumn-flowering herbaceous plant, growing 
from one and a half to two feet high, and forming neat little 
bushy tufts. It is, in a gardening point of view, of some 
importance ; because it furnishes an abundance of rich violet 
blossoms at a season when that colour, never abundant, is 
peculiarly rare in gardens. 
It has been received from Mr. Fortune, who sent it from 
China to the Horticultural Society, in whose garden it 
flowered in October last. It grows wild in the neighbourhood 
of Canton, and Mr. Fortune found it in Chusan, and at 
Koo-lung-soo. 
It was originally described by Loureiro, under the name 
of Barbula sinensis, in allusion to the beard or fringe which 
terminates one of the lobes of the corolla. "The name Barbula 
being, however, universally applied to a genus of Mosses, that 
of Mastacanthus has been substituted by Prof. Endlicher : 
we presume from the Greek uaoraé, a moustache. 
