Sw., which is here depicted, the calyx is cup-shaped and 
has very short obtuse lobes, While, however, the two are 
closely allied, B. americana can be readily recognised by its 
obtuse leaves, whereas those of our plant taper to both ends. 
It is a matter for observation as to whether the colour of 
the corolla varies in this Species, because in Loddiges’ 
Botanical Cabinet, at t. 388, and in Reichenbach’s Flora 
Exotica, at t. 294, are given figures, under the name 
B. undulata, of a plant with a yellowish corolla. Under 
cultivation B, undulata thrives in a warm house when planted 
in loamy soil and liberally watered. It ought to prove a 
useful shrub in tropical gardens, for it appears to thrive in 
the open even in the south of Kurope, and plants have been 
raised at Kew from seeds which ripened in 1888 in the 
Botanic Garden at Palermo, There is reason to believe 
that it is represented in various private collections in this 
country, sometimes under the erroneous name of Portlandia 
grandiflora, Linn., also a West Indian plant which is, how- 
ever, readily distinguished, without taking into account 
other characters, by the fact that its leaves are opposite. 
Desorrprion.— Shrub, or, in a wild state, a small tree 
reaching 20 ft. in height, with a comparatively slender stem. 
Leaves ovate-lanceolate, narrowed to both ends, subacute, 
quite entire, 24-7 in. long, 4-1? in. wide, glabrous; nerves 
slender, closely reticulate ; petiole 4 in. long. Flowers 
usually in wild plants solitary, terminal ; often in cultivated 
plants several in the upper axils forming terminal clusters ; 
peduncles very short. Calyx # in. long, shortly irregularly 
lobed, glandular pubescent externally ; lobes obtuse. Corolla 
white or apparently at times yellowish ; tube cylindric, 
slightly curved, 3-33 in. long, } in. in diameter, pubescent 
externally; limb spreading, 24 in. across; lobes 5, rounded, 
1 in. wide, their margins undulate. Stamens as long as the 
corolla-tube. Ovary oblong, half as long as the calyx ; style 
cylindric, slightly exserted; stigma 2-lobed. Fruit sub- 
drupaceous. 2 
Fig. 1, calyx, in vertical section, and pistil; 2 and 3, stamens:—all enlarged. 
