seeds from W. Hieson, Esq., of Mexico, and who cultivates 
it both in the greenhouse and open border. In the latter it 
attains a height of three feet, and bears the dense corymbs 
of flowers of a very deep and rich purple colour. They are 
paler in the greenhouse : and some of our native specimens 
in the Herbarium exhibit them white. 
Descr. Stem erect, two to three feet high, pubescenti- 
scabrous, tinged with purple, branched, the lower branches 
opposite, the upper ones alternate. Leaves, in like manner, 
opposite below, alternate above, the former broadly ovate, 
acute, on short, broad petioles, three-nerved ; upper ones 
gradually smaller and narrower, quite sessile, all of them 
coarsely serrated. The copious branches at the top of the 
stem reach nearly to the same level, thus forming a large, 
dense corymb, with the numerous bright red-purple flowers. 
Heads in clusters of three or four together. Involucre of 
five, erect, linear-oblong, hispid leaves, including the same 
number of florets. Corolla almost salver-shaped, the tube 
slightly enlarged upwards, the five spreading segments of 
the limb hispid on the outside. Style, with its very long 
downy branches, much protruded. Achenium furrowed, 
crowned with a short, irregular, cup-shaped pappus, desti- 
tute of awns or sete. : 
Fig. 1. Head of Flowers. 2, Single Floret :—magnified. 
