Tas. 6651. 
HABERLEA RHODOPENSIS. 
Native of Rumelia. 
Nat. Ord. GesNERACEE.—Tribe CyRTANDRER. 
Genus Haperuna, Lrivaldsky; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 1025.) 
Hapertxa rhodopensis ; perennis, molliter hirsuta, foliis oblongo-ovatis v. obovatis 
in petiolum latum angustatis obtusis grosse crenatis crassiuscule coriaceis, 
nervis paucis, scapis 2~5-floris apice 2-bracteatis, floribus umbellatis lilacinis 
inclinatis v. cernuis, pedunculis brevibus, calycis 5-fidi lobis ovatis acutis, 
corollz tubo intus pubescente, lobis orbiculari-obovatis emarginatis. 
H. rhodopensis, Frivaldsky in Act. Soc. Hung. 1835, vol. ii. p. 249, t. 1; Endl. 
Iconogr. t. 69; Griseb. Fl. Rumel. vol. ii. p. 54; Stein in Regel Gartenfl. 
1879, p. 323, t. 991, f. 4; Rosenth. and Berm. Wien. Ill. Garten Zeit. 1879. 
487, cum ic. xylog.; Boiss. Fl. Orient. vol. iv. p. 82. 
A very interesting plant, both because of its restricted 
local range, and of its being a type of a very large Asiatic 
and American Natural Order, the Gesneracee, of which 
only four species occur in Europe, all of them restricted 
m range, and three of them absolutely confined each 
to one spot. Of Haberlea there is only one species 
known; it is confined to a few miles of a single valley 
in Thrace, where it abounds, on the southern declivity 
of the Balkan range, growing on shaded schistose rocks 
near the town of Kalofer, and there forming in the 
flowering season a most beautiful feature of the landscape. 
Its nearest (and very near) ally is the genus Ramondia, of 
which only three species are known, including the beautiful 
R. pyrenaica, which is confined to the Pyrenees. The 
other species of Ramondia are geographically nearer neigh- 
bours of Haberlea; one, R. Heldrichii, inhabits only 
Mount Olympus in Thessaly, two hundred and thirty miles 
South-west of Kalofer; the third is found only in one spot 
in Servia, some three hundred miles west of the locality of 
Haberlea. To meet with other members of the Gesneracew 
all West Asia must be traversed, and for two thousand 
OCTOBER Ist, 1882. 
