Tas. 6498. 
RUELLIA PortTELLE. 
Native of South Brazil. 
Nat. Ord. ACANTHACEZ.—Tribe RUELLIEA. 
Genus Ruetuia, Linn.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 1077.) 
Rueiti1a Portelle; herbacea, erecta, ramosa, tota velutino-tomentella, ramis 
gracilibus teretibus, foliis oblongo-ovatis subacutis v. obtusis longe petiolatis 
basi acutis integerrimis supra saturate viridibus costa nervisque albis, subtus 
rubro-purpureis, floribus axillaribus solitariis sessilibus, bracteolis 2 foliaceis 
calycem equantibus, calycis segmentis lanceolatis acuminatis, corollz late roses 
14-13-pollicaris tubo piloso supra medium lente incurvo dein sensim dilatato, 
limbi plani lobis subquadrato-rotundatis 2-fidis, staminibus subzquilongis, 
filamentis filiformibus rectis per paria contiguis, antheris breviter exsertis 
anguste oblongis, ovario sessili pilosulo loculis 6-ovulatis. 
To pronounce a species of Muwellia as “hitherto un- 
described”? is no light matter, for the genus contains 
upwards of one hundred and fifty known species, which 
are described under various generic names and in many 
scattered works, often very imperfectly. Moreover, these 
have been referred, as often wrongly as rightly, to no less 
than fourteen genera, none of which should have been 
separated from Ruellia, and some of them to other genera, 
which have nothing to do with Ruellia. I fail to match 
it with the descriptions of any of the species of Ruellia (or 
Dipteracanthus, now united with Ruellia) in Martius’s Flora 
Brasiliensis, where, if known in European Herbaria, this 
pretty plant would no doubt have been described. I have 
hence been compelled to give it a name, and have chosen 
for the purpose that of the donor, Sefior Francisco Portella 
of Campos (Rio de Janeiro), who sent it in a ward’s-case 
with various other valuable living plants of Brazil. It appears 
to be a very free-growing species, well adapted for winter 
decoration as a stove plant; and, like others of its order, 
requiring to be kept quiet when flowering and fruiting are 
over. 
Descr. A slender much-branched erect herb, a foot 
high, all parts covered with a fine velvety pubescence ; 
JUNE Ist, 1880. 
