Tab. 7355. 



hillia teteandba. 



Native of Jamaica, Cuba and Mexico. 



Nat. Ord. Rubiace,e. — Tribe Cixcuoseje. 

 Genus Hillia, Jacq.; {Benth. & HooJc.f. Gen. Plant, vol. ii. p. 39.) 



Hillia tetrandra ; f rutex glaberrimus, ramulis teretibus, foliis sessilibus 

 ellipticis obovatis v. spathuJato-oblanceolatis obtusis basi cuneatis 

 pallide viridibus lucidis, costa infra medium crassa nervis erecto-paten- 

 tibus, floribns solitariis terminalibus sessilibus 2-bracteatis et 4 bracteolatis 

 tetrameris albis, bracteis pollicaribus late-oblongis membranaceis albia 

 caducis, calycis tubo cylindraceo 8-sulcato, lobis 2-4 linearibus erectis 

 obtusis, corollas magna? albaa tubo gracili 24-pollicari, lobis ovato- 

 rotundatis recurvis triplo longiore, fauce modice dilatata, staminibus 

 fauce corollas inclnsis, antheris sessilibus lineari-oblongis, stylo brevi, 

 stigmatibus linearibus, capsuke valvis demum tortis. 



H. tetrandra, Swartz Prodr. Veg. Ind. Occ. 58; Fl. Ind. Occ. vol. i. p. 630; 

 Ic. PI. Ind. Occ. t. xi. DC. Prodr. vol. iv. p. 351. Ail. Ilort. Kew Ed. 2, 

 vol. ii. p. 315. Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. p. 325. 



?H. tuxtlensis, Fl. Mex. ined. ex DC. I. c. 



The genus Hillia commemorates the services rendered 

 to Botany by the more sumptuous than scientific works of 

 the all but forgotten Sir John Hill, who was successively 

 apothecary, botanist, stage actor, dramatist, novelist, 

 essayist, physician, quack doctor, and translator of " Theo- 

 phrastus on Gems," but who is perhaps best remembered 

 as the traducer of the Royal Society, for election to which 

 body he vainly tried to get proposers. He died in 

 1775. His best claim for recognition is his " Hortus 

 Kewensis," a catalogue of the plants cultivated in the 

 Royal Gardens, Kew, of which the first edition was pub- 

 lished in 1779, and dedicated to Augusta, Princess of 

 Wales. 



The only two species of Hillia, H. longiflora and that 

 liere figured, have long been known in cultivation. The 

 former was introduced in 1789, and is figured on t. 721 

 of this work. H. tetrandra was brought to Kew in 1793 

 from Jamaica in H.M. Providence by Captain Bligh, on 

 his return from his second voyage, when he introduced 

 the Bread-fruit tree into that islaDd. Like H. longiflora 

 it is an epiphyte, growing on mossy tree-trunks in the 

 Mat 1st, 1894. 



