Tas. 6336. 
ERANTHEMUM LAXIFLORUM. 
Native of Polynesia. 
Nat. Ord. AcantHackm—Tribe ErantHEME, 
Genus Erantuemum, Linn. (Benth. et Hook. fil. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 1097). 
Eranturmum laviflorum; fruiticosum glaberrimum, foliis ovalibus vel ovato- 
oblongis obtusiuscule acuminatis basi angustatis, pedunculis axillaribus folio 
brevioribus sepius bifcliiferis cymosim pauci- vel multifloris, pedicellis 
spe calyce longioribus, laciniis calycinis subulatis, corolla purpurea hypo- 
craterimorpha lobis subsequalibus subellipticis obtusis. 
E. laxiflorum, 4. Gray in Proce. Am. Acad. vol. v. p. 349; Seemann, £1. 
Vitiensis, p. 185, tab. 42. - 
For this very desirable addition to our autumn-flowering 
Acanthads we are indebted to Messrs. Veitch, for whom it 
was introduced from the New Hebrides. Specimens are also 
in the Kew Herbarium from the Fiji Islands, collected by 
the late Dr. Seemann, where he states (I. ¢.) that it is 
frequently cultivated by the European settlers as an orna- 
mental plant. 
Descr. Shrub or half-shrub attaining from two to four feet 
in height, wholly glabrous; stem smooth subterete or 
obscurely tetragonous. Leaves petiolate, oval or lanceolate- 
or ovate-oblong, narrowed to each end, apex scarcely acute, 
of the flowering branches usually two to three and a half 
inches long; two-thirds to one and a quarter of an inch broad, 
the lower ones, according to Dr. Seemann sometimes 
eight to nine inches long and four to five inches broad ; 
petioles of upper leaves one-sixth to one-half of an inch long. 
Cymes few- or many-flowered, axillary, pedunculate, usually 
with a pair of foliaceous bracts; pedicels equalling or 
exceeding the calyx. Calyx divided to nearly the base into 
five erect subulate subequal segments, several times shorter 
than the corolla-tube. Corolla purple, hypocrateriform ; 
tube cylindrical, exceeding the five-partite spreading limb, 
DECEMBER lst, 1877. 
