troduced living plants to our gardens, where they are much 
prized. They flower with us in July. If any figure or recent 
account of it has appeared in the Continental journals, I have 
failed to find such; but it must be confessed that either the 
Continental or our own booksellers keep us sadly behind in the 
matter of periodical scientific-publications. 
Descr. Stem short, thick, perennial, but rather herbaceous 
than woody, rooting at intervals, four-sided, dark-purple. Leaves 
approximate, orbicular-ovate, six inches and more long, by four 
and a half broad, suddenly acuminulate, the margin denticulate, 
traversed longitudinally by ten strong ribs, prominent beneath ; 
plaited, above deep, rich, glossy metallic-green, partially reddish, 
beneath bright-red and furfuraceous: the longitudinal ribs are 
united by curved veins ; petioles rather long, thick, dark-purple. 
Peduncle short, thick, terminal, and axillary, bearing a capitulum 
of numerous flowers, ingluded in a large involucre of five or six 
subrotundo-ovate, dark-purple scales. //owers sometimes tri- 
merous, sometimes tetramerous; the rest as in the generic 
character. | 
Fig. 1. Flower. 2. Flower, with the petals removed. 3. Stamens:—all 
more or less magnified. 
