+ 
Tas. 4405, 
CHIRITA Moonnt. 
Mr. Moon’s Chirita. 
Nat. Ord. CyrtanpRace#®.—DrpYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA, 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tan. 4182.) 
Currita Moonii ; subsericeo-villosa, caule suffruticoso, ramis obtuse tetragonis, 
foliis 2—4-nisque petiolatis ovato-lanceolatis apice acutiusculis obsolete 
glanduloso-serratis, pedunculis axillaribus solitariis v. binis petiolo 3-plo 
longioribus, sepalis lanceolato-subulatis carinatis, corolla magna extus 
pubescente. 
Currira Moonii. Gardn. in Mem. on Didymocarp. of Ceylon, p.19. 
Marrynra lanceolata. Moon, Cat. Ceyl. Pl. p. 45. 
There have been few of the many visitors to the Royal Gardens 
of Kew, during the season of 1848, who have not been struck 
with the beauty of the present plant, as exhibited in our stoves, 
Two to three feet in height, its leaves rather copious, opposite 
or verticillate, of a pale, pleasant green, the flowers mostly whorled 
and larger and more delicate and as highly coloured as the 
largest flowered Glovinia: and some or other of these plants 
blossoming throughout the whole summer. The species is a 
native of Ceylon: Mr. Moon was the discoverer of it at “ Four 
Korles,” and it appears in his Catalogue of Ceylon plants under 
the name of Martynia lanceolata. It exists in my Herbarium 
among the plants of Mrs. General Walker, and Mr. Gardner 
detected it in rocks near the summit of the Hantane range and 
nightly referred it to the genus Chirita, attaching to it the name 
of the original finder. 
Descr. It forms an erect, simple or slightly branched, suffru- 
ticose plant, two to three feet high. The ranches rounded or 
obscurely tetragonal. Leaves opposite, or two to four in a whorl, 
_ patent, ovato-lanceolate, petiolate, rather acute, scarcely acumi- 
nate, obscurely glanduloso-serrate, penninerved, clothed with 
Compact silky down, most conspicuous beneath. Petioles an inch 
long. Peduncles axillary, solitary or two together, more than 
NOVEMBER Ist, 1848. a 
