De Candolle, (Besleria bicolor, Schott). Schott’s original cha- 
racter (l.c.) entirely accords with it; and he says nothing about 
the colour of the corolla, which De Candolle (who appears to 
have seen the species), perhaps by some error, states to be red 
in the ¢wbe, whereas it is yellow. Martius’ figure and description — 
of 4. sparsiflorus leave no doubt of that being a synonyme ; and 
not happily named, for he correctly represents the flowers as 
gregated. 
Cultivated as this plant is at Kew among the various red 
and orange-coloured and purple flowered Gesneriaceous plants, 
it makes a singular contrast with its dark black-purple or blood- 
coloured calyces and pale yellow, very woolly corollas. It may 
be increased by cuttings. 
Descr. Stem erect, shrubby below, herbaceous above, terete, 
glabrous. Leaves opposite, petiolate, ovato-oblong, acute, entire, 
fleshy, penninerved, strigillose: petiole about as long as the 
cluster of flowers, red ; zerves often red beneath. Mowers aggre- 
gate, nearly sessile, bracteated ; dracteas soon deciduous. Calya 
of five cordate or triangular, dark blood-coloured sepa/s, the three 
outer larger and including the two inner ones, their margins 
complicate. Corolla clavate, the tube curved at the base; the 
rest densely clothed with close spreading yellow hairs. Limé ot 
five, nearly erect, small, rounded lobes. Sfamens included. Ovary 
ovate, glabrous, with a large gland at the base beneath. Style 
curved. Stigma oblique, small, two-lobed. 
Fig. 1. Corolla. 2. Stamens. 3. Pistil and hypogynous gland :—magnified. 
