Tas. 8167. 
GESNERA cCARDINALIS. 
Brazil. 
GESNERACEAR. Tribe GESNEREAE. 
Gesners, Mart.; Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 1008. 
Gesnera cardinalis, Lehm. in EH. Otto, Garten- und Blumenzeitung, Hamburg, 
vol. vi. (1850), p. 454; Hanst. in Mart. Fl. Bras. vol. viii. pars i. p. 378; 
species corolla laete coccinea, labio postico oblongo et calycis lobis erectis 
insignis. 
Herba 20-25 cm. alta, asperule velutina, tubero depresso-globoso, caule sat: debili. 
Folia late ovata, basi cordata, 10-15 em. longa, 8-12 em. lata, crenata, 
inferiora longiuscule petiolata, superiora minora, subsessilia, suprema 
approximata, ad bracteas redacta. lores in axillis superioribus 1-4 
aggregati, pedunculis longiores. Calyx dense velutinus; “lobi erecti, 
triangulari-lanceolati, circiter 8 mm. longi, corollae stricturam supra- 
basalem superantes, apice leviter recurvi, praesertim post anthesin. Corolla 
tubulosa, circiter 6-7 cm. longa, antice late bisulcata, lineamento antico 
subrecto, postico leviter curvato; labium posticum oblongum, lobis 
subtruncatis ; anticum manifeste trilobatum, lobis ascendentibus vel 
patulis. Filamenta hirsuta. Disci glandulae 2 posticae tantum evolutae, 
rotundatae vel subtruncatae, 1:5 mm. longae, ima basi 2 mm. latae. 
Placentae undique ovuliferae, in sectione fere semicirculares facie interna 
leviter concava.—G@. macrantha, Hort. ex Lehm.Lc., non Spreng. Direaea 
cardinalis, Regel, Gartenfl. vol. ii. (1853), p. 35, t. 41. Corytholoma 
cardinale, Fritsch in Eng]. et Prantl, Pflanzenfam, vol. iv. pars 3 b, p. 181. 
Gesnera cardinalis belongs to a natural group of species 
for which Decaisne proposed the genus Dircaea. The most 
striking characteristic of the group is the great disproportion 
between the upper and lower lips of the corolla. The upper 
lip is very large and is bent over in bud so as to form a lid 
_ which completely covers the mouth of the corolla; as the 
_ flower expands the Jip rises, turning through considerably 
more than a right angle and finally assuming an erect 
position, The lower lip is comparatively small. 
’ 'The remarkable mode of union of the anthers in a disk, 
shown in figures 2 and 3, is characteristic of Gesnera ; many 
other genera of Gesneraceae, however, have more or less 
- connate anthers. 
A number of the plants cultivated at Kew as G. 
cardinalis, including the one here figured, agree exactly 
with the figure in Gartenjlora and with Hanstein’s detailed 
_ Decumsrs, 1907, 
