Tab. 4198. 

 RHYNCHOGLOSSUM zeylanicum. 



Ceylon Bhgnckoglossum. 



Nat. Ord. Cyrtandrace.e. — Diandria Monogynia. 



Gen. Char. Calyx tubulosus 5-fidus, lobis per sestivationem valvutis. Corolla 

 tubulosa, personata, breviter bilabiata, labio super, abbreviate) bilobo, infer, pro- 

 ducto semitrilobo, lobis lateralibus brevissimis. Stamina inclusa, 2 inferiora an- 

 theras reniformes gerentia, 2 et cum rudimento minimo 3 supcriora sterilia. 

 Vaginida incompleta ovarii basin cingens. Stigma capitatum vix divisum. Cap- 

 sula stylo filiformi persistente superata, ovata, calyce inclusa bivalvis. Placenta' 2 

 parietales adnata? in lamellas 2 fissiles. Semina parva elbptico-oblonga. — Herba? 

 Indicce annua glabra aid subpuberulce. Caulis mcculentus. Folia alterna petiolata 

 ovata basi hinc alte excisa apice acuminata. Kacemi terminates secund'tflori sm- 

 plices, pedicellis solitariis 4-bracteatis. Flores dejlexi ceerulei. DC. 



Rhynchoglossum Zeylanicum ; corolla? labio inferiore tubo duplo breviore trifido. 



A lovely little plant, sent from Ceylon by Mr. Gardner, with 

 flowers of a bright blue, arranged in long one-sided racemes, and 

 leaves with singularly unequal sides like those of many Begonia, 

 and of a peculiarly tender green colour. The genus is Loxotis, of 

 Mr. Brown, in Horsfield's 'Plants of Java', Fasc. 1. p. 102. t. 24., 

 and the species there admirably figured and described, so much 

 resembles the present one, that at first I was unwilling to consider 

 them distinct ; but in all the many flowers I have examined, there 

 is uniformly in our plant such a difference in the lower lip, short 

 and broadly ovate, not twice the length of the upper lip, and 

 much shorter than the tube ; — in Mr. Brown's Loxotis odiimea 

 oblong or strap-shaped, longer even than the tube of the corolla, 

 obscurely tridentate, that I cannot but describe the present as 

 new. Mr. Brown was doubtful if his genus was the same with 

 the Rhjnchoglosmm of Blume ; but De Candolle having apparently 

 decided that point in favour of Blmne's name, I follow De Can- 

 dolle in adopting it. This name I presume is given from piy X ot 

 a beak, and y\«o-<ra a tongue, from the tongue-like beak or lower 

 lip to the flower; a name, applicable enough to the projecting 

 lower lip in the original species (constituting more than one half 

 of the corolla), but not at all so to that of ours. 



DECEMBER 1ST, 1845. 



