Tas. 7672. 
COLEUS tuyrsorpevs. 
Native of British Central Africa. 
Nat. Ord. Lasiat#,—Tribe OcimorpEes. 
Genus Coteus, Lour.; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 1176.) 
Coteus (paniculate) thyrsoideus; suffrutex elatus, ramosus, caule ramis petiolis 
aque inflorescentia laxe pilosis, foliis longe petiolatis amplis ovatis ovato- 
cordatisve subacutis marginibus grosse inciso- v. lobulato-crenatis, crenis 
obtusis, supra late viridibus, utrinque puberulis, subtus pallidioribus, 
ramulos inflorescentia elongata paniculeeformi, cymis, multifloris pedun- 
culos 4-1-pollicares terminantibus, pedicellis brevibus, calycis tubo brevis- 
simo setuloso, segmentis obtusis postico oblongo-obovato lateralibus 
anticisque lineari-oblongis fere duplo longiore, corollw 3-poll. longa tubo 
medium versus defracto, fauce bapdins ampliata, limbi lete czrulei labio 
inferiore cymbiformi acuto, superiore 4-lobulato lobulis rotundatis, fila- 
mentis basi monadelphis labium inferius corolla wquantibus. 
C. thyrsoides, Baker in Kew Bulletin ined. 
Recent collectors in Eastern and Central tropical Africa 
have largely extended our knowledge of the Flora of those 
regions, in every case tending to prove its close affinity 
with that of British India. In respect of the natural 
order Labiatz this affinity is very marked, as evidenced by 
the ocimoid genera Coleus and Plectranthus, of which there 
are many undescribed African species in herbaria, over 
and above those published of late by Schweinfurth and 
Engler in their monographs of African plants. 
Coleus thyrsoideus inhabits the plateau east of the 
northern extremity of Lake Nyassa, in the Mozambique 
district, at elevations of six thousand to seven thousand 
feet, and the Tanganyika plateau at two thousand feet to 
three thousand feet. Plants of it were raised at the Royal 
Gardens, Kew, from seeds taken from a Herbarium speci- 
men collected by Mr. A. Whyte in British Central Africa. 
These, sown in April, 1897, produced bushy plants three 
feet high, that flowered in a stove in February of the 
following year. It is a very ornamental plant; the copious 
branches terminating in racemes six inches to ten inches 
long, of bright blue flowers. 
Deser.—A_ rather tall, leafy, much branched perennial 
undershrub, two to three feet high, the branches termi- 
SepTEMBER Ist, 1899. 
